9:45 a.m. … 9/11: White House Evacuated

9:45 a.m. The World Trade Center had been attacked an hour earlier when airplanes hijacked by terrorists flew into both towers … Pan Am Flight 77 had flown into the Pentagon … and now United Flight 93 was being followed on radar flying toward Washington, D.C. No one was aware of the struggle going on inside that aircraft as passengers, aware of the earlier terrorism attacks, vowed to storm the cockpit and avoid whatever disaster the terrorist pilots had in mind.

The White House was evacuated at 9:45. Employees were urgently directed by Secret Service to leave the building and, as the evacuation was under way, it was stepped up as shouts told them to get away from the White House and Old Executive Office Building as fast as they could. Women took off their shoes and ran in their stocking feet out the White House grounds and onto the street and down the sidewalk. One of them was my sister.

Flight 93 would go down at 10:06 a.m. taking the brave souls with it who prevented further national tragedy.

LynnRMitchell.com remembers … may we never forget the herorism of those on Flight 93.

9/11 … 2,977 victims and heroes remembered

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaida radicals carried out a series of attacks on America that took the lives of 2,977 — innocent passengers on airplanes, in office buildings, and on the streets as well as the heroes who rushed toward the destructive forces, not away from them. On this day every year each name is read at Ground Zero in New York City. As they read, we remember.

[From 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America: Flight 11, Flight 175, Flight 77, Flight 93, Pentagon, September 11, Shanksville, World Trade Center, WTC]

Names of 2,977 victims and heroes:

Anna Allison AA 11
David Lawrence Angell AA 11
Mary Lynn Edwards Angell AA 11
Seima David Aoyama AA 11

10:07 a.m. … 9/11: United Flight 93 goes down

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” — John 15:13

The heroes of United Flight 93 were ordinary Americans who reacted in extraordinary times. On a hijacked airplane heading toward Washington, D.C., possibly targeting the White House or the Capitol building, and with the knowledge of what had already occurred that morning with the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, passengers took matters into their own hands.

Ordinary citizens became heroes in their attempt to overtake the Muslum terrorists who had pirated the plane, and crashed it into the countryside of southwestern Pennsylvania.

10:06 a.m. … 9/11: United Flight 93 goes down

The heroes of United Flight 93 were ordinary Americans who reacted in extraordinary times. On a hijacked airplane heading toward Washington, D.C., possibly targeting the White House or the Capitol building, and with the knowledge of what had already occurred that morning with the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, passengers took matters into their own hands.

Ordinary citizens became heroes in their attempt to overtake the Muslum terrorists who had pirated the plane, and crashed it into the countryside of southwestern Pennsylvania.

I have written before of my special connection to Flight 93. My sister, a member of the George W. Bush administration, was at work in the White House that day. If Flight 93 had hit Washington as had happened in New York City and Arlington’s Pentagon, our family could have been one of the many mourning a lost one.

On the tenth anniversary of that tragic day, the crash site outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, was formally dedicated as a permanent reminder of the courage and spirit of the Flight 93 heroes. President George W. Bush, in office only nine months when 9/11 happened, unexpectedly became a wartime president that day with a determination to protect the American people. He and Mrs. Bush attended the 2011 commemorative events, met with the families, and took part in the ceremony.

Forty extraordinary Americans … my family will forever be grateful to the men and women of Flight 93 and their families for the heroism and sacrifice made that day.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” — John 15:13