It was supposed to be a one-day trip. He would take the early flight from Newark to San Francisco, attend his meeting, and fly back that night.

But Todd Beamer ’87 never made it back to his wife, Lisa, their two young sons, David and Drew, and their unborn child.

He never even made it to California.

It was September 11, 2001.

And Todd Beamer was on United Flight 93.

Delayed more than 40 minutes on the runway, Flight 93 took off only four minutes before an American Airlines Boeing 767 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center (WTC). The pilots of Flight 93 were informed of the crash and the two that followed only moments before four hijackers on their flight took over the cockpit and cabin. Passengers and flight attendants huddling in the rear of the plane used in-flight phones to contact their loved ones and officials on the ground.Todd, trying to call his wife Lisa on one of the plane’s phones, was routed to customer service, and he spoke with GTE supervisor Lisa Jefferson. “He was calm through the entire conversation,” said Jefferson, “and I tried to stay just as calm with him.” Todd told Jefferson about the hijacking he asked her to tell his wife he loved her and their family they prayed the Lord’s Prayer together.

For thirteen minutes, the line stayed open. Jefferson overheard Todd and fellow passengers planning to confront the hijackers. They understood their plane was probably going to be used, like the other three, to carry out another attack, and they wanted to prevent that. The last words she heard Todd say were,

“Are you guys ready? LET'S ROLL”

Todd’s dad David sees the Lord’s hand in the delay of Flight 93, which allowed the passengers to know the full extent of the danger they were in and to take action based on this knowledge. Todd’s “Let’s roll” became the motto of our country’s counterattack.

But David Beamer stresses that “Let’s roll” is more than simply a motto. It is a call to action: to do the right thing at the right time.