Bin Laden news brings throng to Flight 93 crash site

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. - They began to arrive by the dawn's early light, bearing flowers and flags, memories of America's darkest day, and hopes for a safer future.

One man's spray-painted sign said, "I did not forget."

Moved by the news of Osama bin Laden's death on the other side of the world, hundreds of visitors streamed to a remote mountaintop 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh to pay respects to the passengers and crew who died aboard United Flight 93 - the 40 people who became known as the first Americans to fight back that day.

"This is one of the things that started the war on terror," said Joseph Osterman, 24, looking out over the abandoned coal mine where the Boeing 757 plunged to the ground. "Bin Laden's death should serve as a message to terrorists: 'It may take time, but we will get the job done.' "

Osterman, who served in the Navy until injuries suffered in a car accident forced his retirement, was one of a group of injured veterans who traveled 30 minutes to the site from a brain trauma treatment center in Johnstown.

Another man in the Johnstown group, C.J. Hebb of Washington, balanced himself on a walker. Hebb, 23, told of serving two tours in Afghanistan before he, too, was injured in a stateside car crash that left him unable to walk or talk. After nine months of therapy, he is slowly regaining his speech and can walk with assistance.

Describing his reaction to bin Laden's death, Hebb wiggled his hands like the wings of an airplane. "Mixed feelings," he said, using one hand to move his jaw.

Grace Summers, from Mount Pleasant in Westmoreland County, cradled her year-old daughter, Taylor, as she explained how 9/11 changed her life.

At 13, Summers said, she made up her mind to enlist in the military after seeing the televised images of the World Trade Center towers falling and the smoking crater left by Flight 93. Four years later, she joined the Air Force, where she met her husband, Robert, a military contractor now working in Afghanistan. Summers got her discharge in 2008.

Upon hearing the bin Laden news, Summers knew where she wanted to be: at the Flight 93 crash site, where a memorial is being erected to the passengers and crew who overpowered hijackers and forced the plane down 20 minutes before it would have reached Washington and its intended target, the Capitol.

"We got him," she said. "We feel relieved and vindicated. Our children will be safer."