Lets Roll Ride set for 9/11

Tom Henschke believes everyone can remember where they were and what they were doing on September 11th 2001. “I can hardly believe it has been ten years,” said the SMC Business Council President. To memorialize the tenth anniversary, Henschke and his company are organizing the “Let’s Roll Flight 93 Memorial Ride” September 10th and 11th.

“Flight paths” of 40 motorcycle riders will launch from cities across Pennsylvania and Virginia September 10th and then rally at the Seven Springs Resort in Somerset County the morning of September 11th. From there the riders will head to the Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville. “We did coordinate this with the flight 93 memorial,” said Henschke, “We actually have former Governor Tom Ridge as the honorary grand marshal, a number of family members will be there as well.”

The ride get its name from the last known words of flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer who was heard by his wife to say “lets roll” just before he and other passengers tried to retake control of the plane. The concept of 40 riders comes from the number of innocent passengers on the flight from Newark to San Francisco.

Ultimately the ride is about raising money for the flight 93 memorial. Each ride will find sponsors to donate at least $1,000 to the memorial fund. “Individual riders can find sponsors, an owner of a business [can] gather money and do some fundraisers among employees for a rider,” said Henschke, “You don’t have to be a rider, you just have to work together and accumulate $1,000 and find a rider.” Individuals can also donate online.

Henschke says the goal is to add more “flight paths” to the eight already planned. (Two from Erie, and one each from Pittsburgh, Williamsport, Meadville, Cranberry Township, Pottsville Philadelphia, and Fairfax, VA) An organizing kick off event for the Pittsburgh flight will be held Thursday night from 5:00 – 6:30 at Jerome Bettis’ Grille 36 on the north shore. Individuals are asked to RSVP at the Lets Roll Ride web page.

Hearing of Bin Laden's Death, Visitors Go To Flight 93 Memorial

About 800 people made their way to the Flight 93 Memorial in Somerset County yesterday. They visited a construction site, where work is underway to complete the first phase of a permanent memorial by the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. They came after hearing that a U.S. Navy SEAL team had killed Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
The visitors were quiet on Monday, but the backhoes and bulldozers didn’t stop. The first component of the 58 million dollar monument is scheduled to open in four months.
Site superintendent Keith Newlin says the goal is a two-part ceremony on September 10th and 11th.

"We’ll have two ceremonies, then. On the tenth we’ll have a ribbon cutting. On the 11th we’ll have our typical memorial service."

Newlin explains what visitors will see, beginning this September.

"They’ll come down here, they’ll see a new visitor’s shelter. And then they’ll start their walk along the green field, and come closer and closer to the sacred ground. They’ll have a wall of names with all 40 passengers and crew."

The final monument will include a wind chime tower, with 40 bells...1 for each of the passengers and crew.... and groves of trees.

The current temporary memorial is sparse. A shed hosts a display about the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath, and a chain link fence overlooks the crash site.

Beverly Hoover of Landsdale, Montgomery County stopped by the site on a whim Monday. She was impressed by how much construction has changed it since her last visit.

"And I want to come back in September when the memorial is dedicated. I think if we can, we’ll be here."

Shanksville Residents on Bin Laden's Death

The National Park Service is expecting higher traffic than usual at the Flight 93 Temporary Memorial in Somerset County today.
However, Shanksville’s residents aren’t making too much of a fuss over the news Osama bin Laden has been killed.
The memorial, overlooking the field where the hijacked airplane crashed on September 11, 2001, usually opens at 9 am.
Today, reporters were parked outside before dawn, and park rangers opened the gates at 7.
Superintendant Keith Newlin is bracing for more visitors than usual.

"We did open a little earlier today. I mean, the construction people are on-site. But we opened a little bit earlier. Typically we don’t open until nine for the general public."

William Murray lives just a few miles from the site, but had never visited. He says he wanted to wait for the permanent memorial’s September opening, but he came today, instead.
Murray is glad bin Laden’s gone, but is still a bit apprehensive.

"I believe he got what he deserved, but I’d rather see him captured, and pay for what he’d done other than just killed him off, like they have. He’ll become a martyr. Probably be comeback on this, I imagine, from someone."

In Shanksville, most residents declined to be interviewed about the news, saying they had to go to work. It was a sharp contrast to New York City and Washington, DC, where people are singing and chanting in reaction to bin Laden’s death.
Flight 93 was likely headed for the White House or Capitol, when its passengers and crew challenged the hijackers, forcing them to crash the plane in Pennsylvania.

People Visit Flight 93 Memorial Upon Learning of Bin Laden's Death

It's a very different scene this morning in Shanksville, Somerset County compared to New York City and Washington, D.C. where there were celebrations overnight as people learned about the death of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11 terror attacks.

