I’ve shared these thoughts before, most recently on the 15th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Back then, it was a Sunday, and I shaped my thoughts for that particular sermon. These stories of those who died on September 11 is how I live my pledge to “never forget”. I wrote the original version about ten years ago, and I reread it periodically to remind myself that it was not a generic tragedy. I still get emotional when I read it. It’s long, I warn you, yet I don’t apologize for its length.
Let us not forget the events of September 11, nor the outpouring of love that followed, and certainly not the sustaining presence and guidance of the God of love who works to bring the peaceable kingdom to bear on this side of heaven.
Tom+
Early on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger jets. Two of those jets disappeared off radar and turned towards New York City. At 8:46 am, American Airlines Flight 11, which was originally destined for Los Angeles, slammed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower 1. Along with the five hijackers, 76 passengers and 11 crew members were killed. Nineteen minutes later, at 9:03 am, United Airlines Flight 175, also originally bound for Los Angeles, struck South Tower 2, killing another five hijackers, 51 passengers and 9 crewmembers.
An unknown number of people in the World Trade Center were killed when the planes struck. Emergency crews immediately responded to the disaster with hundreds of New York City Police, Port Authority Police, and New York City firefighters responding, trying to get people out of the towers. At the same time, people in the towers above the crash sites made their way up, looking for access to the roof, only to discover the roof doors were locked, no one ever having anticipated a need for helicopter rescue. As the flames spread, bystanders were horrified to see as many as 200 people fall or jump from the burning towers.
Only 56 minutes after the second plane struck the south tower, Tower 2 collapsed at 9:59 am. People on the scene heard a rumbling and felt the ground shake as those watching from a distance saw what appeared to be a melting skyscraper. 29 minutes later, the North tower followed, succumbing to flames and high temperatures.
Juliana Valentine McCourt was one of the passengers on United 175. The four year old was on the way to Disneyland with her mother, Ruth. Juliana’s uncle and Ruth’s brother, Ronnie Clifford, was in Tower 1 when the first plane struck and was able to get out in time to see the plane strike Tower 2. He wouldn’t learn until later that his sister and niece were aboard. Julianna and Ruth traveled with Ruth’s good friend Paige Farley-Hackel, who had switched flights to use frequent flyer miles. Paige ended up on American 11, and had been killed when the first plane struck the tower where Ronnie had his meeting.[i]
Steve Hoffman, age 46 was working in his office on the 104th floor of the north tower where the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald was headquartered – the company that sustained the most losses in the attacks. After the first plane struck, his twin brother managed to get a call through and heard Steve say they were ok. A moment later just before the second plane hit, he said, “Look at that,” before the line went dead. A few days later at a Cantor Fitzgerald gathering for families of the lost, a woman brought her answering machine along to play the call she received from her daughter, 23-year-old Brooke Jackman. She wanted to know if anyone recognized the voice of the man in the background who was comforting her as they huddled together waiting for rescue. It was Steve Hoffman, and that was one of the last calls out of the tower.[ii]
John and Joe Vigiano followed their father into public service, John Jr. becoming a firefighter like his father, and Joe becoming a police detective. 36 and 34 respectively, both brothers were killed trying to help others get out of the towers. Joe’s fire badge was the same number as his grandfather’s, 3436, only the two of them wearing that badge. Joe’s father would later remark about the irony of that fact, and give thanks that he had spoken to both his sons as they went on duty, reminding them to be safe and that they were loved.[iii]
Today we remember Julianna, Ruth, Paige, Steve, Brook, John and Joe, just seven of the 2763 people killed in and around the towers and on the two flights.
35 minutes into its flight, five hijackers stormed the cockpit of American Airlines Flight 77. Already over Ohio the plane made a 180-degree turn and returned to the Washington area airspace. The FAA knew there was an emergency with American 77, but because the transponder was turned off, they didn’t know where it was. At 9:37 am the flight crashed into the western side of the Pentagon killing all 64 people on board instantly, as well as 125 people in the building. It would take days for emergency crews to extinguish the flames. Fortunately, the plane struck a part of the Pentagon that was days away from completing its $250 million renovation to strengthen and update the building, which undoubtedly saved lives.
