Michelle Obama, Laura Bush honor Flight 93 heroes

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. - Michelle Obama and Laura Bush led the ceremony on a windswept mountaintop Saturday commemorating the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which also marked a turning point in the evolution of the Flight 93 crash site from a scarred landscape to national memorial park.

As hundreds of family members and visitors watched, Bush recalled her first visit as first lady to the still-smoldering crash site 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh on Sept. 17, 2001, a time when "our grief was raw and our heart was heavy."

"This peaceful place was not chosen by terrorists," Bush said, in reference to the actions by the 40 passengers and crew to thwart the plans of the four hijackers to crash the United Boeing 757 into the White House or the U.S. Capitol. "This spot was chosen by passengers of Flight 93 who spared our country from greater harm."

Obama noted the "clarity of purpose" in the passengers' single-minded mission and willingness to make a sacrifice for people they would never meet. "They rose as one. . . . Together they changed history's course," she said.

The 9/11 commemoration was the first official public event at the crash site's western overlook, where families had their first glimpse of the place their loved ones perished, but which had been closed for many years.

The ceremony, with its solemn reading of the names of passengers and crew, the tolling of memorial bells at 10:03 a.m. - the time of the crash - and choral music against a rolling mountain backdrop, stood in contrast to the furor over the proposed Islamic center near the World Trade Center site.

(Two detractors, including Tom Burnett, father of passenger Tom Burnett Jr., have taken out periodic full-page ads in the local newspaper protesting "Muslim-inspired" crescent shapes in the park design, an allegation that architect Paul Murdoch has dismissed as completely untrue and many families view as offensive.)

Obama and Bush, who were joined by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Gov. Rendell, recognized the start of the long-awaited transformation of the battered landscape into a 2,200-acre national memorial park.

Earthmoving machines have begun to carve out the major features of the site, including groves of trees, plazas, walkways, and walls, each rich with symbolism honoring passengers and tracing the final path of the plane.