Posted on 09/12/2001 9:03:11 PM PDT by Vigilanteman
IF God compel thee to this destiny,
To die alone, with none beside thy bed
To ruffle round with sobs thy last word said
And mark with tears the pulses ebb from thee,-
Pray then alone, ' O Christ, come tenderly !
By thy forsaken Sonship in the red
Drear wine-press,--by the wilderness out-spread,- And the lone garden where thine agony
Fell bloody from thy brow,-by all of those
Permitted desolations, comfort mine !
No earthly friend being near me, interpose
No deathly angel 'twixt my face and thine,
But stoop Thyself to gather my life's rose,
And smile away my mortal to Divine !
We know the names of two of the heros on United Airlines flight 93-- Tom Burnett and Jeremy Glick because they managed to call their wives to say they were going to die, but at least three of them were going to resist the hijackers.
The chronology of events also indicate that at least some of the passengers and crew resisted the hijackers of American Airlines flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon.
While the intended target of UA 93 has been speculated to be Camp David, Congress and the White House, it is fair to rule out Camp David as a relatively inconsequential target. Congress would be more likely, but would also be risky for the hijackers because valuable allies such as Hillary Clinton might be among those wiped out. The White House would have the advantage of being both a high profile target and one not likely to wipe out actual and potential allies.
So, while the Boston flights seemed to follow the hijacker's script quite closely, AA 77 was about half an hour late in reaching its target while UA 93 didn't reach the target at all. Coincidently, these were the only flights able to make unauthorized communication with the ground before impact.
More will be know when and if the black boxes are recovered. But indications are that the highjacker's script for UA 93 and AA 77 was not followed because they fought back. There is some indication to indicate the passengers may have been aware of the fate of the Boston flights. However, particularly in the case of AA 77, the warning could not have been much. This is because the air distance from Boston to New York is approximately equal to the distance from New York to Washington.
We know one of the heroines on AA 77 was Barbara Olson, because she managed to make a cell-phone call shortly before impact. However, she either did not have willing accompolices or, more likely, sufficient time, to resist the hijackers. Indications are that two American Airlines stewardesses gave their lives in a vain attempt to prevent the hijackers from reaching the cockpit. This would account for some, though probably not all, of the delay in AA 77 reaching its intended target.
UA 93 put up the most organized resistence. From the Burnett and Glick cell phone calls, we know there were at least three, and possibly more, passengers who fought back. From the timeline of events, though, it is unlikely that they had much more, if any, advance warning on the fate of the flights from Boston than did AA 77. What made the difference was not only the willingness of the passengers to fight back, but the cooperation of other passengers in helping them do so.
There are a lot of people in the neighborhood of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue who owe their lives to at least three brave people on UA 93. Let us never forget them!</font face>
WFTR
Bill
“Horatius” by Thomas Babbington Macaulay
(Search out the entire poem. It will bring tears to your eyes in much the same way the heroic actions of those men in that doomed plane over Pennsylvania brought tears to mine. May God rest their souls!)
Passenger Thomas E. Burnett Jr. made four calls to his wife before the plane he was on crashed in Pennsylvania.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Passengers on board the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in rural Pennsylvania Tuesday apparently decided to attack the terrorists who had commandeered the plane, according to family members of one passenger.
Passenger Jeremy Glick, flying with his 2-month-old child Emerson, called his wife Liz and in-laws in New York on a cell phone to say the plane had been hijacked.
All 38 passengers, and possibly the crew, had been herded to the back of the plane.
Glick said they were aware a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York and that some passengers were talking about retaking control of their plane.
Moments earlier, according to a partial transcript of cockpit chatter obtained by CNN Wednesday, air traffic controllers heard someone shout, "Get out of here," through an open microphone.
The plane, which took off from Newark bound for San Francisco, was near Cleveland, flying at 35,000 feet.
The microphone goes off and comes back on. Scuffling is heard. Somebody again yells, "Get out of here."
The microphone goes off again, then on, and a voice in broken English -- an Arabic accent, according to a source who heard the tape -- says:
"There is a bomb on board. This is the captain speaking. Remain in your seat. There is a bomb on board. Stay quiet. We are meeting with their demands. We are returning to the airport."
The microphone goes off.
At that point, air traffic radar showed the plane abruptly turning 180 degrees, heading southeast, apparently toward Washington with the possible intention of crashing it into the White House or Capitol.
Joanne Makely, Glick's mother-in-law, told CNN Wednesday the family called New York state police on another phone while Glick was still on the line and relayed messages to them from Glick.
