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del.icio.usA Message from General Tommy Franks
Published on 09/11/2008
September 11, 2008
A Message from General Tommy Franks
Honorary Co-Chair, Flight 93 National Memorial Campaign
Director, National Park Foundation
For more than 100 years, America’s most special places have been identified and set aside to be preserved and protected for future generations as national parks. These parks document the natural beauty of the American landscape in places like Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and Acadia. They also record the history that surrounds us and the important events that have come to define our nation at Valley Forge, Gettysburg, and Ellis Island.
These places serve as a history book for Americans, charting who we were as a newly formed nation, who we have become, and everything that happened in between. Along the way, history has been made and places that were once considered ordinary have become transformed by the people who lived there, people who died there, and people who did something extraordinary there.
September 11, 2001, was a day that history was made when the coordinated hijacking of four commercial airliners brought our nation to a stand-still. On that day, 40 ordinary people aboard United Airlines Flight 93 became unexpected heroes as they chose to fight back against their hijackers, ultimately causing their plane to crash in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, before reaching its target of Washington, D.C.
Although many memorials will commemorate this day, only one will be preserved as a national park, transforming what was once a common field into a “Field of Honor Forever” where these 40 Heroes will be honored for generations to come at the Flight 93 National Memorial. National parks preserve our nation’s memory, so it is appropriate to preserve the crash site of Flight 93 among parklands dedicated to maintaining this special place as an important piece of the American landscape and American history. As the lead fundraising partner of the Flight 93 National Memorial Campaign, the National Park Foundation is proud to help raise philanthropic support for this important and sacred place.
More than 40,000 donors have already committed to the Flight 93 National Memorial Campaign. They have been inspired by the courage of the 40 Heroes and are dedicated to helping establish the nation’s permanent tribute to these brave men and women. As we all stop to reflect on the seven years since September 11, 2001, we invite you to honor their courage and make a commitment to the Campaign to build the Flight 93 National Memorial.
Those 40 people took incredible action over the skies of western Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. The Flight 93 National Memorial is the best way to honor their memory and preserve their inspiring story of heroism.
