Dr. Alan Marshall is pictured above.
Dr.
Alan Marshall, Col, USAF (Ret.), of Pinehurst, N.C., spoke at the 9/11 Memorial Service held on Sunday, September 11, 2016, at The Village Chapel in Pinehurst, N.C. Here is the written version of the 911 Memorial Observance speech he delivered.
Good
evening and thank you for coming out on this solemn occasion.
My
name is Dr. Alan Marshall and I’m the Head of School at Sandhills Classical
Christian School. I am also a veteran and a retired U-2 pilot. I served as the
squadron commander for the U-2 squadron that supported combat operations in
both Iraq and Afghanistan. I later served as the Chief of Operations for the Studies
and Analysis Division of the Joint Center for Operational Analysis. During that
assignment, I conducted intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance studies
on the ground in Iraq, and also served as the Branch Chief for the study of the
Global War on Terrorism. At one time in my career, I also served as an
Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the United States Air Force Academy, thus
my interest in education.
As
a U-2 pilot, I flew the single pilot, single engine, history-making aircraft,
above 70,000 feet, wearing a space suit, with my knees touching the dash, my
elbows touching the sides of the cockpit, and my helmet touching the canopy. A
U-2 pilot can be in the cockpit for upwards of 12 hours, flying over places
like Iraq and other hostile areas, so you could say that the job is not for
meek, nor the claustrophobic. In my Studies and Analysis position, I traveled
around Iraq in the back of a helicopter like many other Iraq veterans. However,
I guess you could say that I was one of the few folks that spent time flying at
both 70,000 feet and at 70 feet over Iraq.
With all that said,
September 11, 2001 has been in the forefront of my mind ever since
that horrible day 15 years ago. Nearly [four] years later, I sent one of my
pilots and friends out on a U-2 combat mission over Afghanistan. During that
mission, while engaging in the fight against the people responsible for
knocking down the Twin Towers, that pilot, Major Duane Dively, was killed in a
crash. He was a great American and you can read about him and that fateful day
in an article I wrote entitled “The Glove.” Just Google that title and "Duane
Dively" and you’ll find it. Meanwhile, I want you to know that there has hardly been
a day since the day he died, that I have not thought about Major Duane
Dively.
September
11th also reminds me of another aircraft flight, United Flight 93. One
of my Air Force Academy classmates, Leroy Homer, Class of 1987, was the First
Officer on that flight. On September 11, 2001, United Flight 93 was
the fourth hijacked airliner, and the hijackers had destined the flight for crashing
into either the White House or the Capital building. You may have heard
recordings of Leroy’s voice declaring “Mayday” as the hijackers took over the
cockpit. Shortly after the hijacking, passengers of Flight 93 started calling
loved ones on their cell phones and they were told the news that the hijackers
had no intention of landing the plane as they were proclaiming. They were going
to use the aircraft as a guided missile to murder more Americans at a famous
landmark. At that point, the passengers, our countrymen, established a model for
how Americans are to deal with crises.
The
first thing the passengers of Flight 93 did was to assess their situation, as
it was, not how they wished it to be. Relying on hope could have led them to
passively go along and get along with the hijackers until their fate was
sealed, But they would not. They assessed the situation and then took the next
step, they voted. The passengers of Flight 93 actually took a vote and voted to
fight. Only Americans would have taken the time for this step. It’s in our DNA.
It is our birthright, and even at a time of immense stress, the Americans on
Flight 93 stopped and voted. And once they voted, they then made a plan. They
formulated a plan to overcome the hijackers, break into the cockpit, and retake
control of the aircraft. The flight attendants would boil water to throw on the
hijackers. All able bodied passengers planned to rush the knife-wielding hijackers
guarding the cockpit door; several of the strong men planned to use the
beverage carts to bash the cockpit door down, and no doubt the plan included
having passenger Donald Green, a licensed pilot, fly the plane once they
regained control of the aircraft from the hijackers. And then, the Americans
acted.
The
planned attack started at 0957 a.m. and continued non-stop until the aircraft
impacted the ground six minutes later. The hijackers must have been surprised
at what came at them. They had not counted on encountering the leadership of 38-year-old Tom Burnett who first figured out that the hijackers were on a suicide
mission, or 31-year-old Mark Bingham who was a former national rugby champion
from Cal-Berkeley, or William Cashman who was a former paratrooper with the 101st
airborne, or 31-year-old Jeremy Glick who was a former national collegiate Judo
champion, or 38-year-old Richard Gaudagno who was a Federal law enforcement
officer, or 20-year-old Toshiya Kuge who was a linebacker for the Waseda
University football team, or Louis Nacke who was an avid weight lifter, or 33-year-old CeeCee Lyles who was a former Ft. Pierce, Florida police officer.
Tooth and nail, blood and violence, and hand-to-hand fighting to the death; the
hijackers must have been stunned. The War on Terror had begun, and yes it still
is a War with Terrorism. The passengers of Flight 93 showed us the way. They
assessed, voted, planned, and acted. This is our guide, and like the call to
“Remember the Alamo,” we must follow their lead.
