Flight 93 National Memorial

Vice President Joe Biden will deliver the keynote address Tuesday during the annual September 11th observance at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Across the nation, people took to the national parks in late-April not only to visit, but also to roll up their sleeves. They worked on projects to improve the parks and help others learn about these special places.

Former President George W. Bush will be on hand Saturday to help dedicate the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

With a need for $10 million to finish the Flight 93 National Memorial, the National Park Foundation is offering a match of up to $2 million with hopes of spurring private donations.

On November 7 some heavy hitters will join the Flight 93 families to help celebrate the long-awaited groundbreaking for the Flight 93 National Memorial. Can you hear the clock tick-tick-ticking toward that 10th anniversary dedication deadline?

A long, sometimes acrimonious, effort to secure land for the Flight 93 Memorial came to fruition Monday when Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the government has reached agreement with all the affected landowners for the properties needed to build the memorial honoring those who died in the western Pennsylvania field on September 11, 2001.

The Flight 93 National Memorial won’t be ready for dedication on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks if land acquisition efforts remain stalled. Interior Secretary Salazar will order seizure of the land if willing seller agreements cannot be reached by the end of this week.

Should the NPS worry about mineral rights when the agency acquires park lands? You better believe it. Not owning subsurface mineral rights at Big Cypress National Preserve and Padre Island National Seashore has caused the agency a great deal of grief. At Flight 93 National Memorial, the NPS is determined to nip a potentially serious problem in the bud.

Land acquisition snags, private fund-raising shortfalls, and related problems long have plagued efforts to build the Flight 93 Memorial. But agreement finally has been reached between all parties on a deal that seems to clear the way for the project to move forward.

A key land acquisition has moved the National Park Service and the Flight 93 Advisory Commission and Task Force closer to their goal of completing the Flight 93 National Memorial in time for the tenth anniversary of the fatal flight.

The seventh anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has propelled Pennsylvania’s Flight 93 National Memorial into the national spotlight. This park is a work in progress. The temporary memorial that visitors see there now will be replaced with a permanent one of exceptional quality.