In NYC and Pennsylvania, ceremonies reflect on 9/11
Vice President Mike Pence’s voice cracked as he spoke Monday in the Pennsylvania field where United Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001. The only reason he was standing in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, he said, was because of a group of passengers onboard the airliner 16 years ago.
The typically upbeat former member of the House Republican leadership grew noticeably emotional at a 9/11 remembrance ceremony at the site where Flight 93 crashed after a group of passengers forced the al-Qaida hijackers to end their mission early.
The vice president explained that he came, in large part, “to pay a debt of gratitude to the heroes of Flight 93 on a much more personal basis: for their actions, on that day, in these skies, saved American lives.
“And as my wife, Karen, who joins me here today knows, it’s a debt I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay,” Mr. Pence said, his voice beginning to break as he spoke.
“Because among the many lives that were saved by their selfless courage, they might well have saved my own life that day, 16 years ago.”
Mr. Pence told family members of the group of passengers and crew members that on that morning, he was at the Capitol, among the most likely targets of the hijacked plane.
Then-Rep. Mike Pence, RInd., was going about his “morning routine” that crystal clear morning when the first plane slammed into the World Trade Center’s north tower at 8:46 a.m. Seventeen minutes later, another was driven into its south tower. At 9:37 a.m., a third airliner also under the control of al-Qaida hijackers slammed into the Pentagon.
At the Capitol, Mr. Pence recalled chaos and panic. He and other congressional leaders wound up huddling across the street with Capitol Police officials.
The chief of police said a plane was inbound to the Capitol it was “12 minutes out,” Mr. Pence recalled.
“So we waited. It was the longest 12 minutes of my life. But it turned to 13 minutes, then 14, and then we were informed that the plane had gone down in a field in Pennsylvania,” Mr. Pence said.
“In the days ahead like every American, we would learn the story of the 40 heroes of Flight 93, men and women who looked evil squarely in the eye and without regard to their personal safety, they rushed forward to save lives,” he said.
The vice president grew emotional again when he recalled bringing his family to the Stonycreek crash site about a year after the Sept. 11 attacks. He asked a park ranger at what was then a makeshift memorial exactly what time Flight 93 might have plowed into the Capitol.
“And what she told me I’ll never forget. For at the time she said, standing with hundreds of others, I was standing near the East Front of the House of Representatives. I will always believe that I, and many others in our nation’s capital, were able to go home that day to hug our families because of the courage and selflessness of the heroes of Flight 93.
“So for me, it’s personal,” he added.
Monday’s ceremony in Stonycreek marked the start of the final chapter of a $46 million effort to transform the crash site into a national memorial park. On Sunday, ground was broken on the last element of the Flight 93 National Memorial — a 93foot tall Tower of Voices that will feature 40 tubular metal wind chimes, one each for the victims.
In New York City, thousands of family members, survivors, rescuers and others gathered Monday for the hourslong reading of victims’ names at the World Trade Center. Some of the victims’ relatives who spoke called for unity and hope 16 years after the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
At the Pentagon, President Donald Trump, in his first commemoration of the attacks as president, said that terrorists have “nowhere to hide.”
“These are horrible, horrible enemies — enemies like we’ve never seen before.
“But we’re ensuring they never again have a safe haven to launch attacks against our country. We are making plain to these savage killers that there is no dark corner beyond our reach, no sanctuary beyond our grasp, and nowhere to hide anywhere on this very large Earth.”
He did not use the campaigntrail catchphrase “radical Islamic terrorism,” which military leaders, among others, have discouraged as unhelpful. He also did not mention his proposed temporary ban on immigration from several Muslim-majority nations, which he has said is needed to keep the U.S. safe from terrorism.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis stood beside Mr. Trump as he spoke to a crowd that included families of some of the 184 Pentagon employees and airline passengers and crew who died in the attack there.
Earlier, the president led a moment of silence in a brief, somber ceremony at the White House. Mr. Trump and first lady Melania Trump walked onto the South Lawn and stood as bells tolled.
The Washington Post and The Associated Press contributed.