#TODD BEAMER RECORDING PROFESSIONAL#

Good and evil are unfashionable terms in modern news reporting, but it’s hard to conceive of a darker deed than mass murder, and it’s hard to conceive of a greater deed than trying to prevent mass murder taking place. ‘Let’s roll,’ became a clarion call, a cri de coeur, a declaration that America was undefeated, that its values endured. However, in this instance, there’s more to it than that. Why is Todd’s story so important? And why should we remember it today? Well, for the same reason we remember any heroic deed, to ensure that those who gave their lives to save others aren’t forgotten. After Todd’s death his good friend Doug Macmillan gave up his job to run the Todd Beamer Foundation, which supports children whose parents perished on Flight UA93. Todd could have flown straight on to San Francisco, but he wanted to spend the evening with his young family. The day before 9/11, Todd and his wife Lisa had just returned from a trip to Italy, awarded to him by his company to reward his prowess as a salesman. Todd played for his church softball team.

#TODD BEAMER RECORDING PROFESSIONAL#

A talented sportsman, his hopes of playing professional baseball were curtailed by a car accident.

He attended Wheaton Academy, a Christian high school, and Wheaton College, a liberal arts college. He was raised to respect hard work and the Bible. He had an elder sister and a younger sister. Todd Beamer was born in Flint, Michigan, in 1968. Four months later, on 9 January 2002, Todd’s widow, Lisa Brosious, gave birth to a healthy baby girl. It crashed in an empty field in Pennsylvania. Thanks to them, Flight UA93 never reached Washington, and its intended target: either the White House or the US Capitol (though Vice President Dick Cheney had given orders that the plane should be shot down). Todd and his fellow passengers must have known their chances of success were miniscule, but they preferred doing something to doing nothing. The last thing she heard him say was, ‘Are you ready? OK, let’s roll.’ ‘If I don’t make it, please call my family and let them know how much I love them,’ he told Lisa. Todd and a group of fellow passengers (and several flight attendants) held a council of war, and took a vote, and resolved to storm the cockpit (even faced with almost certain death, American democracy prevailed). Todd remained remarkably calm, though his voice rose a little when the plane went into a dive. They recited Psalm 23 (‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil’). Todd and Lisa recited the Lord’s Prayer together. Their 13-minute conversation is a precious record of an extraordinary act of heroism, a testament to the bravery and humanity that survived that awful day. The supervisor’s name was Lisa Jefferson (Todd was struck by the strange coincidence that she shared his wife’s name). Todd Beamer tried to make a credit card call and ended up talking to a call center supervisor for the firm who handled United Airlines’ in-flight phone service. It quickly became clear to Todd, and everyone else onboard, that theirs was the fourth plane. Some passengers managed to make phone calls to friends and family, and news soon spread around the cabin that two planes had crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York – and that a third plane had crashed into the Pentagon. This was just another working day.įorty-six minutes after take-off, terrorists stormed the cockpit, seized the controls, and announced, ‘We have a bomb onboard.’ The plane changed course for Washington DC. Todd worked for a computer company, selling software. He was due to fly back that night, to rejoin his pregnant wife, Lisa, and their two young sons, Drew and David. Twenty years ago today, on the morning of 11 September 2001, 32-year-old Todd Beamer boarded a United Airlines flight at Newark, New Jersey, bound for a business meeting in San Francisco.

Todd beamer recording