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Volunteers , family members and friends carry lamps to place at the Flight 93 Memorial at Shanksville, Pennsylvania, September 10, at the start of the remembrance of the events of September 11, 2001.
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Pennsylvania recalls Flight 93

Post-Gazette/Larry Robert

Pennsylvania recalls Flight 93

STONYCREEK, Pa. — Ceremonies nationwide Tuesday honored the 3,000 men and women who died 11 years ago on a day that began like any other and ended forever engrained in history.

And on a Somerset County hillside covered in a sea of warm-hued wildflowers where Flight 93 barreled into the earth, more than 1,000 people gathered with a pledge to never forget.

"The meaning of this place is about our 40 heroes and that we never lose sight," said an emotional Jerry Bingham, the father of Mark Bingham, one of the passengers of the doomed flight from Newark to San Francisco.

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In an act defined by many as heroism, the passengers and crew learned of the attacks on the World Trade Centers and fought to regain control of their own plane after it was hijacked by four al-Qaeda terrorists.

Tuesday's ceremony in their honor was decidedly different from those in years past.

Remarks were abbreviated, yet heartfelt, and Vice President Joe Biden spent more time speaking with families at the crash site than he did on the podium.

Some family members said they connected with Mr. Biden because of his own suffering from losing his wife and baby 40 years ago in a car crash.

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"He said we're all members of a club that no one wants to belong to," said Rodrick Thornton, cousin of Leroy Homer, who was the first officer on United Flight 93. "He's just a regular guy. If you had seen him down there he was really personal."

Mr. Biden said that whether it was the 10th or 11th anniversary, every Sept. 11 brings back painful memories.

"For no matter how many anniversaries you experience, for at least an instant, the terror of that moment returns, the lingering echo of that phone call, that sense of total disbelief that envelops you, where you feel like you're being sucked into a black hole in the middle of your chest," he said.

Mr. Biden told the families he hoped over the years the "depth of your pain recedes and you find comfort, as I have, genuine comfort in recalling his smile, her laugh, their touch."

After an opening prayer seven family members joined Rev. Paul Britton, brother of passenger Marion Britton, as they read the names of each of the 40 passengers and crew. In the pause between names, bells of remembrance rang out.

Patrick White, a cousin of Flight 93 passenger Louis J. Nacke II and president of Families of Flight 93, spoke of those heroes' legacy.

"By selfless example they showed us how to bind together and fight back against mindless terror," he said.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar pledged to see the memorial through to the end of construction, which is slated for 2015.

As government officials and family members paid respects at the crash site, others lingered at the Wall of Names.

Paul Henderson of Greensburg said he's rarely at a loss for words, but describing the emotions evoked by the ceremony proved difficult. "I've never experienced anything like it," he said. "It was very moving."

At the marble slab engraved with Georgine Rose Corrigan's name, Grant Rodriguez Llera, 20, dropped a lei. Ms. Corrigan was an antiques dealer from Honolulu.

Mr. Rodriguez Llera began interviewing the families and researching each of the victims, whom he has no relation to, when he was 14 and published his own book on their lives. Each year he leaves personal effects for each victim along the Wall of Names.

The West Hartford, Conn., native made a paper house with a white picket fence and a for sale sign for Wanda Anita Green, a United flight attendant who planned to open her own real-estate office.

"It's important to honor them in a bittersweet way to not allow the sadness to control our interactions with this subject in the same way fear did not control them on the flight," he said

The Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Taryn Luna is a reporter for the Post-Gazette.

Contact Taryn Luna at:
tluna@post-gazette.com,
or 412-263-1985.

First Published September 12, 2012, 6:09 a.m.

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Volunteers , family members and friends carry lamps to place at the Flight 93 Memorial at Shanksville, Pennsylvania, September 10, at the start of the remembrance of the events of September 11, 2001.  (Post-Gazette/Larry Robert)
Lamps shine in tribute at the Flight 93 Memorial at Shanksville, Pa. The passengers and crew of the flight crashed in a field after trying to regain control of the hijacked plane Sept. 11, 2001.  (POST-GAZETTE/LARRY ROBERTS)
Post-Gazette/Larry Robert
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