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      SHANKSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — The 40 passengers and crew who fought
back against their hijackers aboard Flight 93 on Sept. 11 performed
one of the most courageous acts in U.S. history, former President
George W. Bush said Saturday at a ceremony dedicating the first
phase of a memorial at the nation's newest national park.


      The hijackers intended to crash the plane in Washington but
"never made it because of the determination and valor of the
passengers and crew of Flight 93, that plane crashed in this field,
less than 20 minutes by air" from the target, said Jon Jarvis,
director of the National Park Service.


      Bill Clinton likened the actions of those aboard Flight 93 to
the defenders of the Alamo in Texas or the Spartans at the Battle
of Thermopylae some 2,500 years ago, with a dramatic and telling
difference: "They were soldiers. They knew what they had to do."


      The passengers and crew were not, but they gave "the entire
country an incalculable gift: They saved the capital from attack,"
an untold amount of lives and denied al-Qaida the symbolic victory
of "smashing the center of American government."


      They were, he said, "ordinary people given no time at all to
decide and they did the right thing. And 2,500 years from now, I
hope and pray to God that people will still remember this."


      They were among several speakers at the dedication of the Flight
93 National Memorial who told of the sacrifice and honor of the
passengers and crew. The ceremony drew more than 4,000 people,
including hundreds of victims' relatives, to the rural Pennsylvania
field where the hijacked plane crashed nearly 10 years ago.

      Those aboard knew that it was more than a hijacking, but an
opening shot in a new war, said Vice President Joe Biden said. He
said they acted as citizen patriots have done since Capt. John
Parker said in April 1775 that if war is what they want, "then let
it begin here."


      Bush also pointed to what he called a shining example of
democracy in action, referring to the group's decision to hold a
vote to decide to try to overpower the hijackers.


      "The moment America's democracy was under attack our citizens
defied their captors by holding a vote," he said. "The choice
they made would cost them their lives."


      The storming of the cockpit "ranks among the most courageous
acts in American history," Bush said.


      The Rev. Daniel Coughlin, who was the U.S. House Chaplain at the
time of the attacks, called the sacrifices made by the passengers
and crew "willing seed for freedom's harvest."


      "They refused to be paralyzed. ... They break the silence and
decidedly act together. They do only what is possible in an
impossible situation," he said in the invocation. "Because they
are your children, they find within themselves, true freedoms."


      Coughlin's invocation was followed by a long moment of silence
as the U.S. flag was brought in, then a singing of "The
Star-Spangled Banner." The names of the victims were also read as
bells tolled, and Grammy Award-winning musician Sarah McLachlan
performed.


      Poet Robert Pinsky took to the lectern and read a pair of poems,
one about "needing to remember, even if you don't want to," and a
second about heroism. The poems came from Brazilian Carlos Drummond
de Andrade and Poland's Czeslaw Milosz.


      Also during the ceremony, Clinton announced that he and U.S.
House Speaker John Boehner will mount a bipartisan effort to raise
the remaining $10 million needed to completely fund the memorial.


      Ahead of the dedication, crowds getting there were slowed by
weather-related traffic jams, muddy conditions and security rules
but remained undeterred.


      Among them was Butch Stevens, 69, of Carlyle, Ill., who stopped
on his way back from a visit to Washington, D.C.


      Stevens said he had no connection to anyone aboard the flight,
except, as he said, as an American.


      "This kind of makes you realize where you live," Stevens said
of the bravery of those who died aboard the plane.


      The dedication was the day's most prominent Sept. 11 observance
among many throughout the country. In New York City, hundreds of
families, friends and strangers ringing lower Manhattan clasped
hands as a bell clanged at 8:46 a.m. to signify the time the first
hijacked plane crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower.
It was one of several public and private events scheduled around
the city, including a free performance by the New York Philharmonic
and a memorial by Fire Department of New York for its 343 members
who died on 9/11 and those who have died from illness after working
at ground zero.


      In Pennsylvania on Friday, family members of those who died on
Flight 93 visited the crash site, read the guestbook and viewed the
many mementos left by people from all over the world who have come
to pay their respects.


      Relatives shed some tears, but they also celebrated the spirit
of the guestbook - a rare feeling that people from vastly different
walks of life had come together.


      "I don't focus on what happened. You can't change that," said
Lorne Lyles, whose wife, CeeCee Ross Lyles, had been working as a
United Airlines flight attendant for only nine months on that
September morning in 2001.


      "Coming here is more of a celebratory thing. She's been
memorialized," Lyles said. "Just to see the outpouring from all
over the world is touching. You really do have some caring people
in the world."

Gallery

The 40 passengers and crew who fought
back against their hijackers aboard Flight 93 on Sept. 11 performed
one of the most courageous acts in U.S. history, former President
George W. Bush said today.

Courage of Flight 93 victims lauded at dedication

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