Johnnie and Angela: Flight 93 Memorial (2006)

This year was the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11. One of the planes went down in a Pennsylvania field near the small town of Shanksville. Being in western PA, that crash was already "close to home" but for our family, it was closer than most. At the time of the attacks, my family owned a small vacation cottage on Indian Lake. This lake is 2 miles (as a bird flies) from the crash site. Lightweight debris from the crash was blown onto the lake and the houses around it. There were pieces of seat cushion foam floating on the lake and washing up on the shore. There were charred pieces of seat fabric and airplane safety cards covering our yard and roof. To see and touch pieces of that fateful flight was heart-wrenching. Authorities came knocking on our door to collect everything that we found on our property.

I've visited the Flight 93 Memorial at least five times in the past ten years, the last time being with Johnnie in 2008. This week my parents and I went to see the memorial again. The area is now an official National Park and a new road was built leading to the crash site. Arriving at the park, I felt like it was my first time there. I didn't recognize anything. Everything that was there in 2008 was gone and an elaborate memorial (still under construction) has been built.

I will do a blog post tomorrow about the new Flight 93 Memorial but today's post is a visit to the old one. This is for anyone reading this blog who never got a chance to see the old memorial as it stood for many years. All of the photos below were taken in 2006 during one of my visits there.

There was a partial fence wall at the memorial. Most people who visited the memorial left something stuck in the wall or laying on the ground around it. Things left included coats, shirts, hats, flags, coins, medals, and patches.