9/11 - The Todd Beamer Story "Let's Roll"

The incredible story of Todd Beamer’s call to 911 and the heroism on Flight 93.

Todd Morgan Beamer, 32, was aboard United Airlines Flight 93 when it was hijacked and crashed as part of the September 11 attacks in 2001. Beamer was one of the passengers who attempted to regain control of the aircraft from the hijackers. During the struggle, the Boeing 757 lost control and crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing everyone on board, but saving the hijackers’ intended target and additional victims.

Beamer was survived by his wife, Lisa, their sons, David and Andrew, who were three and one at the time of Beamer’s death, and their daughter Morgan who was born after Beamer’s death.

In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people on September 20, 2001, which Lisa Beamer attended, President Bush praised the courage of United 93’s passengers, naming Beamer in particular, whom he called “an exceptional man.” In a November 8 address from the World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Bush would invoke Beamer’s last-heard 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!” He would use them again in the 2002 State of the Union address: “For too long our culture has said, ‘If it feels good, do it.’ Now America is embracing a new ethic and a new creed: ‘Let’s roll.'”

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