TODD MORGAN BEAMER 1968 – 2001 American Superhero
Todd Morgan Beamer (24 Nov. 1968-11 Sept. 2001), passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 93, was born in Flushing, Michigan, a small town northwest of Flint, the son of David Beamer, a sales representative for IBM, and Peggy Jackson Beamer, a muralist. Todd and his two sisters, Melissa and Michele, were raised “with a strong biblical value system and work ethic” (Let’s Roll, p. 16). The family relocated to Poughkeepsie, New York, and then to Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago, where David worked at Amdahl, a computer technology company.
Todd attended Wheaton Christian Grammar School, where he played baseball, basketball, and soccer. Todd moved on to Wheaton Christian High School, becoming class vice president in his junior year. He spent his senior year at Los Gatos High School, just south of San Jose, California, when his father was promoted to vice president of Amdahl’s California headquarters. Beamer attended Fresno State University, where he majored in physical therapy and participated in the school’s baseball program, but injuries suffered in an automobile accident ended his hopes of playing on Fresno’s Division I baseball team.
Beamer transferred to Wheaton College, one of the nation’s leading Christian liberal arts schools, where he first majored in medicine before settling on business. At Wheaton, Beamer played baseball and as a senior became captain of the basketball team. After graduating, Beamer worked for Wilson Sporting Goods and studied nights, earning an M.B.A. from Chicago’s DePaul University in June 1993. He married Lisa Brosious on 14 May 1994 in Peekskill, New York. The couple had three children.
Todd and Lisa moved to Plainsboro, New Jersey, where Todd went to work as a field marketing representative for Oracle Corporation, a computer software company. Months later, he was promoted to account manager. Todd and Lisa formed a tight circle of friends through the Princeton Alliance Church and worked in youth ministry. At that time, Todd wrote a list of what he wanted to accomplish in his life, which included “controlling my destiny and environment” by “flying below the radar screen” in order to “arrive at the road’s end with satisfaction” (Let’s Roll, pp. 100-102). In 2000 the Beamers moved into their dream house, in Cranbury, New Jersey. In June 2001 the couple learned that their third child was due in January of the following year. That September they celebrated with a week in Rome with other Oracle families. They returned home mid-afternoon on 10 September 2001.
An Early Flight
Todd Beamer awakened at 5:45 the next morning. He was scheduled to take an early flight out of Newark to make a 1:00 P.M. meeting with representatives of the Sony Corporation in San Francisco. United Flight 93 was scheduled to depart at 8:00 A.M., but the Boeing 757 didn’t take off until forty-two minutes later because of runway traffic delays. There were seven crew members, five flight attendants, and thirty-seven passengers on the plane, including four Middle Eastern men. Just six minutes later, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower. On the clear day the smoke could be seen from the cockpit of Flight 93. Fifteen minutes later, at 9:03 A.M., as United Flight 175 blasted into the South Tower, Beamer’s flight was climbing to cruising altitude, heading west over New Jersey and into Pennsylvania.
At 9:25 A.M., Flight 93 was above eastern Ohio, and its pilot questioned Cleveland controllers about an alert that had been flashed on his cockpit computer screen to “beware of cockpit intrusion.” Three minutes later, Cleveland controllers could hear screams over the cockpit’s open mike. Moments later, hijackers, led by twenty-seven-year-old Ziad Samir Jarrah, a Lebanese man with a pilot’s license, took over the plane’s controls, disengaged the autopilot, and told passengers in heavily accented English, “Keep remaining sitting. We have a bomb board” (Vulliamy, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/dec/02/september11.terrorism1). Beamer and the other passengers were herded into the back of the plane. Several made phone calls. Passengers were told by loved ones that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center. At 9:45 A.M., FBI agents listened in as Beamer told the GTE Airfone supervisor Lisa Jefferson that hijackers had taken over his plane. Two had knives, and one appeared to have a bomb strapped around his waist. The curtain between first class and second class had been drawn. Beamer could see two people on the floor; a flight attendant had told him they were dead.