Glick told police he could see three men he described as Arabs and that the plane was over countryside, according to Makely.
One of the hijackers "had a red box he said was a bomb, and one had a knife of some nature," Makely said.
Glick was not the only person on the flight to make a phone call during the hijacking.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that a 911 dispatcher received a call from an unidentified man who said, "We're being hijacked!"
A flight attendant called her husband and told him three other attendants had been stabbed by the hijackers, according to an airline employee who asked not to be named.
Passenger Thomas E. Burnett Jr., 38, made four calls to his wife Deena in San Ramon, California, the AP said.
"A group of us are going to do something," Burnett said at one point, his wife told the AP. He also said one passenger had been stabbed.
Glick and Burnett both said in their calls the people on board knew of one or more attacks on the World Trade Center, evidently from the other phone calls.
"He wanted to know if that was true," Makely said.
After Glick was told the reports were true, he left the phone for a while, returning to say, "The men voted to attack the terrorists," Makely said.
"He left the phone and said he would be back," Makely said. "That's the last we heard."
Emergency workers look at the crater created when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Burnett's wife told the AP her husband "thought he was going to be home. He was going to solve this problem."
Passenger Mark Bingham, 31, called his mother to say the plane had been taken over by three men who said they had a bomb, the AP reported.
Bingham's mother, Alice Hoglan said she thinks her son may have helped prevent the hijackers from hitting a more populated area.
"It gives me a great deal of comfort to know that my son may have been able to avert the killing of many, many innocent people," she said.
Makely described Glick as 6-feet-2, 220 pounds, and an athlete. She did not know how many men voted to attack the terrorists.
Glick's father-in-law, Richard Makely, said he took the phone, hoping to hear Glick come back and say the passengers and crew had regained control of the plane.
Instead, he said, "I heard the end of the story."
He would not say exactly what he heard, other than to say "it would not have indicated" what ultimately caused the plane's nose dive into a field in Somerset County, southeast of Pittsburgh, 90 minutes after the first airliner hit one of the twin towers in New York.
-- CNN Correspondent Kelli Arena and Producer Jonathan Larsen contributed to this story.
+++++ +++++
In addition to the fine poetic offerings above, there's an American tribute to such individuals who join together for such efforts, and though the author of the one that follows is no longer around to provide us with such a paen to our more recent heroes, the one he left us with some similarly minded folks at a ruined Texian chapel called *The Alamo* reminds us of the character of such men. From baladeer Marty Robbins:
In the southern part of Texas
In the town of San Antone
There's a fortress all in ruins that the weeds have overgrown
You may look in vain for crosses and you'll never see a-one
But sometimes between the setting and the rising of the sun You can hear a ghostly bugle
As the men go marching by
You can hear them as they answer
To that roll call in the sky.
Colonel Travis, Davy Crockett, and a hundred eighty more
Captain Dickinson, Jim Bowie
Present and accounted for....
Back in 1836, Houston said to Travis
"Get some volunteers and go
Fortify the Alamo."
Well the men came from Texas
And from old Tennessee
And they joined up with Travis
Just to fight for the right to be free.
Indian scouts with squirrel guns
Men with muzzle-loaders
Stood together, heel and toe
To defend the Alamo.
"You may ne'er see your loved ones,"
Travis told them that day
"Those who want to can leave now
Those who fight to the death let 'em stay."
In the sand he drew a line
With his army sabre
Out of a hundred eighty five
Not a soldier crossed the line
With his banners a-dancin'
In the dawn's golden light
Santa Anna came prancing
On a horse that was black as the night.
Sent an officer to tell
Travis to surrender
Travis answered with a shell
And a rousing rebel yell
Santa Anna turned scarlet
"Play Deguello!" he roared
"I will show them no quarter
Every one will be put to the sword!"
One hundred and eighty five
Holding back five thousand
Five days, six days, eight days, ten
Travis held and held again
Then he sent for replacements
For his wounded and lame
But the troops that were coming
Never came, never came, never came...
Twice he charged and blew recall
On the fatal third time
Santa Anna breached the wall
And he killed 'em, one and all
Now the bugles are silent
And there's rust on each sword
And the small band of soldiers...
Lie asleep in the arms of the Lord...
In the southern part of Texas
Near the town of San Antone
Like a statue on his pinto rides a cowboy all aloneAnd he sees the cattle grazing where a century before
Santa Anna's guns were blazing and the cannons used to roar
And his eyes turn sorta misty
And his heart begins to glow
And he takes his hat off slowly...
To the men of Alamo.
To the thirteen days of glory
At the siege of Alamo...
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