THE STORY OF "LETS ROLL"
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2003 7:18 pm
On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001 after the first of the doomed airliners had already crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, several air traffic controllers in Boston, New York, Cleveland and Washington gathered to help search for then-missing American Flight 11. As they frantically scoured the control panels, one of the controllers happened to glance at another radar screen and suddenly shouted, "Look. There's an intruder over Allentown (PA)."
In air traffic jargon, an "intruder" is a plane with an operating transponder that has entered restricted airspace without permission. United Flight 93 had been hijacked from its planned Newark to San Francisco route and had veered off course, presumably towards a target in the Capitol District.
At about that same time Todd Beamer, a father of two from Cranbury, N.J., was on Flight 93 having what he knew would be the last conversation of his life with GTE Airfone Operator Lisa D. Jefferson. Beamer had called Jefferson at about 9:45 a.m., after other passengers aboard his flight had also placed calls and learned that the World Trade Center towers had been hit. By that time, the hijackers aboard Flight 93 had already stabbed one passenger to death and injured both United pilots, Jason Dahl and Leroy Homer.
The passengers and crew had been broken up into two groups; some were herded into the first-class compartment, but most were told to sit on the floor in a galley at the rear of the 757's 110-foot cabin. "We're going to do something," Beamer told Jefferson. "I know I'm not going to get out of this."
A group of men in the rear of the plane including Jeremy Glick (who had also managed a last call to his wife), Mark Bingham, Lou Nacke, Donald F. Greene - and most probably several others whose names will never be known - had hatched a plan to "jump on" one of the hijackers who was standing guard over them, with what Beamer said was a bomb attached to his waist.
Beamer knew he was going to die, and so he asked Jefferson to recite the Lord's Prayer with him, which she did. Then the operator heard the 32-year-old Beamer ask his fellow comrades "Are you guys ready?"
And then he uttered his last, defiant words. "Let's roll."
The operator heard screams and a scuffle before the line went dead.
The phone call offers the most detailed evidence of the passenger revolt aboard Flight 93 that in all likelihood caused the plane to crash short of its intended target - believed to be Washington.
Todd Beamer was on the line for about 15 minutes - long enough for him to ask Jefferson to relay a message to his wife and two sons, David, 3, and Drew, 1. "Tell her I love her and the boys," he told Jefferson. Lisa Beamer, 32, said her husband knew she was at home, but she believes he called the GTE operator to spare her pain and to get word of the hijacking to authorities. Only days later, Mrs. Beamer appeared in the House Chamber as an honored guest of President Bush during his address to the Nation. "Now knowing there were (other) people on board who showed that level of courage, it's just an inspiration to everybody when there's not a lot of inspiration to go around," she said.
* * * *
The story of the haunting words "let's roll" and the memory of the Heroes of Flight 93 - all of whom gave their lives so that others might be spared - is a phrase that will live in our memory forever....
Here they are!!!!!!! The Heroes of Flight 93
http://www.usaletsroll.net/heroes.htm
In air traffic jargon, an "intruder" is a plane with an operating transponder that has entered restricted airspace without permission. United Flight 93 had been hijacked from its planned Newark to San Francisco route and had veered off course, presumably towards a target in the Capitol District.
At about that same time Todd Beamer, a father of two from Cranbury, N.J., was on Flight 93 having what he knew would be the last conversation of his life with GTE Airfone Operator Lisa D. Jefferson. Beamer had called Jefferson at about 9:45 a.m., after other passengers aboard his flight had also placed calls and learned that the World Trade Center towers had been hit. By that time, the hijackers aboard Flight 93 had already stabbed one passenger to death and injured both United pilots, Jason Dahl and Leroy Homer.
The passengers and crew had been broken up into two groups; some were herded into the first-class compartment, but most were told to sit on the floor in a galley at the rear of the 757's 110-foot cabin. "We're going to do something," Beamer told Jefferson. "I know I'm not going to get out of this."
A group of men in the rear of the plane including Jeremy Glick (who had also managed a last call to his wife), Mark Bingham, Lou Nacke, Donald F. Greene - and most probably several others whose names will never be known - had hatched a plan to "jump on" one of the hijackers who was standing guard over them, with what Beamer said was a bomb attached to his waist.
Beamer knew he was going to die, and so he asked Jefferson to recite the Lord's Prayer with him, which she did. Then the operator heard the 32-year-old Beamer ask his fellow comrades "Are you guys ready?"
And then he uttered his last, defiant words. "Let's roll."
The operator heard screams and a scuffle before the line went dead.
The phone call offers the most detailed evidence of the passenger revolt aboard Flight 93 that in all likelihood caused the plane to crash short of its intended target - believed to be Washington.
Todd Beamer was on the line for about 15 minutes - long enough for him to ask Jefferson to relay a message to his wife and two sons, David, 3, and Drew, 1. "Tell her I love her and the boys," he told Jefferson. Lisa Beamer, 32, said her husband knew she was at home, but she believes he called the GTE operator to spare her pain and to get word of the hijacking to authorities. Only days later, Mrs. Beamer appeared in the House Chamber as an honored guest of President Bush during his address to the Nation. "Now knowing there were (other) people on board who showed that level of courage, it's just an inspiration to everybody when there's not a lot of inspiration to go around," she said.
* * * *
The story of the haunting words "let's roll" and the memory of the Heroes of Flight 93 - all of whom gave their lives so that others might be spared - is a phrase that will live in our memory forever....
Here they are!!!!!!! The Heroes of Flight 93
http://www.usaletsroll.net/heroes.htm
