Fourteen years ago today, our country was attacked by the Islamic terrorist group al-Quaeda through a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks using commercial passenger planes. Here is just one story from 9/11/2001…
His name was Todd Beamer. The thirty-two year old husband to Lisa and father to David and Drew, was in a small group of guys that met every Friday morning. They were studying a book by Patrick Morley titled “The Seven Seasons of a Man’s Life”. On the morning of September 11, 2001, Todd boarded a routine, United Airlines flight from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco, for a business trip.
Before long it became clear in the cabin that something had gone terribly amiss. Three hijackers had burst into the cockpit and taken control of the plane. Several cell phone calls and in-flight calls that were made to the ground, confirmed that the World Trade Center had already been under attack by two planes. Todd’s plane, Flight 93, had been held up for forty-two minutes on the tarmac, so it had taken off late and was behind schedule for the terrorism conspiracy.
Todd sprung into action and became the leader of a small band of people on the plane. Once realizing their plane was going to be part of a terrorist plot, they decided they were not going to let that happen. Todd was able to get through to an operator as the FBI was listening in. He unveiled a plan to storm the cockpit and fly the plane into the ground, rather than it be allowed to strike a target in Washington D.C. (probably the White House or the Capital Building), which was were the plane was headed at that point in time.
Todd recited the Lord’s Prayer and the Twenty-Third Psalm with the telephone operator, and then he said, “Well let’s do it. Are you ready? Let’s roll!”
Those were the last words that were ever heard from Todd Beamer. A dozen or so passengers led by Todd, stormed into the cockpit and began to wrestle control of the plane. Somewhere in a field in rural Pennsylvania, twenty minutes out from Washington, D.C., Todd Beamer and his cohorts forced their plane to fly into the ground at 580 miles per hour. [1]
As we go about another routine day at the office, at the construction site, in the classroom, on the highway, etc., let us not forget the over three thousand lives that were lost that fateful day and the countless acts of heroism by normal, everyday people, some known to us like Todd Beamer, and hundreds more only known to their Creator.
These lives counted and so do ours. They made a difference and so do we. Make today count!
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” -John 15:13
[1] As Told by Pat Morley in “Man In The Mirror” Podcast. To listen click here: Todd Beamer Story
Bill Edmonds is an “Outside-Insider” (an Executive Coach and Consultant), who works with leaders to help them reach their full potential in the areas of organizational and personal development. He spent 24 years with Merrill Lynch until his retirement in 2014, where he led a $100+ million per year revenue wealth management business unit as a Director with the firm.
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