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You may remember that there was considerable controversy when the design for the Flight 93 memorial was unveiled. It was called “Crescent of Embrace.” The crescent is, of course, the central symbol of Islam, and the design apparently was intended to symbolize some sort of rapprochement with that religion. The winning design was chosen by a jury, and some members of the jury, including Thomas Burnett, whose son was one of the heroes who brought down the airplane, vigorously opposed it. As I understand it, no one on the jury questioned the Muslim reference inherent in the crescent, but a...

Lest we forget....the heroes of flight 93. RIP, courageous travelers.

<p>Waiting to be interviewed on the radio the other day, I found myself on hold listening to a public-service message exhorting listeners to go to 911day.org and tell their fellow citizens how they would be observing the tenth anniversary of the, ah, “tragic events.” There followed a sound bite of a lady explaining that she would be paying tribute by going and cleaning up an area of the beach.</p>

Donors have contributed $52 million to build the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa., but $10 million is still needed. Former President Bill Clinton declared Saturday that he and Speaker of the House John Boehner are going to do something about that. “Since I am no longer in office, I can do unpopular things,” Clinton declared at the end of his remarks at Saturday’s dedication ceremony.

George W. Bush spoke this afternoon at the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. It was a beautiful speech. One of his best. From his speech today: On 9-11, “The most lives lost on American soil on a single day since the Battle of Antietam.” “One of the lessons of 9-11 is that evil is real and so is courage.” “At the moment American democracy was under attack our citizens defied their captors by holding a vote. The choice they made would cost them their lives. And they knew it. Many passengers called their loved ones to say good-bye. Then...

On September 10, 2011 at 12:30 p.m. EST, almost ten years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Flight 93 National Memorial will be dedicated. Following a decade of healing, the promise of this sacred ground will finally be realized. The Memorial Plaza and Field of Honor will be the first features of the memorial to be completed for dedication, and will be permanently open to the public after the September 10 ceremony. Be a part of this remarkable moment. Coverage will begin at 12:30 p.m. EST – watch the dedication ceremony LIVE at History.com.

Phone interview [11:30am] between Neil Cavuto of FNC and retired US Army General Tommy Franks about the Shanksville Flight 93 Memorial.

Late in the morning of the Tuesday that changed everything, Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney was on a runway at Andrews Air Force Base and ready to fly. She had her hand on the throttle of an F-16 and she had her orders: Bring down United Airlines Flight 93. The day’s fourth hijacked airliner seemed to be hurtling toward Washington. Penney, one of the first two combat pilots in the air that morning, was told to stop it. The one thing she didn’t have as she roared into the crystalline sky was live ammunition. Or missiles. Or anything at all to...

Your must-read of the day. We already knew, of course, that Bush had given the order to shoot down the plane if necessary, before it could crash into another building. I remember vividly walking home to Queens from Manhattan on 9/11 and hearing a fighter jet overhead, the only time I’ve ever heard that sound in 30 years of living in NYC. It was obvious even in the chaos of that moment what they were up there looking for and what they were prepared to do if circumstances warranted. What wasn’t obvious — what we didn’t know until today, I...

The pilgrimages here started soon after the attacks. Local resident Donna Glessner remembers seeing visitors navigating Somerset County's rural roads with maps spread out on their dashboards. Many ended up taking pictures of the wrong place. The visitors bold enough to flag down a local always asked two questions: Where did the plane go down and how close can I get? "It just felt wrong for us in the community not to be helpful," Glessner said. In January 2002, four months after the deadliest attacks in history on U.S. soil, a group of local volunteers started staffing the site of...

Major Heather Penney recounts the drama in the skies after District of Columbia Air National Guard pilots scrambled to intercept incoming hostile planes. She describes why F-16’s initially took off from Andrews Air Force Base unarmed – and what she was prepared to do to bring down a plane piloted by terrorists.

