Some things I learned about....

....United Air Lines' Flight 93 that I never found out from the media (Fox News included):

The thread on "Where were you" on 09/11/2001 prompted me to recall my visit to the Shanksville, PA crash site of United Air Lines' Flight 93 on the week after the 1st anniversary (+ 1 week) of "9/11" back in 2002.

One needs to recall that United Flight 93 was the ONLY one of the 4 planes that never made it to it's "intended target" (wherever it was -- some speculate it was probably either the White House or the US Capitol bldg in Wash DC [Interesting that none of those 4 planes considered the UN bldg complex as a target since it's just on the other side of Manhattan from the WTC! ...But I digress....]).

First of all, even before I drove to Shanksville from the nearest town that had a motel just off the PA turnpike (Somerset PA, which is the county seat of Somerset County where the tiny burg of Shanksville is located [remember that fact for later reference]), I found out that Lisa Beamer (wife of Todd Beamer ["Let's Roll...!]) had a reservation in that same motel where I stayed (It's the ONLY motel in Somerset is probably why.) But, at the last moment she decided to cancel out and stay home w/her children instead --who were too young at the time of 9/11 to understand why what happened that day happened plus the fact that both she and her then young children had already been through enough that past year & didn't want either herself or her STILL too young children to have to face the curious media again.

HAT'S OFF TO YOU LISA!!

Anyway, the crash site of Flight 93 is not IN the tiny town of Shanksville but rather on a lonely forlorn hillside where a farmer's corn field meets up with a rather heavy forested area (keep that fact in mind too!).

After mulling around the temporary monument that the ladies auxiliary of the Somerset Cty Historical Society paid to have erected---a couple runs of chain-link fence out in that farmer's corn field--I stopped and talked to one of the off-duty volunteer Somerset Cty deputy sheriff officers who volunteered (i.e., "receives no pay for his service") to provide security for this temporary monument out on this lonely, forlorn hillside.

Here's some things he told me after I remarked that, "You fellows had a pretty busy year this past year, didn't you?" (I said that because just that past late spring there was a coal mine disaster in which over a dozen or so miners were trapped alive in another part of this big [in sq. mi. area, BUT very small in population--less than10K in the ENTIRE COUNTY--AND KEEP THAT FACT IN MIND TOO!!])

He told me, "Yeah, but let me tell you some things about what 'they' found out about Flight 93 that you probably will never hear about on any of the national media!!"

1) In trying to calculate some of the statistics they recovered from the "black boxes" [which, in reality are bright orange] to determine who was actually at the controls in the seconds before United Flight 93 crashed where it did (right at the edge of where that farmer's corn field meets up with that heavily forested area), based on Flight 93's last few seconds' flight trajectory.....had United Flight 93 crashed just a couple seconds after it did, it wouldn't have landed at the edge of that cornfield on that lonely, forlorn hillside.

Where would it have landed?

Right into the buildings of the Somerset Cty combined kindergarten, elementary and high school building complex in which about 650 school children and their teachers were just starting school on that bright sunny Tuesday one week after getting back from their summer vacations!

2) Why didn't United Flight 93 aircraft start a big blaze of fire when it crashed where it did right at the edge of that corn field and the heavily-forested area?

It didn't because the ground on which it did crash was just over a very large abandoned coal mine. IOW, the ground almost literally swallowed up the aircraft in which United Flight 93 crashed!!

And it was a good thing that the ground swallowed most of the aircraft's engines and fuel tanks, because that whole area of Somerset Cty was right in the middle of a very extended drought season!! Otherwise, that whole farmer's corn fields (that had just recently been plowed under after he harvested what little corn he was able to produce--hence most all of his cornfields were just very dry cornstalks---just the perfect kind of material for kindling!).

AND, one needs to keep in mind that the ONLY fire department w/in 30 miles of the crash site was the little Shanksville VOLUNTEER Fire & Rescue Service about 4 miles away.

And, since all of its members were volunteers, THEY would have had to be called via telephone [probably by land lines because that part of Somerset Cty is far too hilly for any decent cell phone coverage], leave where ever they were on that Tuesday morning [most likely in one of the many coal mines in the area because that's about the only source of employment in that part of Somerset Cty!], come to the tiny fire hall and then drive their tiny and very-under-capacity-rated pumper [no fire hydrants anywhere near that farmer's homstead!] to put out what, by that time, would have been a massive & out-of-control wildfire---the nearest fire station that could have helped them was in the TOWN of Somerset PA--which was some 20+ miles away & the nearest fire-equipped helicopters would have either been in the cities of either Pittsburgh or Johnstown (both of which were a good 60 miles away!). Are you still with me?

AND

3) Since Somerset's under 10k total population is in one of the poorest parts of the Commonwealth of PA, they have just a very meager amount of money budgeted to either pay for any new fire and rescue trucks, equipment or to afford to train most of the county's volunteer fire & rescue services. Even the county seat of Somerset Cty (the town of Somerset, PA), only has volunteer fire & rescue services.

SO, how's an already-depleted poor county's fire & rescue going to rescue those over a dozen or so trapped coal miners in the late summer of 2002?

