United with Flight 93
Small pieces. Debris all over. Pieces you could hold in your hand. We were told that there was a large amount of flame in the that crater covered up. There wasn’t much of the plane there. Hardly any of it there. When you looked down, you couldn’t tell that it was a plane or something from a scrap yard.
This is what Corporal Craig Bowman told me when I asked him what he saw when he first arrived at the crash site of Flight 93 on 9/11. As the first PA State policeman [PSP] to arrive on the scene, he was in charge of “the crime scene,” setting up an inner perimeter at the crash site while his colleagues set up an outer perimeter that encompassed 10 square miles and would eventually be staffed by 250 PSP officers. Corporal Bowman also observed:
There was wire everywhere. It was charred, but the metal part of the wire was still there. You probably could have stretched out that wire from here to Somerset. The only thing recognizable was a Bible, laying open to Psalm 121, you know that “lift my eyes to the hills” Psalm. It was odd that the Bible would be laying there intact given the severity of the other damage.
My connection with Corporal Bowman and three other Shanksville First Responders had begun six months earlier when I filmed them for a client video about 9/11 that also featured First Responders from New York City and the Pentagon. After the shoot, they invited me to Shanksville and I accepted.
When I arrived a couple of months later, the First Responders still seemed haunted. Dave Fox, Assistant Director of the Somerset County Department of Emergency Services, pulled out a large thick book of blueprints of every square mile of the county. “The crash site is on page 93,” he said, turning to that page. “Ninety-three,” he repeated for emphasis. “What are the chances?”
Every citizen I met in Shanksville knew the names of the Flight 93 passengers as well as what seat they were sitting in. When family members came to the crash site, dozens of citizens and their children created scrap books filled with notes thanking the family member for their child’s sacrifice. “If the plane had stayed up in the air two more second, it would have plowed into our school,” read one note.
A makeshift memorial honoring each of the passengers had been set up outside the inner perimeter, featuring a hand-crafted angel for each passenger.
I was particularly touched by the memorial to Rich Guadagno, the 38-year-old manager at the Humboldt Wildlife Refuge in California.
Three of the four Shanksville First Responders are now divorced. Two were unemployed for a period of time. I learned this when I visited them in May of 2010. At that time, Corporal Bowman shared this:
Where does the community stand? It’s not even been 10 years so it’s too soon to have been healed. It may be another two, three or 10 years. Most people will move on. Some will hold on to this crash and catastrophe. No one will forget. Over time, trauma does heal, right? Time does tend to heal, right?”
TOMORROW: 9/11 — 25 years Later, Part III
The Aftermath
14 responses to “9/11 — 25 Years Later, Part II”
No words ❤️
My difficulty with finding my own words is perhaps the reason I relied on the words of Corporal Bowman to write the heart of this post.
How did I miss yesterday? I remember your involvement at the time. I visited the cite years later. It is still haunting. Love you. My heart still burns.
“My heart still burns.” Mine does, too, Charlotte.😢
One of the most moving experiences of my life was visiting the Flight 93 National Memorial. For those who read this, I highly recommend visiting this remarkable place. The drive along the rolling hills to this hallowed site is seared in my memory. The passengers and crew are some of the bravest people in our country’s history…”Let’s Roll”. Thank you for being a keeper of their stories.
Thank you for encouraging everyone to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial. Here is the link: https://www.nps.gov/flni/index.htm
Your description of the drive to the site is spot-on. I remember when Adrienne and I visited it, we were wondering why we couldn’t just take the short road from Shanksville (where we had visited with one of the First Responders). But the long drive does, in some inexplicable way, remind you of what the passengers might have seen in their last moments. Half of them, of course, were up front penetrating the cockpit, but the rest were no doubt experiencing helpless horror.
I will always be honored that I am one of the keeper of their stories. 🙏
Thank you for preserving and sharing your stories in this format. It’s not just honoring to the lost and the survivors but the way it’s hitting us is a reminder that we sometimes need to remember our losses and how they change us. Then give thanks for the sunrise and a new day.
Trish, you had me at “sunrise and a new day.”
Thank you and you are welcome. I am grateful that my preserving and sharing my stories here are reminding us of our need “to remember our losses and how they change us.”
How did 9/11 change me? For a period of time, I tried to live my life with less judgment and anger. That is not true today. I am still a generous person with a good sense of humor, but kindness and patience don’t come easy. I’m not proud of it.
Sharon, thank you for yesterday’s and today’s powerful posts and for honoring the lost, the survivors and the first responders. It is good for us to remember the power of hatred and revenge and to do what we can to transform those energies, which are so present in our current administration. We know the result. THIS is the result.
If you do Part III, tell the story of the open hands. That one is seared in my memory.
Beth — your comment appeared while I was responding to Trish’s comment.
I AM going to post my story of the open hands tomorrow. Thank you for remembering it. When Adrienne and I visited with Corporeal Bowman in 2010, he still talked about that moment.
I am relieved to read your reminder about the power of hatred and revenge and “what we can do to transform those energies . . . so present in our current administration.”
Yes, we know the result. 2,606 people died at the Twin Towers and surrounding area; 184 at the Pentagon, 40 in Shanksville. How many more thousands have died as a result of the policies of the current administration?
A poignant, sad anecdote: two of the passengers on Flight 93 had eaten at the Windows of the World restaurant in Tower One the night before. The transcript of the flight indicates that the pilot pointed out the Towers — they could be seen from the plane.
One more thing: a majority of the employees working in the Windows of the World restaurant on the morning of 9/11 were immigrants. All perished.
I cherish my United Flight 93 baseball cap. I wore it all the time for several years. Every time I flew United, a counter person or flight attendant would ask me if I knew anyone on Flight 93. I didn’t, but they were always grateful that the stories of the passengers and First Responders were being documented.
It was a rough time for me. It will take me some time, Sharon, before I can write more than this.
Thank you.
No worries, Laura. I completely understand. These posts have not been easy to write, so I get it. Peace to you.🙏