{"id":284078,"date":"2026-09-11T22:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/284078\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T22:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:04:15","slug":"thousands-remember-9-11-at-flight-93-memorial-in-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/284078\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands remember 9\/11 at Flight 93 memorial in Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands remember 25 years since 9\/11 at Flight 93 memorial in Somerset County<\/p>\n

\"Ed<\/a>SHANKSVILLE, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\n

Everyone remembers where they were 25 years ago. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was in Alabama in high school,\u201d said Steve Bennett, who visited the Flight 93 memorial for the first time Friday. \u201cIt was my ninth grade reading class.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI was sitting at Mellon Bank on the fifth floor,\u201d said Mike Konodor, of the Glassport Fire Department. \u201cI looked outside and it was a crystal clear day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in Africa,\u201d said Stanley Friesen, of Fort Worth, Texas. \u201cSomebody in the country had to tell me New York was under attack.\u201d <\/p>\n

On Sept. 11, 2026, thousands came to Somerset County. A number of people visited the hallowed ground for the first time. Marc King, from Philadelphia, was one of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew everything was going on today, it\u2019s a good time to visit, and learn about this area,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s very sad here. It\u2019s the memories it brings back from that day and time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Friesen was surprised by how many people found their way to Shanksville. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are here from all around the world,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of the people from our hotel were from Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

WTAE<\/p>\n

The heroes of Flight 93<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Some visitors who paid respects are closer to the tragedies than others. <\/p>\n

\u201cI got a text from the fire station saying there\u2019s a confirmed hijacking in Westmoreland County,\u201d Komondor said. \u201cFive guys were called a few weeks after to do a sweep through. We crawled on our hands and knees on a Saturday past the tree line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a lot of my buddies, including myself, who were deployed to Afghanistan,\u201d said Barrett, who is still in the U.S. Air Force. \u201cThis day means a lot to me during my time of service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the thousands that came from afar, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was one of them. He spoke during the afternoon memorial ceremony. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a reminder, to me, of the goodness that exists in every person, and the goodness that is inherent in this nation,\u201d Shapiro said. <\/p>\n

Those efforts made for a silver lining for what is a difficult day for the families of the 40 victims on board. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never had to walk through a metal detector to see a loved one\u2019s grave site,\u201d said Jason Yorel Wilson, the nephew of Flight 93 co-pilot Leroy Homer. \u201cIt lets me know that the whole country honors those who gave their lives to be the first defense of a nation.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

WTAE<\/p>\n

Ringing the bell at Flight 93 memorial<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

As the memorial bells ring again to never forget the heroes on Flight 93, the people take their stories, and courage, back home with them. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt puts everything in perspective across the board,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cLife is fragile. Life is short.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to see,\u201d King said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t forget. We\u2019re still coming out and remembering those who were lost.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands remember 25 years since 9\/11 at Flight 93 memorial in Somerset County SHANKSVILLE, Pa. \u2014 Everyone remembers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[115842,14869,7217,4329,118474,11408,110853,63084,90573,105,2922,8589,11611,28,30,29,523,110854,102647,117510,11266,118475,118476,7213],"class_list":["post-284078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-9-11","tag-board","tag-country","tag-day","tag-first-time-friday","tag-flight","tag-flight-93","tag-good-time","tag-goodness","tag-life","tag-lot","tag-memorial","tag-nation","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-people","tag-sept-11","tag-september-11","tag-shanksville","tag-somerset-county","tag-stanley-friesen","tag-steve-bennett","tag-thousand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}