Like the Flight 93 passengers, we must assess
our situation. Our country is in deep trouble. I won’t go into all the details,
but I know that we are in trouble, and most of you know it too. We are divided,
our enemies are on the march, and we have problems. We must realize that one of
our biggest problems is that we have a strategic blind-spot when it comes to
religion. In America, religion is a thing that you just can’t talk about.
However, in the rest of the world, religion is the thing that everyone talks
about. In my role as the Chief of Operations for the Studies and Analysis
Division at the Joint Center for Operational Analysis, I led a study of U.S.
humanitarian operations in a third world country. From the data in our study, I
came to believe that religion had a significant effect on the behavior of the
local population. My team also came to believe that the U.S. had a strategic
blind-spot when it came to religion and that we were missing important signals
and leverage points because of this blind spot. When I presented the findings
of the study to organizational leaders, I had a senior military officer pull me
aside after the brief and tell me that I could not talk about religion like
that in an official government study. I responded to him by saying “Ta-Da.” You
should have seen his eyes at that point!
We
think that we win points for avoiding religion and denying our Judeo-Christian
Western heritage. The truth is that we loose the respect of both friends and
enemies because we don’t stand for anything. Many of them simply view us as
infidels. To properly assess the world as it is, we must acknowledge that we are
at war, and, for our enemy, this is a war about religion. We are a Christian
nation, but we are not at war with Islam. However, as a free people, Radical
Islam is at war with us. You see, at its essence, this is about our freedom to
worship the Son of the living God. Osama Bin Laden said that his forces would
win against America because, quote: “We love death, and the U.S. loves life.” He
was right about their love of death, and our love of life. We love life because
we love the giver of life, Jesus Christ. However, it remains to be seen who
will win this war.
Next, after we assess, we must vote. If you are
discouraged with the state of politics in our country, or the options that face
you in the ballot box, just remember the options the passengers of United Flight
93 had before them. I’m sure that none of their options sounded very appealing
to them. But they voted anyway. Don’t give away your American birthright.
Remember, that men like my friend Major Duane Dively gave their life so that
you could get up on 8 November, lace up your shoes, walk into a booth, and
vote. If you are Christian, vote your Christian values.
Like the Flight 93 passengers, after we assess
and vote, we must plan. General Eisenhower said that “the plan was nothing, but
planning was everything.” Once we vote this November, we must come together and
plan how we are going to move forward. For one thing, someone is going to have
to defeat ISIS. As long as ISIS holds and controls territory, they will
continue to gain credibility, their sympathizers will commit atrocities, and
Radical Islam will continue its march. We must do what it takes to win. If it
takes planes in the air, so be it. If it takes ships at sea,
then so be it. If it takes boots on the ground, then so be it. But it will all have
to start with a plan to win, not contain, not to disrupt, not to appease, but
to win.
Once we assess, we vote, and we plan, then we
must then act. Just like the passengers on Flight 93, we must act to save our
lives, the lives of our countrymen, and our way of life. We must not be afraid
to stand up for the values and traditions that have made our country great. As
Christians, we must not be ashamed of the gospel, and we must not be afraid to
be politically incorrect. One of the best descriptions of religion is that it
is “the process of asking the important questions of life, and then living by
the answers.” We must act if we want to maintain the right to live by the
answers that Christianity provides. If we fail to act, we will lose our
freedoms. Our children will not live free, and they will be faced with more and
more challenges, with fewer and fewer acceptable options.
Finally, I must say that there is one more
thing that the passengers on Flight 93 did that I have not mentioned. In
addition to assessing, voting, planning, and acting, they prayed. Before passenger
Todd Beamer uttered his famous words of “Let’s Roll,” which initiated the passenger’s
attack against the hijackers, he prayed on his phone with the telephone
operator. Fellow passengers joined in. They prayed the Lord’s Prayer. It was a
defining moment and is rarely discussed in the media. It was a statement that said
that when the chips were down, their eyes were lifted up. So many of the
passengers called on their cell phones to talk to their families, and so many
of them prayed. They recognized that in their last moments, the most important
things to them weren’t things at all, but rather their loved ones, and their
trust in God. I believe this is what we should do in this time of turmoil and
remembrance. We should hold hands with our loved ones and pray. Those of you
who would, please join me, and the Passengers of Flight 93 in the Lord’s
Prayer.
Our
Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name,
Thy
kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven,
Give
us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we
forgive
those who trespass against us,
Lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,
for
Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever,
Amen.
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Author’s
Notes: This 17-minute speech was given to a predominantly Christian audience. These
notes are speech notes and are not intended as a scholarly paper. Phrases and
idioms are frequently used in speeches that don’t necessarily translate well in
written correspondence since significant inference and emphasis can be
transmitted via tone, intonation, and body language. Documentation and
references that are normally provided in scholarly papers are also not typically
included in speech notes such as these. In other words, if you were there in
person, it was great! If not, then maybe not so much…
If
you want to know more about Dr. Marshall and Sandhills Classical
Christian School, see his bio at sandhillsccs.org.
