More stories of 9/11 heroics

I hadn't heard this story before, but it's fascinating to read that on September 11, 2001, as the World Trade Center was crumbling down and the Pentagon was aflame, that last jetliner, Flight 93, was still in the air, destination unknown, but it was known that it had been hijacked and clearly was involved in a similar suicide dive like the other three planes.

We all knew that part, but did you know that the US sent up fighter jets to take down Flight 93?  And did you know that these were unarmed fighter jets, so the only weapon they had to use against the stolen plane was...themselves...as in ramming the plane?


Lt. Heather "Lucky" Penney (left) and Col. Marc Sasseville, their nation under attack, followed orders without question, took off in their jets, and were prepared to give their own lives by crashing into the airliner.  It's all here in an article in the Washington POST.  They did not find that plane; we know that United 93 crashed in a field in Shanksville, PA, and even today, more and more stories about American heroism come to the fore from that awful, awful day.

Their planes only carried dummy ordnance, from training missions, but they were ready to go kamikaze to save whatever target the terrorists had in mind.  We've never known what the goal was for them; some say the Capital, or some say maybe the White House. 

But let's hear it for two people - Penney and Sasseville - who were ready to give it all up for for all of us.