More than 700 attend Flight 93 ceremony

STONYCREEK TOWNSHIP — Despite visiting the Flight 93 National Memorial several times before, Joyce Lee had never attended a service there.

The Somerset resident said she decided that this year would be different.

“Just so I never forget,” she said of the event’s importance.

She joined approximately 700 people who attended Wednesday’s 9/11 anniversary ceremony.

“It just shows me that we haven’t forgotten,” she said.

Lee said seeing the family members of the 40 passengers and crew members was significant.

“It made it more special,” she said.

Deanna Jamison and Margie Sutton, of Johnstown, also attended the event for the first time Wednesday.

“When you come here it just puts life into perspective,” Jamison said.

Sutton, who volunteers for the Friends of Flight 93, said she has always wanted to attend the ceremony.

“It’s still very fresh in our minds,” Sutton said.

On the drive to the memorial, the friends reflected on where they were on Sept. 11, 2001. Jamison was expecting the birth of a grandchild, who was born two days later.

Although the day is viewed as a national event, for Jamison, it will always be a local event.

“Because we are local it has never really gone away,” she said.

Locals were not the only people who visited the site for the first time Wednesday. Although Rick Wheeler, of Cincinnati, Ohio, had visited the other 9/11 sites in the past, Wednesday was his first trip to Flight 93. He had been traveling in the area and decided to stop.

“The other sites are in urban areas,” he said. “This is out in the middle of beautiful country. It is really overwhelming. I never realized how beautiful it was around here.”

Wheeler said the ceremony was emotional.

“I’d like to bring my family back. My wife and my grandkids would love to come. I have a grandson that was born Sept. 4, 2001. He was a baby, but he is a student of history like I am,” he said.

State Sen. Pat Stefano, who represents all of Somerset County, said that what makes this year different is that most of the students currently in school were not alive in 2001.

“Now our point moving forward is to continue to remember and to teach those who come after us what brave things happened here,” he said.

A group of 13-year-old students from Saint Sebastian Parish School in Akron, Ohio, said they learned about what happened on Flight 93 from their social studies teacher. But being there in person Wednesday was inspiring, they said.

“It’s an experience that you will always remember because you take away that these people died for us so that everyone could have a normal day, especially in the White House,” Jimmy Bordenkircher said.

Bordenkircher said he learned more about the role of the passengers in the events of that day.

“It was actually the passengers that are brave and took over the flight and prevented a mass destruction of the Capitol,” he said.

His classmate Anne Rea said she was touched hearing the family members read the names and seeing how they are still grieving the loss.

“I am taking away the courage and leadership that the passengers showed on board and how they did an amazing thing in the face of adversity,” she said.