“Let’s Roll”
At first Beamer had thought to call his wife but didn’t want to worry her. He asked Jefferson if she knew what the hijackers wanted. She didn’t. “We’re going down! We’re going down!” Beamer exclaimed over the phone (Alderson and Bisset, “The Extraordinary Last Calls of Flight UA93″). The hijackers were veering the plane sharply south. Along with the passengers Tom Burnett, Jeremy Glick, Mark Bingham, Lou Nacke, Rich Guadagno, Alan Beaven, Honor Elizabeth Wainio, Linda Gronlund, and William Cashman and the flight attendants Sandra Bradshaw and Cee Cee Ross-Lyles, Beamer plotted what to do. A vote was taken. Passengers planned to storm the cockpit and take over the plane. Beamer said the Lord’s Prayer over the phone with Jefferson and told her, “If I don’t make it, please call my family and let them know how much I love them.” Jefferson could hear muffled voices and Beamer’s voice clearly answering, “Are you ready? Okay. Let’s roll!” (Breslau, “The Final Moments of Flight 93″).
When the voice data recorder aboard Flight 93 was recovered and published in the 9/11 Commission Report, it revealed pounding and crashing sounds against the cockpit door and shouts and screams in English. “Let’s get them!” a passenger cries. A hijacker shouts, “Allah akbar!” (God is great). Jarrah repeatedly pitched the plane to knock passengers off their feet. But voices in English are heard shouting, “In the cockpit. If we don’t, we’ll die.” At 10:02 A.M., a hijacker orders, “Pull it down! Pull it down!” The 9/11 Commission later reported that the control wheel of Flight 93 was turned hard to the right. The airplane rolled on its back and plowed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 580 miles an hour. The plane was was twenty minutes’ flying time from its suspected target, the White House or the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Vice President Dick Cheney told reporters that he had no doubt the passengers on Flight 93 had helped prevent an attack on Washington. Cheney acknowledged that President George W. Bush had given the order to fire on Flight 93 if it had continued its flight path to Washington.
Courage Lauded
In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people on 20 September 2001, with Lisa Beamer present, President Bush declared that freedom was at war with fear and praised “the courage of passengers, who rushed terrorists to save others on the ground–passengers like an exceptional man named Todd Beamer.” In an 8 November address from the World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Bush repeated Beamer’s now famous words, saying, “Some of our greatest moments have been acts of courage for which no one could have been prepared. But we have our marching orders. My fellow Americans, let’s roll!”
When she gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Morgan Kay Beamer, on 11 January 2002, Lisa Beamer was known nationally as the widow of an American hero. She cowrote a best-selling book on her life with Todd Beamer and the aftermath of his death with Ken Abraham, titled Let’s Roll! Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage (2002). The book’s royalties went to establish the nonprofit Todd M. Beamer Foundation, to counsel children who have experienced trauma. A post office in Cranbury, New Jersey; a neighborhood park in Fresno; a high school in Federal Way, Washington; and a student center at Wheaton College were named in Beamer’s honor. And for years afterward, movies, T-shirts, television shows, and speeches remembered Beamer’s words as an affirmation of American grit and determination in the face of daunting challenge.
