The 9/11 memorial at the Texas State Cemetery features two steel columns from Ground Zero. Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers. Two other planes were hijacked on that fateful day. KVUE spoke to three people who were directly impacted by those two flights.
Pilot Jason Dahl wasn't even supposed to be on United Airlines flight 93. But he requested it because, according to his sister-in-law Deborah Dahl, "he was going to take his mother to lunch."
Jason Dahl's mother lived in California, but his plane went down in Pennsylvania. Flight 93 was the fourth plane to be hijacked on 9/11. Sunday night's news that Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the attacks, had been killed was met with tempered exuberance by Dahl's brother Lowell and his sister-in-law Deborah.
"I've been weepy all morning," she said. "It's not grief like it was, but the tenderness and memories of Jason."
"It's not real closure," said Lowell Dahl. "Now, we have taken an individual off the streets that can't harm anybody else, but the network is still out there that we have to be concerned about."
At the state legislature Monday, after a standing ovation, State Senator Brian Birdwell, (R) Granbury, was asked to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Birdwell was working in the Pentagon in 2001 when a hijacked plane struck the building. His body was burned so badly that as others tried to get him out, they actually pulled skin off his hands and arms. He reacted Monday to the death of the man who ultimately caused Birdwell to endure 30 surgeries and numerous skin grafts.
"Scripture tells us to love your enemies," said Birdwell. "That is an exceedingly difficult standard to live up to that the Lord gave us. Any attempt to try to love your enemy does not assuage the requirement for justice."
Senator Birdwell echoed what Lowell Dahl said, that Al Qaeda is still out there and America must remain on guard.
