While on station a US Navy DDG will be called upon to escort ships through dangerous waters, a mission these ships have conducted since the Second World War. This particular escort mission was memorable, because much of the crew didn’t know the story behind the name of the ship in our charge. If that weren’t difficult enough for me to get my head around, it is also true that most of the crew have no independent memory of the events of September 11th. These are two of the reasons I told this story that day.
Todd got up at 0615, got ready, and headed to the airport. His flight was scheduled to depart at 080 and he couldn’t miss it. He had a meeting in San Francisco that afternoon, after which he hoped to catch the red-eye back and then sleep in his own bed that same night. Newark was busy that morning, like most mornings, so instead of 0800, his flight didn’t take off until about 0845, but maybe his schedule could absorb that.
The real trouble started at 0930, when four men got up and took over control of the aircraft from its crew. A child of the 1980s, Todd knew about hijackings from those that had happened before. Just do as they say, the plane will land, they’ll make some demands, and most, if not everybody, will survive. Just do as they say.
New technology in American planes, however, had made it possible for passengers to make phone calls from the air. Altogether the passengers and crew of that flight made 35 air phone calls and two cell phone calls during the hijacking. That was how they found out. Because of the delay at takeoff and the hijackers’ long wait to commandeer the plane, by the time the passengers started calling their loved ones the World Trade Center in New York City was already burning. Todd knew now that the hijackers had no intention of landing that plane.
When he tried to call his wife he couldn’t get through and ended up talking to an operator named Lisa Jefferson. He told her that the passengers had voted to take back control of the aircraft and he asked her to call his wife and family and tell them how much he loved them. After praying the Lord’s Prayer and reciting the 23rd Psalm with him, the last thing Lisa heard Todd Beamer say was “let’s roll.” In the ensuing struggle their Boeing 757, United Airlines flight 93, went into a steep nosedive, rolled upside down, and plunged into the ground.
Most of the ships in the San Antonio class of LPDs are named for cities—USS San Antonio, USS New York, USS Green Bay, etc.—but the one we’ve been escorting through the Red Sea today is named for a county: Somerset County, PA. It’s a rural county without much to really see there, but one thing worth the trip is the memorial for the heroes who perished on United Flight 93 on September 11th, 2001, built on the site where their plane crashed to the earth killing all 44 people aboard, but saving innumerable lives in Washington, D.C. and sparing the US Capitol Building from damage and destruction.
Congress isn’t perfect when it comes to naming our ships, but naming a ship designed to carry the striking force of the United States Marine Corps for the ground on which began the fight that carries it into these very waters is one that they got right. Whenever we hear the name of the USS Somerset, let us remember Todd Beamer and the rest of the heroes of United Airlines Flight 93.
LET US PRAY
Lord, we never know when we will be called upon to act, and we may never be certain what to do, but give us the courage to act even in the face of uncertainty. Keep our memories long in honoring those who have shown themselves honorable and courageous, allow their example to inspire us to be likewise honorable and courageous. Thank you for Your continued safekeeping of us and our ship. Watch over our families at home also, and grant all of us the peace of your abiding presence, for you are holy always, now and forever, and to the ages of ages.
AMEN
An Orthodox Priest Abroad 