Flight 93 National Memorial Park......

This morning found me at the Flight 93 Natl Park in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.  This was the 4th plane that crashed on 9?11/01.  The passengers on the plane knew that they were going to die.....  being flown into a building, or fighting to regain control of the plane, or fight to change direction and make sure no one else died.
    Todays post is a collage of some impressions from today.  The cloud of black smoke was taken minutes after the plane crashed and the citizens of Shanksville tried to figure out what happened.   Beside the smoke is a picture of a field, with a 17 ton granite rock.  The is the spot the plane flew into the ground, at 563 mph.  The plane exploded, and buried itself 40' down in the ground.
   Below the smoke is a photo of the Tower of Voices.  It is one of 3 parts of the park.  The tower is 93' high, built of concrete with tubes of chime material.  As the wind blows through, when complete, will cause a gong to move and hit the chimes, which are attached to wings that will move in the wind.  The sounds will float out over the area where anyone listening, can here the sounds and voices of the brave people on board flight 93.  
The sounds are a facsimile of voices, representing their spirits where they gave their lives so that others might live.   Beside the tower is a close up of the hanging tubes being tested.  In the middle of the collage is a greenish, round map, showing the many acres that are part of the park.  
   The 3 parts are the Tower of Voices, the Flight Path and Visitor Center, and the Memorial plaza.  The Flight path is the actual path the plane made, over the land.  It is a gray, granite walkway.  along the granite are slabs which detail minute by minute, what was happening on the plane.  It leads to the end of the walk, at the observation center, looking down on the crash site.  From there one can look down on the site, see people at Wall of Names, a green path leading out to a 40' round, green area, with a 17 ton granite boulder, marking the center of the crash.
Extra 1   the granite path leading to the overlook, past the museum.
extra 2   Looking at the overlook from the Memorial Plaza.
extra 3  Passengers name on the Wall
extra 4  The granite boulder, at ground  level...  It was silent, but speaks     volumes......
extra 5   The field.......  A phrase was written at the overlook that has stayed with me:   A Common Field One Day.
                  A Field of Honor Forever...........

This is pehphaps, one of the simplest National Parks I have been to.....
Yet it speaks volumes and reaches down deeply into the heart of every one standing there.  Each person feels deeply, in their way, deeply moved by what these brave, every day Americans did, so that others can live and be free.
This is what America is all about......