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — The western Pennsylvania site where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after passengers confronted hijacking terrorists during the Sept. 11 attacks almost a decade ago is being marked by a gigantic boulder.

FLOTUS Michelle Obama and Laura Bush served as keynote speakers yesterday honoring the Flight 93 Shanksville, Pennsylvania 9-11 memorial that resembles the Islamic Red Crescent design. Its design insults the memory of 9-11 hijack victim Tom Burnett, Jr. says his father. The bereaved man, who asked that his son’s name be removed from the site, is deeply offended especially now upon learning four glass blocks remembering the Jihadi hijackers are being added to the aisle of the 40 innocent American victims who took down the plane to prevent it from flying on to Washington. Tom Burnett, Sr. said, “Mr. Murdoch’s...

At the Shanksville, PA memorial to the incredibly brave United Flight 93 passengers and crew, the same memorial that was changed from a Muslim crescent to a large bowl when thousands protested this added outrage, Michelle Obama said yesterday, “a scar in the earth has healed”. She is wrong. There will be no healing until Muslims stop murdering and harassing Americans and other Christians here and around the world. There will be no healing until American Muslim leaders stop excusing atrocities and blaming the victim, America, for them.

Here is video of former First Lady Laura Bush speaking at a September 11 Remembrance Ceremony today in Pennsylvania, where Flight 93 went down as a result of the heroes who stormed the cockpit and brought it down short of the intended target in Washington D.C. What an absolutely wonderful and powerful speech.

Share your memories of September 11, 2001 with Free Republic and RFFM.org readers Note from the Executive Director: Every generation can recall an event that is collectively seared into the mind of a nation and its people. From the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 to the assassination of John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963 and now including that horrible day on Sept. 11, 2001, individuals can tell you where they were, what they were doing and the thoughts that were permanently seared into their minds on those days. The most mundane recollections became riveting stories of...

Nine years after the heroes of Flight 93 rebelled against the terrorists who hijacked their plane -- crashing it into a field in Shanksville, Pa., instead of allowing it to smash into an unknown, high-profile target in Washington, D.C. -- the design of a memorial to honor the 40 passengers and crew who died remains a subject of bitter controversy. Since 2005, when plans for the Flight 93 National Memorial were unveiled, a group of critics, including the father of one of the heroes who died, have protested loudly that the memorial's design is rife with Islamic symbols. They haven't...

Former Pittsburgh Steelers Raising Money For Flight 93 MemorialRocky Bleier Announces ’40 For 40’ Fundraising Dinner At Heinz Field UPDATED: 8:43 am EDT September 2, 2010 PITTSBURGH -- Former Pittsburgh Steeler Rocky Bleier unveiled plans for a fundraising dinner to benefit the Flight 93 National Memorial. Bleier, who is the head of the 40 For 40 committee, announced the fundraiser Wednesday afternoon, less than two weeks before the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. **SNIP** The committee includes 40 former Pittsburgh Steelers that are teaming up with the National Park Foundation to pay tribute to the 40 courageous passengers...

The other Ground Zero mosque is not in New York. The other Ground Zero mosque is in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at the site where a group of American heroes, upon hearing from their loved ones that their plane was not being hijacked but being used as a missile by Muslim terrorists to take out the Capitol or the White House, seized control of the aircraft in a life and death struggle. They saved the nation's capital, but not themselves. How is their courage and sacrifice being rewarded? With a huge crescent ...... "of embrace." It is an outrage. I have been...

What do I Want From Muslims? What would shut me up? My readers are well-aware of my campaign to warn America of the dangers posed by Muslim terrorists and by various attempts to impose Sharia law in a series of hardly-noticeable steps. They are accomplishing Sharia-compliance in England and in other European countries. Just as California provides insights into America’s future on most matters, Europe provides a warning example as to the intentions and successes of Muslim organizations. 1. Move the Cordoba “victory” mosque away from “Ground Zero” and change its name; also change the design of the Flight 93...