I climbed out of the van and looked over the area. A pool of water, the remnant of a strip mining operation broke the grass-covered expanse that was devoid of any trees. To one side there were a couple of rusting drag-line shovels. The grass stretched hundreds of yards in every direction. At least 300 yards from where I stood was a large American flag.
And then it hit me. Forty-five people came together here in death just months before. Five of them were bent on destruction. The others were just there. Forty-five lives ended here on this field. Most of the forty one passengers on the plane had never met anyone else on that plane before September 11, 2001. The fate of the Capitol, the White House or whatever and many lives rested on these people rising the occasion and becoming a team.
Bull Halsey said, "There are no great men, only great situations that ordinary men (and women) rise to meet." Based on cell phone calls from the plane, the Flight Crew were at that time either dead or disabled. The office of commander of the aircraft was empty. The one upon whom the mantle would fall was also dead or dying. The mantle of leadership fell to the ground. Who took the mantle of leadership? Who picked it up? Was it a passenger or a cabin-crew member? Was it a tough man in the group or some petite woman? We may never know but we know this, someone lit the fuse of greatness and once lit and it spread through those on the plane.
We may never know and I don't care who it was because someone did take that lead and others followed that lead. Who knows, it may have changed hands several times and most likely did in the last seconds when they were breaching the door to the cockpit. Those who followed on Flight 93 that morning stand tall with the finest heroes in American History. We know they prayed. One of the husbands heard the Twenty Third Psalm in the background of a call. The phrase "let's roll" became popular as the battle cry of Flight 93 but the spark was lit before that. The die was cast as they realized that only they could stand in the gap. Those two words were just the bugle sounding the charge.