[via: American National Biography]
WILLIAM LOREN MCGONAGLE 1925 – 1999 American Superhero
Citation
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sailing in international waters, the Liberty was attacked without warning by jet fighter aircraft and motor torpedo boats which inflicted many casualties among the crew and caused extreme damage to the ship. Although severely wounded during the first air attack, Capt. McGonagle remained at his battle station on the badly damaged bridge and, with full knowledge of the seriousness of his wounds, subordinated his own welfare to the safety and survival of his command. Steadfastly refusing any treatment which would take him away from his post, he calmly continued to exercise firm command of his ship. Despite continuous exposure to fire, he maneuvered his ship, directed its defense, supervised the control of flooding and fire, and saw to the care of the casualties. Capt. McGonagle’s extraordinary valor under these conditions inspired the surviving members of the Liberty’s crew, many of them seriously wounded, to heroic efforts to overcome the battle damage and keep the ship afloat. Subsequent to the attack, although in great pain and weak from the loss of blood, Captain McGonagle remained at his battle station and continued to command his ship for more than 17 hours. It was only after rendezvous with a U.S. destroyer that he relinquished personal control of the Liberty and permitted himself to be removed from the bridge. Even then, he refused much needed medical attention until convinced that the seriously wounded among his crew had been treated. Capt. McGonagle’s superb professionalism, courageous fighting spirit, and valiant leadership saved his ship and many lives. His actions sustain and enhance the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. (Captain McGonagle earned the Medal of Honor for actions that took place in international waters in the Eastern Mediterranean rather than in Vietnam.)
Captain William L. McGonagle, USN, 1925-1999
William Loren McGonagle was born in Wichita, Kansas, on 19 November 1925 and attended secondary school and college in California. He was active in the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps and was commissioned in the rank of Ensign upon graduation from the University of Southern California in June 1947. After service in the destroyer Frank Knox and minesweeper Partridge during 1947-50, he served in the minesweeper Kite during the extensive Korean War minesweeping operations that earned her a Presidential Unit Citation. From 1951 to 1966, he was assigned to various positions ashore and afloat, including command of the fleet tug Mataco in 1957-58 and the salvage ship Reclaimer in 1961-63.
In April 1966, Commander McGonagle became Commanding Officer of the technical research ship Liberty, taking her on a number of communications and electronic emissions monitoring missions during the next year. On 8 June 1967, while carrying out her important function off the Sinai Peninsula during the war between Israel and Egypt, Liberty was attacked and severely damaged by Israeli aircraft and motor torpedo boats. For his heroism on that occasion, Commander McGonagle was awarded the Medal of Honor and his ship received the Presidential Unit Citation.
After promotion to the rank of Captain in October 1967, McGonagle commanded the new ammunition ship Kilauea and led the NROTC Unit at the University of Oklahoma. He retired from active duty in 1974. Captain William L. McGonagle died at Palm Springs, California, on 3 March 1999.
[via: navy.mil]
AUDIE LEON MURPHY 1924 – 1971 American Superhero
Citation
2d Lt. Murphy commanded Company B, which was attacked by 6 tanks and waves of infantry. 2d Lt. Murphy ordered his men to withdraw to prepared positions in a woods, while he remained forward at his command post and continued to give fire directions to the artillery by telephone. Behind him, to his right, 1 of our tank destroyers received a direct hit and began to burn. Its crew withdrew to the woods. 2d Lt. Murphy continued to direct artillery fire which killed large numbers of the advancing enemy infantry. With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, 2d Lt. Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machinegun against the enemy. He was alone and exposed to German fire from 3 sides, but his deadly fire killed dozens of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back. For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate 2d Lt. Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad which was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued the single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. 2d Lt. Murphy’s indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy’s objective.
Audie Leon Murphy, son of poor Texas sharecroppers, rose to national fame as the most decorated U.S. combat soldier of World War II. Among his 33 awards and decorations was the Medal of Honor, the highest military award for bravery that can be given to any individual in the United States of America, for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.” He also received every decoration for valor that his country had to offer, some of them more than once, including 5 decorations by France and Belgium. Credited with either killing over 240 of the enemy while wounding and capturing many others, he became a legend within the 3rd Infantry Division. Beginning his service as an Army Private, Audie quickly rose to the enlisted rank of Staff Sergeant, was given a “battle field” commission as 2nd Lieutenant, was wounded three times, fought in 9 major campaigns across the European Theater, and survived the war.
During Murphy’s 3 years active service as a combat soldier in World War II, Audie became one of the best fighting combat soldiers of this or any other century. What Audie accomplished during this period is most significant and probably will never be repeated by another soldier, given today’s high-tech type of warfare. The U.S. Army has always declared that there will never be another Audie Murphy.
