Newsletter #8: Aug. 31, 2026 – On Sept. 10, 2001, I was producing a student news section within a major broadcast network’s website. I had a call that day with a copy editor who was reviewing an article I had been asked to write, one of a series of stories on education that they were publishing as the school year began. My article focused on how parents who taught their children at home were using the Internet. After weeks of work, we were ready to go. I loved working and collaborating with the best of the best. I couldn’t wait to see the package live.
And then the morning of September 11 changed the world as we all knew it. Due to the volume of traffic to the website, the dinosaur days of broadband connectivity, many sections deemed nonessential were taken down. The education package was never published. But the editor-in-chief left my section live. My writers and I quickly pivoted to find experts who could give advice to parents and teachers about how to talk with their children and students about the horrific events and images. And we edited national news stories about 9/11 to convey the events in an age appropriate manner. Even now, those days immediately after 9/11 are a blur.
About one year before 9/11, I attended a meeting in one of the Twin Towers. It was my first visit there. I remember standing in the soaring atrium in awe at the immense scale of the building. After exiting the elevator on the way to my meeting, I remember thinking the floor was a maze of confusing corridors. After my meeting, I took an elevator to the basement where I hopped on the subway. It was a little city underground with a shopping mall buzzing with activity. Today that space is the 9/11 Memorial Museum.
After both towers collapsed on 9/11, I could only think of how terrifying it must have been for the thousands of people who were innocently going about their day and then had to frantically seek an escape as the catastrophic collapse began. Thousands made it out. Tragically, about 2,700 people died in the towers that day. New York City’s finest ran into the buildings as people ran out. There are no words to adequately describe their bravery and courage. Neither they nor the innocent victims will be forgotten.
Days turned into weeks and then months. As a news producer, I decided to begin covering 9/11 by following events in Shanksville, Pennsylvania where United Flight 93, the fourth hijacked plane that was headed to Washington D.C. to likely strike the U.S. Capitol, crashed in a bucolic field in a valley.
Traveling more than 400 miles per hour, United Flight 93 crashed after the terrorist hijackers turned the plane upside down and purposely flew it into the ground as some of the 40 passengers and crew stormed the cockpit to try to regain control of the airplane.
Since 2001, I’ve been to Shanksville for a number of anniversaries and key moments in the development of the area as the Flight 93 National Memorial, administered by the National Park Service.
In 2010, former first lady Laura Bush and first lady Michelle Obama spoke at the 9/11 observance in Shanksville. In 2015, the National Park Service opened their new visitor center.
On media day in advance of the anniversary, I interviewed Emily, the goddaughter of Lorraine Bay, one of the United Flight 93 attendants. Each year a group of United flight attendants, dressed in their uniforms, attend the 9/11 observance in Shanksville to honor their fallen colleagues.
In 2021 on the 20th anniversary, artists drew chalk portraits of the passengers and crew. By coincidence, as I walked to view the works of art on the walkway in front of the Visitor Center, an artist was finishing Lorraine Bay’s portrait.
A brief thunderstorm that day gave way to one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. Standing at the top of the hill at the visitor center, which overlooks the crash site and was built to mirror Flight 93’s final flight path, a rainbow seemingly embraced the field below, hallowed ground as few human remains were recovered from the site. See photo above.
The Flight 93 National Memorial is a powerful tribute to the courage of the Flight 93 passengers and crew. If you’re driving through central Pennsylvania, plan some extra time to visit. Take an active role in helping to never forget. The Flight 93 families will be so grateful.
Since 2003, I have been producing educational content as an independent content and documentary producer. I will be in Shanksville on Friday, Sept. 11 to cover the 25th anniversary for Stories 250, a compilation of my work over the last 23 years with a major focus on WWII and for the past five years, the remarkable life of Cornelia Fort.
All the best,
Judy