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You probably won’t recognize the name Todd Beamer even though you know just about every detail of his story.
Beamer was born in Michigan, but somehow wound up becoming a fan of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Unfortunately, that’s not the worst part of this story….
Todd and his two sisters were raised in a home marked by a “strong biblical value system and work ethic.” In fact, much of his public education was in private Christian schools, and after a stint in California, Beamer returned to Chicago to complete his education at Wheaton College, one of our nation’s most revered training grounds for the Gospel. While there, he played baseball, majored in business, and met Lisa Brosious, the woman who’d eventually become his wife.
Following marriage, the two relocated to New Jersey where Beamer took a job with a software firm and began to climb the corporate ladder. For the next six years, Todd and Lisa taught Sunday School at Princeton Alliance Church, worked in the youth ministry, played on the church’s softball team, and had two sons.
Beamer’s work required him to travel several times each month. In the fall of 2001, he earned a five-day trip to Italy with Lisa for being his company’s top salesman. The two of them returned home to the US on September the 10th, and after some debate about whether he should just fly on to California for a business meeting the next day, Beamer opted to go home to see the boys and be with Lisa who was pregnant with their third child due in January. He would simply take the early flight the following morning.
That fateful flight has been forever etched into our memory as United Flight 93. Experiencing significant delays on the tarmac, Flight 93 was still on the ground when American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower. 17 minutes later, as Beamer’s plane was climbing to cruising altitude, United Flight 175 hit the South Tower.
At 9:25pm, Flight 93 was over eastern Ohio when the captain radioed Cleveland to inquire about a warning that had flashed across his screen reading “beware of cockpit intrusion.” Three minutes later, Cleveland controllers heard the ruckus and screams as radical Islamic terrorists seized control of the aircraft. After killing one passenger and threatening the others with a bomb, the flight crew and passengers were shuffled into the rear of the plane. Soon thereafter, the craft changed course and headed for D.C.
Mid-flight phone calls began to be made allowing passengers to learn of the two previous hijackings that morning. Beamer tried to reach his wife, Lisa, but was rerouted to a GTE supervisor named Lisa Jefferson. He told Jefferson what had taken place on board, and with FBI agents listening in on the call, informed those on the ground that he and several other brave men and women had formed a plan to take back the plane.
As Lisa Jefferson listened in, Todd Beamer, just a regular Christian guy, recited the Lord’s Prayer and the 23rd Psalm to bolster the hope of his fellow passengers. He then made one simple request of the woman on the other end of the line. “If I don’t make it, please call my family and let them know how much I love them.”
As he dropped the phone, Jefferson could clearly hear Beamer say, “Are you ready? Okay. Let’s roll.”
You know how that story ends: about 30 minutes later in a field near Shanksville, PA. The plane slammed into the ground at 580 miles per hour instantly killing everyone on board. But unlike the other three plans taken captive that day, this one wouldn’t be used to kill anyone else.
