We stood atop a hill in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, and I do mean rural.
Cars, trucks, SUVs and RVs kept pulling into the parking area. Groups of people climbed out of their vehicles and into the suffocating July heat. Then, they too stood on the hilltop, staring down at a grassy clearing in front of a woods.
My brain saw it as a scene out of a Paul Simon song — “We’ve all come to look for America.”
For all its tragedy, heartache and vast ramifications, the resiliency and spirit exhibited in this country on 9/11 is an American story. Virtually anyone who was school-age or older on Sept. 11, 2001, can describe what they were doing when that awful news transformed a peaceful, sunny Tuesday morning into a traumatic national turning point.
More than a million people have traveled to that hill near Shanksville, Pa., to share their stories and contemplate.
“It’s a wonderful setting to think about what happened here and what it means to you,” said Jeff Reinbold, a National Park Service ranger and site manager of the Flight 93 National Memorial.
Ten years ago this Sunday, a group of 40 determined passengers revolted against four suicidal hijackers, forcing the al-Qaida terrorists to crash 20 minutes short of their likely target, the U.S. Capitol. Everyone aboard perished. But the broader, heinous plot to attack symbols of American life did not end as the extremists planned.
Instead, today, people “come to look for America” at the places where the wounds of terrorism were inflicted — Shanksville, the World Trade Center site in New York City, and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Once the permanent Flight 93 National Memorial opens Saturday at Shanksville, it will become a 2,200-acre national park where a quarter-million visitors are expected annually. The Pentagon Memorial, a park on the complex’s western side, greets visitors 24 hours a day, all year. Ground zero in Lower Manhattan is now the most visited place in New York City, and the National 9/11 Memorial won’t officially open until Sunday.
There are stories behind the nearly 3,000 lives taken that day by the hijacked plane crashes. Their families have stories, too. The residents and workers in those places have their own stories. So do the visitors. Some seem mundane — “I was working at a diner in Hancock, Maryland.” Others profound — “I lost a good 40 to 50 people I knew.”
On an assignment this summer, I listened to the stories of folks we (my wife, our daughter and I) encountered during a two-week trek to New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. The closer we got to Lower Manhattan, the Pentagon and the tiny community of Shanksville, the sharper the memories of the people. No one we spoke with had to pause to remember. Besides their own whereabouts on 9/11, locals in those places saw the changes in daily routines caused by the attacks. Life is similar, yet different.
Those conversations are reflected in a three-part series, “Walking in the shadows of 9/11,” beginning Friday in the Tribune-Star, as well as in video and audio interviews online at www.tribstar.com.
As a result of that journey, I’ll never think of Sept. 11 the same. My own “where-I-was” tale will share space in my mind with the stories we heard. A mom at the Flight 93 Memorial whose son was enlisted in the Army and is in Afghanistan. The first-cousin of a flight attendant who died in the crash at Shanksville. A priest who opened a memorial chapel near the Flight 93 crash site. A woman visiting the Pentagon Memorial who saw the first plane hit the Twin Towers while walking to work in New York. Her husband who had the difficult task of helping identify victims’ remains as a DNA analyst at a New York crime lab. A pastor who guided several people to safety in a Lower Manhattan subway entrance as the South Tower collapsed. The brother of a man killed in the North Tower. The brother of a fallen firefighter who saved lives.
It’s an American story, not about me, but us.
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
9/11: 10th Anniversary Coverage
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Survived difficult day: Mike Keane, owner of O'Hara's Restaurant & Pub around the corner from the World Trade Center site, displays a scrapbook of his bar. Keane was working in the bar on 9/11 and helped a police officer look for survivors after the first tower collapse. Teri Bennett
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Tribune-Star columnist Mark Bennett at the site of the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa. Teri Bennett
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Tribune-Star columnist Mark Bennett in the World Financial Center overlooking construction at ground zero. Teri Bennett
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Mark Bennett
Discussion
MARK BENNETT: Everyone has a role in this American story (see VIDEO)
- 9/11: 10th Anniversary Coverage
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Delores Ann Day
Delores Ann Day, 77, of Terre Haute, passed away at 2:10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 5, 2012, in Union Hospital.
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As the sun set and skies turned pink Sunday, about 30 people worked to light 9,200 tea candles at the Fairbanks Park Chauncey Rose Memorial.
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Amid the mourning, artwork was born.
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The morning was clear, warm and comfortable, not unlike 10 years ago on Sept. 11, 2001, when hijackers on suicide missions murdered nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
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The music floating about Fairbanks Park was serene, but inside the air-conditioned RV nearby, the blood was pumping.
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Religious services around the Wabash Valley marked the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, including a special service honoring America’s emergency responders Sunday at Good Shepherd Baptist Church on the south side of Terre Haute.
