From Memory to Memorial: Shanksville, America, and Flight 93 by J. William Thompson (review)

In the concluding pages of From Memory to Memorial: Shanksville, America, and Flight 93, J. William Thompson quotes The New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman: “Memorials, being fixed in concrete and stone, have an inherent problem because memories aren’t fixed” (p. 147). Indeed, there is ebb and flow to cultural memory and a generational flux that is often difficult to predict. As a college teacher, who has welcomed first-year undergraduates to campus over my entire career, I have observed how each succeeding generation becomes disconnected from significant defining events; we have now reached the time when beginning students no longer have personal memories of the events surrounding 9/11. It is because of this inevitable passage of time and generational shift that Bill Thompson’s book is so appropriately timed. With its publication fifteen years after the crash that killed 40 people, Thompson translates actual events and their original meaning to future generations. As a journalist, he lays out the facts, while clearly exploring the emotional impact of Flight 93 on Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the families of crash victims, and the larger public.

Thompson begins with a prologue recollection of his early visit to the site, including a description of a homemade, temporary memorial developed on the site soon after the crash. He also uses the prologue to ask important questions: “How does the memory of a terrible event shape or reshape the lives of people who live in its aftermath; what built form would best express what happened in the skies above [the crash site; and] what was it about the landscape and this place that had hindered the creation of any permanent memorial [for about a decade]” (p. xiv). To his credit, Thompson thoroughly explores answers to each of those questions along with several others.

In the first chapter, titled “The Day the Sky Fell Down,” he discusses the day of the crash, its immediate aftermath, and its powerful emotional influence on the citizens of Shanksville and Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Chapter 2, “It Takes a Village,” describes the immensity of the tasks befalling the local community, especially the county coroner, Wally Miller, and the heart-wrenching impact of the event on victims’ family members. In this chapter, Thompson also relates the birth of the temporary memorial as well as the birth of the Flight 93 legend of heroism. “This Harvest of Sorrow,” Chapter 3, describes the development of a growing belief that Fight 93 passengers sacrificed their lives “to save others on the ground,” (p. 51) as President Bush stated. Thompson labels the story a “modern myth,” which he defines as “a compelling story that may or may not be factually true but that provokes a powerful response by using vivid, evocative symbols” (p. 51). In this chapter, he also describes how local volunteers organized themselves to help with the flood of visitors and the many tributes they left at the makeshift memorial: wreaths, flowers, caps, candles, angel figurines, and heart-wrenching notes. In Chapter 4, “If Memorials Could Heal,” Thompson describes the acceleration of the idea to permanently memorialize the event. The National Park Service (NPS) managed the process and recruited Ed Linenthal, who wrote a book about the Oklahoma City bombing and the ensuing road to its memorial construction, to assist with public and family participation. The momentum toward a permanent memorial led to two outcomes: the U.S. Congress passed legislation establishing a national memorial at the crash site, and a Roman Catholic clergyman took it upon himself to create a religious memorial. Father Al Mascherino transformed a former church in Shanksville into a memorial chapel because he saw great religious significance in the event, and believed “Flight 93 passengers prayed together before launching the revolt” (p. 59).

The remainder of the book describes the process that led to the construction of...