September Widows, Lost Warnings, and the Story of Flight 93: Remembering 9/11

From the Vanity Fair Archive: Six Stories Commemorating the Anniversary View in your browser | Update your preferences     A daily digest of things to discuss over drinks September 11, 2021 Revisit these stories of heartbreak and heroism from the Vanity Fair Archive on the 20th anniversary of September 11.   Manifest Courage: The Story of Flight 93 At around 7:20 a.m. on September 11, 33 ordinary people began boarding United Flight 93, a milk run from Newark to San Francisco: salesmen, students, executives, and retirees. Wives, husbands, and parents. By 10:06, when the plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field, they were destined to become symbols of extraordinary heroism. Drawing on cell phone conversations and interviews with aviation insiders, friends, and relatives, Bryan Burrough reconstructed that terrifying, tragic, and inspiring journey, from its humdrum start, through the awful realization that their plane was being used as a guided missile, to the decision to rush the hijackers—an act that has changed the way fliers see themselves. R E A D  M O R E »     The Man in the Window Mike Rambousek never got any physical remains of his son Luke, who died in the north tower on 9/11. But, as the author recounted in an excerpt from his book Watching the World Change, Mike did find a single, shocking photograph, which let him reconstruct Luke's death—and memorialize its brutality. R E A D  M O R E »     The Path to 9/11: Lost Warnings and Fatal Errors By the time the hijackers made their way into the U.S., memos, photographs, and intercepts had sounded alarms inside the CIA, White House, FBI, and European intelligence services. Could better cooperation have stopped the attacks? In 2004, Ned Zeman, David Wise, David Rose, and Bryan Burrough showed how the hideous "Planes Operation" took shape as the CIA's bin Laden point man, Mike Scheuer, counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, the FBI's John MacGaffin, and others fought—yet couldn't work together—to prevent it. R E A D  M O R E »     This Was New York The firefighters and police officers who risked everything; the rescue workers who came from hundreds of miles away; the families who grieve; the leaders who rallied a shell-shocked city; the vigil keepers whose candles lit the night: These are among the images that will endure. This is the New York—and the America—worth fighting for, one not of skyscrapers, but of people. R E A D  M O R E »     Of Fire and Men The men of Engine 40, Ladder 35, do what they do because they know—many from the examples of fathers and grandfathers—that being a firefighter is the best job in the world. The danger, the low pay, are nothing measured against the camaraderie, the unspoken code of excellence, and the sense of honor. Thirteen of those firefighters went out from their Upper West Side firehouse on the morning of September 11, twelve never to return. Talking to the survivors of that brotherhood, and to the wives and families of the dead, David Halberstam got an intimate, deeply moving testament to all they sacrificed. R E A D  M O R E »     September Widows The lush green commuter enclaves of the Middletown, New Jersey, area lost nearly 50 people, most of them husbands and fathers, in the World Trade Center attack. After that day the author followed three of the town's widows—Kristen Breitweiser, Lisa Luckett, and Pat Wotton—through an uncharted wilderness of grief. R E A D  M O R E » Get on the list Subscribe to our Hollywood newsletter for your essential industry and awards-season news, every day. Sign Up Now     This e-mail was sent to you by VANITY FAIR. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, vanityfair@newsletter.vf.com, to your address book. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.