SEN McCORMICK: The heroic passengers of Flight 93 showed America how to stand united

Twenty-five years ago, 40 men and women showed uncommon courage on Flight 93. Today, we honor their sacrifice and their example on a field of honor forever in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

On the morning of 9/11, I was in a skyscraper in Pittsburgh as the attacks unfolded. We knew another plane had been hijacked somewhere over Pennsylvania, but we did not know where it was or where it was headed. Then came the news from Shanksville — and, later, the story of what its passengers and crew had done.

Less than an hour after United Flight 93 left Newark, four al Qaeda terrorists seized the plane and forced the passengers and crew to the rear of the aircraft. 

Flight 93 was different from the other hijacked planes that morning because a ground delay gave its passengers time to learn of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. When the plane turned toward Washington, they knew that Flight 93 had become another weapon of terror.

9/11 IS BECOMING HISTORY. MY GENERATION MUST MAKE SURE AMERICA NEVER FORGETS

Through calls to loved ones and people on the ground, they learned what had happened in New York and at the Pentagon. They understood that the hijackers did not intend for them to survive and that countless more innocent lives were at stake.

C.S. Lewis wrote that courage is "the form of every virtue at the testing point." For the ordinary Americans aboard Flight 93, that testing point came without warning — and within minutes they responded in an extraordinary, distinctly American way.

They took a vote and made a plan. At 9:57 a.m., Todd Beamer, an account manager for Oracle, uttered the now-famous words, "Lets roll," and they charged the cockpit and the knife-wielding jihadis. For six minutes, they fought to retake the plane. At 10:03, the plane flipped upside down and plowed into a farmers field near Shanksville. Their sacrifice denied the terrorists their target.

Twenty-five years later, their example offers lessons not only about who we were then, but also who we must continue to be.

9/11 TAUGHT US DEADLY LESSONS. 25 YEARS LATER, WE NEED A NEW MODEL TO PREVENT ATTACKS

We must remain vigilant in the face of evil. At home, that means rejecting the poisonous idea, voiced by Hasan Piker, that America "deserved 9/11." Abroad, it means taking seriously enemies who chant "Death to America" and mean it. We Americans do not go looking for a fight; but when called upon, we show the strength and courage that should make our enemies think twice. Even now, the men and women of the United States military are reminding the world that threats against America have consequences.

Vigilance must be backed by strength. When the time to act arrives, the time to prepare has passed. The passengers and crew of Flight 93 had only minutes and whatever strength they could summon. Today, advances in AI, robotics and other technologies are transforming both the threats we face and the tools we have to defeat them. America needs the strongest military in the world, equipped with the best technology and ready to give those who serve every advantage when called to fight.

Yet because evil is real, we must not blur the distinction between genuine evil and ordinary political disagreement. In those decisive minutes aboard Flight 93, no one asked who was a Republican or Democrat, where anyone came from or how anyon