HERE's How all of those miners were able to be rescued with just some minor cuts and bruises---

Because the little burg of Shanksville located in the very poor county of Somerset was involved in the 9/11 incident(s), FEDERAL TAX DOLLARS (yours and mine) were allocated to purchase and/or significantly upgrade the vehicles, equipment, communications system(s), and training for those volunteer rescue squad people!!
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Now, do you recall hearing about :
1) Those 650+ schoolchidren who WEREN'T killed?
2) Those raging wildfires that DIDN'T happen?
or 3) WHY such a small town/county in rural SE PA was able to save the lives of all of those over a dozen miners who were trapped in that coal mine in the late spring of 2002?

Me neither.


















Almost makes you think that Someone else was in control that morning, doesn't it?




















OH YES, and by the time I visited the United Flight 93 temporary monument out on that lonely and forlorn hillside where I believe those 40 Americans fought back against those men bent on causing evil and destruction a little over 11 years ago, somebody from some foreign country had donated money to have a cross erected right along that temporary monument on that lonely hillside.

















When I saw that cross on that lonely hillside, I was reminded of what happened on another cross on another lonely hillside over 2,000 years ago. It was there where the Son of God fought back the father of all evil and mindless, senseless death.



















Now, if I weren't a Baptist, I'd have shouted right about then!!


















Aw, what the heck, I'm at my keyboard & nobody else is even around to notice......
:godisgood::godisgood::godisgood::godisgood:

 

There's a PS to my OP.

The Somerset County school campus is in the shape of an upside-down "U." If one were to stand facing north-south from the country road on which it's located, to one's left would be the upper elementary school grades (4-6), straight ahead would have been the kindergarten (1st floor) and the lower elementary grades (1-3) [Most likely this would have been the building that would have taken the most direct hit from Flight 93.], and to one's right would have been the combined JH (1st floor) [Which probably would have received the most co-lateral damage had Flight 93 crashed into the K-3 building.] and the SH on the 2d floor [Which would have then crashed on top of the JH grades beneath it.].

So, had not some of the passengers aboard United Flight 93 not been wrestling with the terrorists at the controls, you would have had the 5 YO kindergartners taken the most direct hit, then the 1st-3rd graders would have buried them when that building's bottom floor crumbled under the weight of Flight 93's direct hit.

Therefore, you would have the 5 YO's that weren't immediately killed by the direct hit buried underneath the 6-9 YO's on that building's 2d floor.

Then, the JH graders would have probably been hit, and subsequently buried by the SH graders on that building's top floor.

When the people of that school complex realized how many of their children's lives were saved that day (by only a few split seconds, mind you), they had all 650+ of them line up in the school campus's parking lot (the "empty space" in that upside-down "U") so that they would have formed the letters T - H - A - N - K Y - O - U. Then they had a professional photographer board a helicopter to hover over top these school children standing on that parking lot to photograph them in that formation.

They then sent copies of that resulting photograph to all of the surviving members of the 40 passengers aboard United Flight 93 --- as their way of saying, "Thanks to your son/daughter/grandson/granddaughter/husband/wife/whatever we are alive today."

Eleven years and two days have since passed, but I kind of believe those 650+ schoolchildren probably still remember that day when a few people whom they probably never knew saved their lives.

 

And here's ANOTHER PS to my OP:

The senior class of my old alma mater High School (located abt 25-30 NW of Philadelphia PA) had planned to visit (among other places in Manhattan) the twin towers of the WTC the morning of 9/11. (The senior class had ALMOST ALWAYS gone to visit downtown NYC as their final class trip as seniors!!)

They were housed in a hotel across the NY Harbor on Staten Island, NJ (Hotel rates for school groups are somewhat cheaper there).

As it happened, their tour bus had stopped to gas up the bus before it would take the Lincoln Tunnel across the NJ side of the Hudson River to Manhattan to visit (as the class trip's first stop in Manhattan)---YOU GUESSED IT--the twin towers of the WTC!!

Well, their tour bus got snarled in the usual early Tuesday morning traffic jam that happens on the NJ side of the Lincoln Tunnel. TOO LATE so that they missed their appointed scheduled visit to the twin towers.

INSTEAD, the driver said, "I'm sorry, we're going to be too late to make it to the WTC this morning. But, I'll tell you kids what we CAN do!! We can always turn back to Staten Island NJ & take the Staten Island ferry across to visit Ellis Island & the nearby Statue of Liberty!!"

So, I'm told, that's what the senior class of 2002 of my old alma mater HS did.

Guess what they saw as they looked across NYC's harbor from Liberty Island (where the Statue of Liberty is located)....THAT'S RIGHT....Those two planes crash into the twin towers of the WTC...The very place they would have been had it not been for that nasty old traffic jam on the NJ side of the Lincoln Tunnel!!!
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I imagine that the Class of 2002 of my old alma mater HS probably doesn't get too angry when they're stuck in early morning traffic jams where ever they may be in the years since their graduation in June, 2002, don't you think?!!? :thumbs:











BTW, I have one of the remaining few copies of that "THANK YOU" color 8 x 10 photograph. If any of you want color copies of it, drop me a PM w/ name, mailing address & other contact info & I'll make you a color photo copy of it.