FLIGHT 93 FALLEN HEROES OF 9/11 MEDAL DESIGNS

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V17 2014 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 17, Number 21, May 18, 2014, Article 20

Over the Easter holiday family members visited from Pittsburgh and one afternoon some of us went to the Pentagon 911 Memorial. I'd recommend it to anyone visiting the Washington, D.C. area. It's somber, well-executed and very appropriate memorial to the victims of American Airlines Flight 77 during the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Memorial was dedicated and opened to the public on September 11, 2008. From Wikipedia:

To honor the 184 victims, 184 illuminated benches have been arranged according to the victim's ages, starting with Dana Falkenberg, 3, to John Yamnicky Sr., 71, in a landscaped 1.93-acre (7,800 m2) plot. Each bench is engraved with the name of a victim. The benches representing the victims that were inside the Pentagon are arranged so those reading the names will face the Pentagon's south facade, where the plane hit; benches dedicated to victims aboard the plane are arranged so that those reading the engraved name will be facing skyward along the path the plane traveled. If more than one member of a family died during the attack, family names are listed in the reflecting pool under the bench, in addition to the separate benches that have been created for each individual.

Last Thursday, on my drive to Pittsburgh to help with the John Burns estate, I passed signs for the Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville, PA, honoring the 40 passengers and crew aboard the plane who resisted the hijacking and thwarted an attack on the U.S. Capitol. I've always wanted to take my family there and probably still will someday.

Like most of us who were adults on that day, it's an event we'll never forget. I was working on the 31st floor of the U.S. Steel building in Pittsburgh when a co-worker summoned me to a TV screen after the first plane hit the World Trade Center. When the second tower was hit, a lyric from Talking Heads popped into my brain - "heard about Houston, heard about Detroit, heard about Pittsburgh PA." It was Life During Wartime.

After gathering my wits I gathered my things and began to leave. Another co-worker asked if I heard we were being told to go home. Although I hadn't said it, I was thinking that as the tallest building between New York and Chicago, we could well be a secondary target, if not a primary one. For all we knew, another hijacked plane could be going past Pittsburgh right then. I didn't need to be told.

As it turned out, Flight 93 had been turned around and flown right past downtown Pittsburgh. I later learned that a jet had been scrambled with orders to halt the flight at all costs. The jet was armed with blanks for a training run, meaning the pilot and her copilot were on a suicide mission. They didn't make it in time and lived to tell the tale, but the passengers carried out the mission for them. While we will never know how the events unfolded, the plane never made it to its target. I stepped into a bar on the way back to my car and watched images of the flaming wreck of Flight 93 on that field in Shanksville, PA.

I knew about the U.S. Mint medal used to help fund the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum near the former World Trade Center site in New York. But I wondered if there would be separate medals for the four aircraft. Had I been following recent numismatic legislation I would have known such medals were in the pipeline. [So that's why you all should read Coin World and the great work of the writers there who follow this beat for a living.]

So what do you know - this week my inbox began filling up with emails from the U.S. Mint with candidate designs for the "Fallen Heroes of 9/11" Congressional Gold medals. The first set were designs for Flight 93. Here are a few I'd like to share.

I hate to say this, but the walkway and rock could be seen as a phallic image. I don’t think it works. And the design on the right I don't get. I get that there are 40 compartment around the edge, one for each of the victims. But it's so plain it feels like there's no there there.

Both of these made me choke up, but the one on the left is too wordy for my taste. The one on the right is absolutely gorgeous and somber at the same time. I've never seen an image of an angel in flight like this, and to me it symbolizes the goodness and resolve of the doomed passengers, Hands down, this is my favorite. Wow.