45-year-old Leslie Whittington, an associate professor of public policy at Georgetown University boarded American 77 to Los Angeles, the layover before the final flight to Australia where she was about to begin her appointment as a visiting fellow at Australian National University. She was joined on this journey by her husband, Charles Falkenberg and their two children, Zoe, 8 and Dana, 3. The girls were particularly excited to go on an adventure to the other side of the world where they had trouble imaging whole cities existed. [iv]
Lieutenant General Timothy Maude was in a meeting in the Pentagon on the morning of September 11. He had just been moved into his new office in the nearly completed renovated wedge 1. 53 years old, Timothy served as the Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel and was responsible for the successful “Army of One” campaign. He remains the highest-ranking officer in the Army to be killed since World War II. According to his wife, Teri, Tim’s career was built around doing the right thing for soldiers and their family. His headstone reflects that with the engraved simple words, “He took care of soldiers.”[v]
Three teacher and student pairs were on Flight 77 that day, having been selected from DC area schools to go to a National Geographic marine science camp in California. James Debeuneure, Sarah Clark, and Hilda Taylor each traveled with an 11-year-old sixth grader: Rodney Dickens, Asia Cottom and Bernard Brown. All bright students, they were chosen for this special activity in recognition of their hard work and excellence in science. Asia was a new student in her school, happy to transfer to the school where her father worked and helped coach basketball. Rodney came from a tough DC neighborhood but always made honor roll. Bernard, who used to give his fourth grade teacher fits, had become a model fifth grader. He was a natural choice from among the sixth graders for the trip.[vi]
We remember Leslie, Charles, Zoe, Dana, Tim, James, Sarah, Hilda, Rodney, Asia, and Bernard, just eleven of the 189 men, women and children who died when flight 77 struck the Pentagon.
United Airlines Flight 93 took off from Newark International Airport a little behind schedule on September 11th. Unknown to the 33 passengers and 7 crew members, there were also four hijackers on board. 46 minutes after takeoff at 9:28 am, the four hijackers took control of the cockpit, fatally wounding the pilots. Passengers and crew were ushered to the rear of the plane as far from the cockpit as possible. It is not clear why the United 93 hijackers waited so long to take control of the plane, but doing so would ultimately foil their plans.
At the back of the plane passengers and crew began calling loved ones and officials. They learned that two planes had already struck the World Trade Center and a third, the Pentagon. They knew the men at the controls were on a suicide mission, and decided to stop them from killing any more people if possible. About thirty minutes after the hijackers took the plane, the passengers began trying to take it back. Ultimately the passengers were able to force their way into the cockpit, forcing the plane into the ground and preventing the hijackers from killing anyone else.
Todd Beamer had decided to fly to and from his California meeting on September 11th, rather than flying out the night before, so that he could spend the night with his family and his pregnant wife, Lisa. The athlete turned software account manager loved his two boys, David, 4 and Drew, 2. Beamer tried to call his family from the plane but was routed to an operator of the air phone system. He explained to the operator that some of the passengers were going to try to rush the hijackers. The last words heard from Todd were, “Are you guys read? Let’s Roll.” Todd’s daughter, Morgan Kay Beamer was born five months to the day after her father was killed.[vii][viii]
Also on board flight 93 were Mark Bingham, who was running late that morning. His friend drove like a madman to get him to his flight on time, and he just made it. The crew reopened the door to let him on the plane. The pilot, Jason Dahl, had moved up his flight schedule so that he and his wife could leave early for their fifth wedding anniversary. He had flown into Newark the night before to pick up this flight. Flight attendant Wanda Green also wasn’t supposed to be on the flight, but she switched to 93 so she could be at her other job on Thursday. Jeremy Glick, a Judo champion was also on board that day. He spoke to his wife, Lyz, at his in-laws’ for most of the time the phones on the plane were working. She told him he needed to be strong. He told her she needed to be happy. Lyz was on the phone when the passengers voted to take the plane. Jeremy said, “We’re going to rush the hijackers,” and he put down the phone.
Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, PA at 10:03 am. It never reached its destination in Washington, and unlike the other three hijackings that morning, no one on the ground was killed in the crash.
We remember Todd, Mark, Jason, Wanda and Jeremy, five of the 44 people killed on that plane.[ix]
15 (now eighteen) years on we remember. We promised we would back in 2001, when we pledged to never forget. And we won’t forget where we were and what we were doing on September 11, 2001. It actually seems hard to imagine that it’s been 15 years since that day so dramatically changed the world. We remember the thousands who died on 9/11, the thousands more who responded to the twin towers and the cleanup, some of whom have become ill, and died from illness caused the toxic air they breathed at the site.
We also remember that the attacks were largely responsible for two wars that claimed thousands of American lives on battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, and also injured tens of thousands of soldiers. Estimates of civilian deaths from war are high, too, although with varying numbers, surely ranging somewhere in the hundreds of thousands.
Yet if the only things we remember from 9/11 are the losses, the death, the anger, and the fear, then terrorism truly won on that day. Those who follow a resurrected Lord don’t get lost in death and its after effects.