Visitors are paying their respects at the site where Flight 93 crashed as passengers and crew struggled with 4 terrorists for control of the plane. The 9/11 Commission believes the terrorists were likely targeting the White House or the Capitol.

DUQ's Kevin Gavin spoke with Reporter Scott Detrow who traveled to Shanksville.

Planting Underway on Flight 93 Garden

The Portland, Oregon-based non-profit Remember Me Roses announced its capital campaign to finish a garden dedicated to the passengers and crew of Flight 93. The competed garden will be located on a 14 acre plot donated by the Families of Flight 93 adjacent to the Flight 93 National Memorial Park; 2,982 rose bushes will be planted, one for each victim of the September 11th attacks, in the garden along with individual spaces dedicated to each passenger.

Clay Mankamyer, Vice President of the Flight 93 Garden, says Sue Casey and Michael Mitchell came up with the idea.

Sue Casey founded Remember Me Roses in the wake of the September 11th attacks as a way of paying tribute to those who died.and has since worked to plant gardens in Washington D.C., New York City, and Shanksville.

Michael Mitchell is a New Jersey/New York Area professional gardener. According to Mankaymer, Mitchell "was stranded on one of the bridges leading out of the city (on September 11th) and watched the collapse of the Twin Towers. And he just felt that he needed to be involved in some way to help with the recovery and the healing of the nation, and paying tribute to those who lost their lives." Mitchell used his experience as a professional gardener to oversee the development of the gardens.

Mankaymer says they have already started work on the property by clearing the land and planting roses and hedgerows. He says that once the garden is finished it will be shaped like a compass rose.

Plans for 9th Anniv. of Flight 93 Crash

Former first lady Laura Bush will speak next month in Somerset County marking the 9th anniversary of the crash of Flight 93 during the terror attacks. The National Park Foundation made the announcement in advance of today's joint meeting of the Flight 93 Memorial Task Force and the Flight 93 Federal Advisory Commission. After today's meeting in Somerset, the Memorial Task Force will disband because other groups including the National Park Service is picking up the duties the task force has carried out for nearly 9 years.
Mrs. Bush says she's honored to speak at the site and we "must never forget the brave sacrifice of these extraordinary men and women."
Flight 93 was traveling from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco when terrorists hijacked the plane. Passengers then fought with the terrorists and the plane went down in a field near Shanksville. The target of the terrorists is believed to have been the White House or the U.S. Capitol Building.
The first phase of a permanent Flight 93 Memorial is to be dedicated at the 10th anniversary of 9-11 next year.

Flight 93 Victim Honored With Memorial Gamelands

More than 665 acres of gamelands adjacent to Somerset County's Flight 93 National Memorial have been dedicated to Richard Guadagno, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who was killed in the Flight 93 crash of September 11, 2001.

Pennsylvania Game Commission spokesman Tom Fazi says the gamelands will act as a buffer to help prevent unsightly development from building up around the memorial. Fazi says PA Game Commission crews worked over the past few years to acquire the land and convert it from a strip-mined parcel to a beautiful wetland that Guadagno would have loved.

The dedication of the gamelands and a granite memorial stone came during a national conference of wildlife officers, so Guadagno's father had an assembly from many states and Canadian territories honor his son during yesterday's ceremony.

Guadagno was the refuge manager for Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Eureka, California. The visitors' center there has also been named in his honor.

New Temporary Flight 93 Memorial Open

Visitors heading to see the site near Shanksville where Flight 93 crashed during the 2001 terror attacks will now be directed to a new temporary memorial. A temporary memorial overlooking the crash site was erected not long after the attacks of September 11th 2001. Construction on the permanent memorial has forced the National Park Service to shut that location and open a new temporary memorial to the west of the impact zone. Flight 93 Site Manager for the National Park Service Jeff Reinbold says the new location is historic in its own right. It is where the FBI and State Police set up a command post during the investigation, it is where the families were first taken after the crash and it is where the media was first allowed to view the crash site meaning it is from that vantage point where the first images of the impact zone were captured and sent around the globe. Flight 93 was traveling from Newark to San Francisco when it became one of 4 planes taken over by hijackers. Passengers tried to wrest control of the plan from the hijackers and it crashed into an abandon strip mine in Somerset County. Over the years visitors have left thousands of mementos at the temporary memorial. Some of those items will be part of a new temporary display chronicling the events of that day and the investigation that followed. Other items have been placed in storage.
Reinbold says the biggest difference visitors need to keep in mind is that the new temporary memorial will not be open around the clock like the first temporary memorial was. The park service will staff the site from 9am-7pm each day. He says anyone planning a visit should first check the web page to make sure there are no other closures due to construction. That same web site will also soon host a construction webcam.
The permanent memorial is expected to be finished in time for the 10th anniversary of the terrorists’ attacks.