On 21 September, 1945, Audie was released from the Army as an active member and reassigned to inactive status. During this same time, actor James Cagney invited Murphy to Hollywood in September 1945, when he saw Murphy’s photo on the cover of Life Magazine. The next couple of years in California were hard times for Audie Murphy. Struggling and becoming disillusioned from lack of work while sleeping in a local gymnasium, he finally received token acting parts in his first two films.
His first starring role came in a 1949 released film by Allied Artists called, Bad Boy. In 1950 Murphy eventually got a contract with Universal-International (later called Universal) where he starred in 26 films, 23 of them westerns over the next 15 years. His 1949 autobiography To Hell And Back was a best seller. Murphy starred as himself in a film biography released by Universal-International in 1955 with the same title. The movie, To Hell and Back, held the record as Universal’s highest grossing picture until 1975 when it was finally surpassed by the movie Jaws. In the mid-60s the studios switched from contract players to hiring actors on a picture-by-picture basis. Consequently, when his contract expired in 1965 Universal did not renew. This gave him the opportunity to work with other studios and independent film producers. In the 25 years that Audie spent in Hollywood, he made a total of 44 feature films.
Despite his success in Hollywood, Audie never forgot his rural Texas roots. He returned frequently to the Dallas area where he owned a small ranch for a while. He also had ranches in Perris, California and near Tucson, Arizona. He was a successful Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racehorse owner and breeder, having interests in such great horses as “Depth Charge.” His films earned him close to 3 million dollars in 23 years as an actor. Audie loved to gamble, and he bet on horses and different sporting events. He was also a great poker player. In his role as a prodigious gambler, he won and lost fortunes.
Audie Murphy wrote some poetry and was quite successful as a songwriter. He usually teamed up with talented artists and composers such as Guy Mitchell, Jimmy Bryant, Scott Turner, Coy Ziegler, or Terri Eddleman. Dozens of Audie Murphy’s songs were recorded and released by such great performers as Dean Martin, Eddy Arnold, Charley Pride, Jimmy Bryant, Porter Waggoner, Jerry Wallace, Roy Clark, Harry Nilsson and many, many others. His two biggest hits were Shutters and Boards and When the Wind Blows in Chicago. Eddy Arnold recorded When the Wind Blows in Chicago for his 1993 album Last of the Love Song Singers which is currently in release by RCA.
Audie sufferred from what is now known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)and was plagued by insomnia and depression. During the mid-60′s he became dependent for a time on doctor prescribed sleeping pills called Placidyl. When he recognized that he had become addicted to this prescription drug, he locked himself in a motel room, stopped taking the sleeping pills and went through withdrawal symptoms for a week. Always an advocate for the needs of veterans, he broke the taboo about discussing war related mental problems after this experience. In a effort to draw attention to the problems of returning Korean and Vietnam War veterans, Audie Murphy spoke-out candidly about his personal problems with PTSD, then known as “Battle Fatigue”. He publicly called for United States government to give more consideration and study to the emotional impact war has on veterans and to extend health care benefits to address PTSD and other mental health problems of returning war vets.
While on a business trip on May 28, 1971, (Memorial Day Weekend) he was killed at the age of 46. A private plane flying in fog and rain crashed in the side of a mountain near Roanoke, Virginia. Five others including the pilot were also killed. Although Audie owned and flew his own plane earlier in his career at Hollywood, he was among the passengers that tragic day.
On June 7th, Audie Murphy was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. His gravesite, near the Amphitheater, is second most visited gravesite year round. President Kennedy’s grave is the most visited.
In 1996 the Texas Legislature officially designated his birthday, June 20th, as Audie Murphy Day. On June 9, 1999 Governor George W. Bush, Texas made a similar proclation declaring June 20th to officially be Audie Murphy Day in the state of Texas.
[via audiemurphy.com]