"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll. ” "Are you ready? OK, let's go!"
These words are the last spoken by Todd Beamer since United Airlines flight 93, hijacked by four Islamist terrorists during the attacks of September 11, 2001. The last words of one of these heroes who tried to take control of the plane hijacked, knowing full well that the suicide bombers were planning to crash him into a key US building.
Thanks to them, the Capitol was saved, when the flight crashed in a field not far from Shanksville.
No one survived this crash.
Todd Beamer will unfortunately not have known his third child.
But no one will forget his name.
To help us, his widow, Lisa, donated a personal item recovered from the disaster scene to the September 11, 2001 memorial.
Something this 32-year-old executive from New Jersey wore on his wrist every day: his watch, a 41mm Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust.
A Swiss made timepiece which is usually used to celebrate good news, success, birth ...
National September 11 Memorial Museum
From now on, this Rolex is no longer a simple watch, but a symbol, that of courage in the face of terrorism.
It forever marks the moment when time stood still, for America, for the world, and for the passengers of Flight 93. Of course, it doesn't work anymore.
She was twisted by the shock of the crash, burned by the fire of the aircraft.
The glass is missing, her two-tone Jubilee bracelet is broken.
But we can still read on the dial of this gold watch 41 mm in diameter a date, a simple date: the 11.
National September 11 Memorial Museum
“Let's roll”
, said Todd Beamer.
Twenty years later, his watch, housed in the National September 11 Memorial Museum among thousands of other
“relics”
, makes his words still resonate, and helps us put a face to courage.