The Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County. Tim Lambert/WITF
Tim Lambert / WITF
Hallowed ground: How the stories of Gettysburg and Flight 93 intertwine in the nation’s history
"I think Flight 93 and Gettysburg are in that small group of events that have occurred over the history of this country that have no equals."
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Tim Lambert/WITF
Tim Lambert / WITF
The Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County. Tim Lambert/WITF
(Gettysburg) — If you travel along Route 30 in southern Pennsylvania, about a two hour and 20 minute drive separates two places of immense historical significance.
One is where the bloodiest battle of the Civil War was fought.
The other is where the last of the four hijacked jetliners crashed during the September 11th attacks.
While each is the scene of horror and heartbreak, they have come to represent sacrifice and bravery of the highest order.
WITF’s Tim Lambert takes a look at how the Gettysburg battlefield and Flight 93 National Memorial represent shining moments amid two dark periods in American history.
(Nat of people on the battlefield)
About a dozen people are milling around the area known as the Angle at the Gettysburg National Military Park — where U.S. troops turned back Pickett’s Charge.
A couple of tour guides pass each other, as they take their small groups through the history of this hallowed ground.
(Nat sound) — “Hey John.” “Hey George. Haven’t seen you in awhile!”
It’s July 1 — 158 years to the day the desperate fight began just northwest of here.
Not far from this very spot, 74-year-old Ed Root is looking up at the monument to the First Minnesota — just off the center of the Union line.
But, the First Minnesota was thrown into the gap by General Hancock. And they suffered grievous casualties on that day.
The Bethlehem man has made countless trips to Gettysburg over the years…..
It…it’s another one of those great moments of history that people still argue about today.
Tim Lambert / WITF
The First Minnesota Monument at the Gettysburg National Military Park.
Root has a personal connection to another battle in the state — one fought in the skies above southwestern Pennsylvania on September 11th, 2001.
His first cousin was Lorraine Bay.
She was a flight attendant on United Flight 93.
My wife was sitting on the other side of the room in the chair, when Emily told me and I repeated it.
His daughter Emily, who was 25 at the time, was the one who broke the news in a phone call.
And my wife said, kind of ‘Lorraine’ with a question mark and I just…hoping against hope that there was some kind of other news that was going to come out of this and I just looked at her and said, ‘No.’”
Courtesy of Emily Schenkel
Lorraine Bay and her goddaughter Emily Schenkel. Bay was a flight attendant on United Flight 93, which crashed in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, on September 11, 2001.
Flight 93 is the only one of the four hijacked jetliners to fail to reach its target
Benefitting from a 25-minute delay from its scheduled take-off, the passengers and crew were able to call loved ones and find out what happened in New York and at the Pentagon.
They got together, voted and then stormed the cockpit.
United 93 crashed in a reclaimed strip mine in Somerset County — likely saving the U-S Capitol and hundreds if not thousands of lives.
While Root has only been able to view the Battle of Gettysburg through the lens of history, he’s played an active role in determining how the story of the Heroes of Flight 93 — as they’re now known — will be told to future generations.
One of the most moving things to me is when the young lady talking to her mother said, ‘I have to go now mom, everyone’s going up front.’ I mean, to me, that is just so powerful.
Shanksville.
Gettysburg.
The mere mention of the two small Pennsylvania communities can instantly take you to images of a charred crater or a Wall of Names, bayonet charges and smoke from cannon and musket fire.
Tim Lambert / WITF
A boulder marks the area where United 93 crashed during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Or it can lead to introspection.
You may envision yourself on that plane or in that line of fire and wonder…
Who knows what they thought their chances were of coming out of this alive. I think they knew the consequences if they didn’t do something.
(Nat wind)
The story of Flight 93 — like the story of Gettysburg — is changing — growing more distant — and likely won’t resonate the same way with people who didn’t experience 9/11.
And for Ed, he sees this as “Us and Them.”
When you experience an event, the people who lived through it, it happened to us. As time goes by, the danger is that it’s no longer personal anymore. And I think that’s the challenge of Flight 93 to try to make people understand how those of us who lived through it felt, reacted, believed.
(Nat sound walking)
Over on the northern end of the U-S line at Gettysburg looms Culp’s Hill.
At its base, near Spangler’s Spring, stands another person with a unique perspective on what binds Gettysburg and Flight 93 to the nation’s collective consciousness.
My name is Jason Martz and I am the Communications Specialist for Gettysburg National Military Park. And my connection with Flight 93 goes back really for my entire life. I was born in Somerset. I still have some extended family who live in the Shanksville area.
His mom is Susan Hankinson — who was Somerset County’s Flight 93 coordinator and family liaison for four years.
Martz was living in Gettysburg in 2001 and struggled to comprehend how the Shanksville area became a part of the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
The Twin Towers made sense to him.
So, did the Pentagon.
I still couldn’t get my head wrapped around it. It really, I think, speaks to how just any random collection of people who don’t know each other can, in hindsight anyway, be able to come together in such a way that alters the history of this country.
Think for a moment about that last phrase.
“Alters the history of this country.”
Over the course of three days, the brutal fighting at Gettysburg did just that — halting the Confederate invasion.
Tim Lambert / WITF
Statue of Union General Oliver O. Oliver on East Cemetery Hill at the Gettysburg National Military Park, on May 19, 2020
It’s a little more nuanced for Flight 93, since its role can almost seem like a footnote in the overall history of 9-11.
But in 2001, when word of the heroic actions of the passengers and crew began to emerge, a wounded nation was provided with a bright light amid a psychologically devastating day.
How could they possibly know that what they were going to do could have had maybe one of the most resounding impacts, in American history.
People are drawn to these towering, nearly incomprehensible events.
Events they know are important and changed the course of history.
When they get there, they see the 1st Minnesota monument, or read about flight attendant Sandy Bradshaw’s phone call to her husband. It all becomes real, and personal at that point.
They may see themselves reflected in what happened .
*THAT* is the magic that occurs at places like this.
There are certain things that just have their own standing. Things like D-Day, things like Pearl Harbor and I think Flight 93 and Gettysburg are in that small group of events that have occurred over the history of this country that have no equals.
(Nat sound car doors)
A few more cars are stopping not far from us.
Tourists get out, stretch their legs, maybe snap a picture or two, and read the plaques explaining the significance of where they are standing
Martz glances their way.
These are heavy, heavy places to be. And , it’s up to us to attempt to tell their stories in the best way that we can so that their actions are never forgotten.
Tim Lambert / WITF
Visitors walk through the Flight 93 National Memorial in southwestern Pennsylvania. The memorial is dedicated to the people who died on United Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001.
The passage of time brings more and more distance from the extraordinary acts carried out in the rolling fields of Gettysburg and the sparkling blue skies above Shanksville.
But people continue to find their way to these out of the way places.
They come to these sites where heroic actions changed the fate of the nation – to see for themselves, feel for themselves, imagine for themselves.
They might even ask:
Would I have done what they did?
Could I?
Tim Lambert, WITF News, Gettysburg