There are other things we should never forget. We must also remember that for a time the world stood together with America to grieve alongside us. Even in places we never would have expected to find solidarity, the world mourned with us, in candlelight vigils, memorials at embassies, flags at half-staff, marches, and countless other displays.
15 years on we remember an outpouring of love and support on a global scale that almost no one had seen before or since. Billions of people on this planet offered prayers for the dead, the dying, the families of loved ones, even the hijackers themselves, in almost every language and among the faithful of every religion on this planet, even as people worked tirelessly at crash sites to lovingly collect the remains of the dead. Political partisanship was virtually non-existent for a time. We remember a call for peace – a hope that we could find a way to prevent future attacks by learning to live with one another, when our leaders chose to stand with our Muslim neighbors, assuring them that radicalism would not drive us to fear and hatred of all.
Today, fifteen years later, we remember those who died as a way to remember this call to peace and unity. We remember that there are still men and women in the Armed Forces who sacrifice so much to try to keep us safe. We seek peace in the hopes that they would no longer need to give their lives to protect us from those who wish us harm. We remember those who have died and try to honor their memory by making the world a better place.
I wish we could say that 9/11 ushered in a lasting era of peace and cooperation, but the feelings subsided and we all too quickly returned to what has become a normal way of life. Our glimpse of God’s peaceable kingdom was just that, a glimpse, but it was real, and it was palpable.
My hope and prayer is that our memories of the horror will always be tempered by the memories of love from September 2001. I hope and pray that we would yet find a way to seek unity and peace with the diligence with which we have sought passenger screening and the rooting out of terrorism. I hope and pray that we will find it in ourselves to stop our fighting and our divisive ways in favor of loving our neighbors on these and other shores, because I dread the thought of what tragedy might do it for us, if we cannot find a way to do it for ourselves.
On this 15th Anniversary of 9/11, there are indeed many things we will never forget, and some we might want to work harder to remember. Through it all we trust that God is at work in the world, redeeming it even now, as we look to the horizon with hope for the promises of God’s coming kingdom.
Let us pray:
Almighty and everliving God, whose character is always to have mercy, you have taught us to cry out to you in our distress and confusion; to lean upon your strength, and to be lifted by you. Help us always to be mindful of your presence, even in the darkest hour, so that we might not only endure, but share your heart and light with others, helping to lift them, as your body in the world.
We pray for all who died in the attacks of September 11th 2001and for all who have given their lives since that day. For those who answered the call of their country, venturing much for the cause of freedom and defense, giving of themselves for the benefit of their neighbors. For those innocents who have lost their lives in the midst of bitter conflict, and as a result of evil intent, that they be granted continual growth in your love and service and rejoice in the fellowship of all your saints.
We pray for all who grieve the death of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, and fellow citizens. For those who mark another year, another birthday, another anniversary, another moment worth sharing, without their loved ones; remember them in your mercy, grant them a sense of your abiding love, comfort them in your goodness, lift up your countenance upon them, and give them peace.
We pray for all who suffer in body, mind, or spirit and for those innocents who always bear the brunt of human sin; that wounds may be healed, pain soothed and doubt and fear transformed into courage and hope.
When we remember that day, and many since, with memories that haunt us, the sounds and the images that fill our minds, give us the assurance of your presence in the midst of it all, and give us your peace, that we might share it with others.
We pray that you would give us the will and courage to love and forgive our enemies. Deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge. Turn the hearts and change the minds of those who intend evil, and enable us all to stand reconciled before you.
Guide all nations into the way of justice and truth, establishing among them the peace born of righteousness.
All this we ask through your son Jesus Christ, who, enduring the worst of humanity, bestowed forgiveness, and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.[x]
[i]http://newlondon.patch.com/articles/ten-years-later-mccourt-foundation-continues-mission
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25771
[ii]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2033396/The-Twins-Twin-Towers-Of-3-000-killed-September-11-46-twins-Ten-years-surviving-siblings-tell-haunting-stories.html
[iii]http://storycorps.org/listen/stories/john-vigiano-and-his-wife-jan/
[iv]http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/dfalkenberg.htm
[v]http://projects.washingtonpost.com/911victims/timothy-j-maude/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Maude
[vi]http://www.our9-11brothasandsistas.zoomshare.com/
[vii]http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20011028flt93beamerbiop8.asp
[viii]http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/10/archive/main323865.shtml
[ix]http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20011028flt93mainstoryp7.asp
[x]Adapted from prayers compiled/written by the Rev. Jody Howard.