Medina 9/11 ceremony honors Flight 93 on 20th anniversary

MEDINA — United Airlines Capt. Jeff Capretto never met Jason Dahl, pilot of United Flight 93, which crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 11, 2001. However, Capretto said he knows Dahl through his legacy. Capretto — the keynote speaker Saturday morning during a 9/11 memorial ceremony at the Reagan Parkway fire station — said Dahl trained fellow United pilots. Dahl always said pilots achieve notoriety only if they do something wrong or outstanding. He asked his trainees which it was going to be for them. "Capt. Dahl challenged his fellow pilots to step out of their comfort zone and decide what their legacy would be," said Capretto, a retired U.S. military combat pilot who served in Afghanistan. "What would they do to set themselves above their peers?" Capretto said United Airlines still delivers that challenge to pilots in training in honor of Dahl, who with six other crew members and flight attendants and 33 passengers died in the Flight 93 crash. In addition to Capretto, Medina County Commissioner Bill Hutson and Medina Mayor Dennis Hanwell spoke at Saturday's ceremony, which took place exactly 20 years after terrorists crashed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Virginia. At the ceremony attended by hundreds of people, American Legion Post 202 presented the nation's colors, fired three shots in a rifle volley and played Taps. Kimberly States, voice teacher and owner of KS Vocal Studios in Medina, sang the national anthem and "America the Beautiful." Two United Airlines flight attendants, Melinda Beal and Mary Serpentini, laid a memorial wreath at the Medina County 9/11 Memorial outside the fire station. The focus of Saturday's ceremony was United Flight 93 because after the plane was hijacked, it flew over Medina. The terrorists' target was either the White House or the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., but the plane never made it. Flight 93 took off from Newark, New Jersey, the morning of 9/11, and its destination was San Francisco. The plane was hijacked about 46 minutes into the flight — about 9:28 a.m. At about 9:58 a.m., the crew and passengers — who by then had heard from family members about the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon — fought for control of Flight 93. One of the passengers, Todd Beamer, famously said, "Are you guys ready? OK. Let's roll." During the struggle between passengers and terrorists, the plane crashed at 10:03 a.m. At Saturday's ceremony, Hutson called for a moment of silence at that moment. "I cannot fathom what must have been going through the minds of the folks on that airplane," Hutson said. "All I can divine is that they felt a sense of duty and summoned the courage to take action. "That is what defines heroism in my book," Hutson said. "I can only wish that if I were in a similar circumstance, that I would be able to summon the courage to take action as they did." Hanwell recounted how the city and county built the Medina County 9/11 Memorial, which features a 9-foot, 2-ton steel beam from the World Trade Center. He said former Medina Mayor Jane Leaver and Medina Rotary member Bill Cohen, both who died from cancer, were key players in the memorial's creation, a process that took nine years. "It's a lasting memorial to those who lost their lives on that historic day, and Medina is proud to host it here," Hanwell said. The Rev. C. Reid Miller, retired U.S. military chaplain, performed the ceremony's invocation. He prayed that as the United States leaves Afghanistan, where 13 U.S. military members were killed during an Aug. 26 attack at the airport in Kabul, people "realize peace across the boundaries of discontent." After the ceremony, people mingled outside and snapped pictures of the World Trade Center beam. Kristy Sawastuk, of Montville Township, laid a hand on the beam for a few seconds and cried. "I feel as a country we need to remember this moment," Sawastuk said. "I feel like we've started to forget. "Things like this memorial ceremony today, and all the young children here, will keep this in the forefront of people's minds for years to come," Sawastuk said. Contact reporter Bob Sandrick at areanews@medina-gazette.com.