The National Park Service hosts dedication and commemoration ceremonies this weekend to honor the victims of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. Dr. Gary Machlis is a professor at the University of Idaho. He currently serves as the science advisor for the National Park Service. Machlis says the ceremonies lead up to the unveiling of a permanent memorial where flight 93 crashed.
“The park service has been actively engaged as have the people of Shanksville, Pennsylvania and has our foundation – the National Park foundation.” Machlis says the memorial joins a list of others memorials like Pearl Harbor, Oklahoma City, Gettysburg that commemorate violent historic events. “Times that we need to remember,” he says.
On the morning of September 11th, 2001, terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners including Flight 93. It was headed for the US capitol building when 40 crew members and passengers stopped the hijackers. Everyone on the plane was killed when it crashed 175 miles from the capitol. Machlis says it’s important future generations remember the past. “I do believe that it’s a covenant between this and future generations,” says Machlis. “One of the things that is so exhilarating in working with the National Park Service is here’s an agency whose goal is to preserve these special places “unimpaired for future generations.” That’s an extraordinary challenge and extraordinarily important in a country like ours.”
President Obama and Vice President Biden will attend the services over the weekend. The director of the Park Service, John Jarvis will also be there. The flight 93 memorial will have more than a dozen distinct elements including a memorial tree grove and a visitor’s center.