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ISU ensembles honor memory of 9/11
Vocal and instrumental music blended with visual images as Indiana State University student performers joined Sunday in songs of reflection and hope in memory of 9/11.
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EDITORIAL: Inspired by resilience in our post-9/11 world
The places directly linked to 9/11 can seem so distant from our own surroundings here in the Wabash Valley.
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True heroism: Flight 93 rewrote conclusion to plot by 9/11 terrorists (see VIDEO)
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The place — chosen by fate — holds a powerful silence. -
MARK BENNETT: Value of every minute deeply realized on 9/11 (related VIDEO)
Editor’s Note
This summer, the Tribune-Star’s Mark Bennett visited New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., sites where the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are now memorialized. He observed the cityscapes and landscapes forever changed by the events of that day and talked with people he encountered there, many of whom witnessed the attacks and their aftermath from close range and had personal ties to its victims. -
Three sites ... a shared goal: Travelers will experience 3 distinct environments at 9/11 memorials
A national sense of tragedy provides a common, connecting thread to these three places.
A broad plot by al-Qaida terrorists sent hijacked commercial airlines crashing into the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a remote field near Shanksville, Pa., on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. A decade later, most Americans old enough to vote know the basic story and remember where they were on 9/11. -
Pilot recalls escorting Air Force One on 9/11
Piloting his F-16 fighter jet on the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, then-Lt. Col. Chris Colbert of the Terre Haute-based 181st Fighter Wing, could see that the shimmering object in the distance was a very, very large aircraft.
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Building handicapped ramps, pulling weeds along a city park trail and assembling packages for U.S. military personnel were all part of a 9/11 Day of Service on Saturday organized by Terre Haute Ministries.
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Pentagon Memorial pays tribute to 184 lives lost in 9/11 attack on Washington (related VIDEO)
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The latch clicked loudly, and Lt. Col. Robert L. Ditchey pushed open a door inside Corridor 4 of the Pentagon.
He entered an area that resembles an urban alley, but with a roof.
“This is where the final pieces of the aircraft had crashed through,” explained Ditchey, Pentagon press officer for the Department of Defense. -
Sept. 11, 2001 — A date seared into the minds of Americans
There are events so important in our lives that we remember every detail. Sometimes, these are personal celebrations such as weddings, births and graduations. But other events, sudden and tragic on a national scale, such as the brutal terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11, become defining moments for a generation.
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B.J. RILEY: Quieting the roar of the presses …
There are memories branded forever in our minds. They are as clear as if they occurred just yesterday. I will never forget that Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, or the days that followed …
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A lot has changed in the decade since passenger planes were used as missiles to destroy the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and to damage the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
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WHY I SERVE: The soldier
On the wall of his office inside the Myers Technology Building, Chris Pfaff pointed to a map of Afghanistan, a place about as different from the Indiana State University campus as one can imagine.
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'ALMOST SURREAL': A decade later, two men who witnessed the attacks look back
The underground Metro train shook noticeably.
Something had happened. William Hanna, a retired U.S. Army colonel living in Virginia, was on board the Metro and could feel the shock. -
WHY I SERVE: The firefighter
Big red trucks and blaring sirens always held a special appeal for Jason Kame.
“I always wanted to be a fireman. I was one of those kids that always knew what I wanted to do,” he said inside the Terre Haute Fire Department’s Headquarters Station at First and Spruce streets. -
TEACHING TRAGEDY: Attacks created new chapters for the history books
The 9/11 terrorist attacks permanently changed the daily routine for students in the Vigo County School Corp.
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“I tell everyone that as far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a state trooper,” Watts says. -
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Incoming college freshmen this fall would have been about 8 years old when 9/11 occurred, and college faculty find that with each passing year, students know less and less about the terrorist attacks.
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Ralston took part in congressional terrorism study before 9/11
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IN GOD WE TRUST: Many sought comfort in prayer, religion after attacks
In times of tragedy, many people turn to prayer to help them begin to cope with myriad emotions.
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LIFE & LIBERTY: Americans won’t let lives be ruled by fear, prof says
In the post-9/11 world, Americans have been willing to make some concessions in the name of national security, but not many, says a St. Mary-of-the-Woods College faculty member.
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Ten years removed, 9/11 attack on NYC remains on minds of many (see VIDEO)
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A decade later, images from Sept. 11, 2001, remain vivid in the minds of most Americans. Plane crashes. Collapsing skyscrapers. Staggering people covered in dust. Horror. Shock. Confusion. Fear. Heroism. -
9/11 Memorial Event to honor those killed in attacks
Late last year, Terri (T.J.) Coonce had a vision for a 9/11 memorial event.
Inspired by an uncle and cousin who had served in Afghanistan, she wanted to honor not only those killed in the terrorist attacks, but also all American service members who have since lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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