SHANKSVILLE, Pa.—President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attended a commemoration ceremony at the Flight 93 National Memorial, marking the 17th anniversary of the tragedy that killed almost 3,000 people in Pennsylvania, New York City, and Washington.
“We grieve together for every mother and father, sister and brother, son and daughter, who was stolen from us at the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and here in this Pennsylvania field,” Trump said at the ceremony in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 11.
Hundreds of people, including family members of the victims, survivors, rescuers, local leaders, and politicians gathered at the memorial that marks where United Airlines Flight 93 went down.
Trump called the 40 passengers and crewmembers of Flight 93 “patriots” who “joined the immortal ranks of American heroes” by fighting back against the terrorists who hijacked the plane. The field where the plane crashed is just a 20-minute flight from the U.S. Capitol.
“This field is now a monument to American defiance,” he said. “This memorial is now a message to the world: America will never, ever submit to tyranny.”
Trump said about 5.5 million Americans have enlisted in the U.S. armed forces since the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Nearly 7,000 service members have died facing down the menace of radical Islamic terrorism,” he said, drawing applause from the crowd.
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Flight 93 was a passenger flight that took off from Newark International Airport in New Jersey bound for San Francisco. It was one of four flights hijacked that day by al-Qaeda terrorists.
Passengers and flight attendants used their phones to reach family members and learned that two planes had already crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. They immediately decided to fight back against the terrorists. The plane crashed during the attempt by the passengers and crew to regain control, killing all 44 people aboard, including the four hijackers.
Of the four hijacked aircraft, the first two planes—American Airlines Flight 11 and United Flight 175—were flown into the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. The third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, slammed into the Pentagon, just outside Washington. Flight 93 was the only one that didn’t reach an intended target.
“This memorial is dedicated to preserving the stories of 40 heroes of Flight 93 and their collective actions,” Gordon Felt, president of the Families of Flight 93, said during the ceremony. His brother, Edward Porter Felt, took part in the passenger revolt that helped to bring the plane down.
“Because of their actions, further loss of life was averted,” Felt said.
In the days after the terrorist attacks, thousands of volunteers went to New York to assist the firefighters, police officers, and recovery workers who were crawling through the rubble in search of bodies.
Attorney and political activist Gene Stilp from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who attended the ceremony, was one of them.
“You could not [even] find body parts, and I remember being covered in dust and debris day after day,” he told The Epoch Times. “I remember coming back to my home in Pennsylvania. Next door is a beautiful meadow. I said, if there are any parts of anybody on my clothing, this beautiful meadow is a good place to rest.”
The victims inspired Stilp to design the Flight 93 Memorial Flag.
“Everybody recognizes the immense courage that it took for these people to do what they did,” he said.
Speaking at the ceremony, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke thanked Trump for his “leadership on national security, his support of law enforcement, first responders, and his unwavering support of protecting our borders.”
