Jordan Lyles was 9 on Sept. 11, 2001.

Lyles watched events of that day unfold on television at his elementary school in Fort Pierce, Fla. Hijacked planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., and a field in Somerset County’s Stonycreek Township.

Lyles didn’t know it at the time, but his mother, United Airlines flight attendant CeeCee Lyles, was aboard the plane that crashed in Somerset County. She had left her job as a police officer about a year before 9/11 to become a flight attendant.

On Wednesday, Jordan Lyles, now 32 and living in Las Vegas, was among hundreds of people — including President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump — to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville on the 23rd anniversary of 9/11.

Lyles first visited the site in spring 2002, when the trees were still scarred from the fire of the plane crash.

“Every time I come here, it is refreshing to see so much love and care the community has put into this place,” he said. “You feel it.”

Commemorations Wednesday included tolling a bell for each of the 40 passengers and crew members killed on Flight 93. Biden, Harris and Trump each placed wreaths by the wall with the names of those killed.

Before arriving in Pennsylvania, the politicians attended a similar ceremony at Ground Zero in New York City.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro joined Biden and Harris in Somerset County.

Afterward, the governor told reporters that Biden spoke with families who lost loved ones on the flight and told them that their relatives didn’t die in vain.

When the attacks occurred on 9/11, Shapiro, then a congressional staffer, was working in a building next to the U.S. Capitol Building, and his wife, Lori, was nine months pregnant. Recovered evidence and interrogations would later reveal that the Capitol most likely was the intended target of the Flight 93 hijackers, according to the National Park Service.

Shapiro said everyone at the Capitol complex that day was safe because of what he called the extraordinary bravery of the people on Flight 93 who thwarted the terrorists.

“It’s my responsibility as governor to remember by honoring the folks who are here and their loved ones who are with us,” he said.

‘We come here to remember’

The 23rd annual Sept. 11 observance was held at the memorial site Wednesday morning.

Flight 93 National Memorial Superintendent Stephen Clark thanked military personnel, organizations who support the memorial’s efforts and educators who are helping to preserve the history.

He also recognized family members of those who died on Flight 93 who came to the site for the observance or watched online.

The event, Clark said, honored all those who lost their lives during the terrorist attack.

“We come here to remember them and to commemorate the actions of 40 of those people whose collective actions that morning saved countless lives,” he said.

He credited the crew and passengers for their unity and bravery.

In memory of the passengers and crew members killed, volunteer ambassador and longtime Southwest Airlines flight attendant Matthew LeBlanc joined families to read the names of each person who died on the plane.

After each name was read, Friends of Flight 93 President Fred Lukachinsky and Executive Director Donna Gibson rang bells in their honor.

“It is truly our honor and privilege to tell the story of your loved ones today, tomorrow and for generations to come,” Clark told families gathered at the site and those watching virtually.

The Rev. Daniel Lawrence, a Pennsylvania State Police chaplain, served as the closing speaker.

He recalled contemplating the actions of those aboard Flight 93 in the aftermath of the wreck.

“They no doubt knew they would not be going home,” he said. “It was their final flight.”

It’s a poignant reminder, he said, that life is short. He urged people to act as though any day might be their last.

“Don’t let a day go by without saying ‘I love you’ to your family,” he said. “A hug and a kiss can go a long way.”

He commended the passengers and crew members for putting others first and saving others from tragedy.

He prayed for healing for the people who lost loved ones.

‘It feels like part of us is here’

Patrick White, 72, traveled to the memorial site from Hamburg, N.Y.

“In some ways, it feels like coming home. In some ways, it feels like part of us is here,” White said.

White said his cousin, Louis J. Nacke II, 42, was among those killed on Flight 93.

Nacke’s voice was heard on the flight recorder as passengers and crew members attacked the terrorists. Nacke’s remains were found in the cone of the cockpit, White said.

Mark Lamonaca, 68, of Windber said he was delivering bread for his family’s bakery on Sept. 11, 2001, when he stopped at one store and saw people huddled around a black-and-white television, watching news of a plane crash in New York.

Lamonaca presumed it was a small, accidental wreck. By the time he made it to his next delivery, news had broken that a second plane had crashed into the Twin Towers.

Lamonaca rushed back to his Windber bakery, listening as fire sirens began to wail and watching as state police cars raced by.

Stores nearby started to close as word spread that a plane had crashed nearby.

“I never thought this was going to happen, like everybody else,” he said.

On Wednesday, Biden, Harris and Trump also visited the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department, where they talked with families privately.

A large contingent of first responders attended Wednesday’s observance, including former New York City firefighter Kevin Rahn. He responded to Ground Zero on 9/11.

Rahn said he reached the area of the Twin Towers after being detoured from Battery Tunnel to the Brooklyn Bridge because of the smoke cloud from the collapse of the first tower.

“I heard a deafening roar, and the tower came pancaking down, then the dust cloud spread out,” Rahn said.

He said he initially crawled underneath a box truck, but then thought better of it, fearing he could have been crushed if debris hit the truck.

Rahn, now 68, said he wanted to make the trip to the Flight 93 site this year, visit the Pentagon next year and then go to the World Trade Center memorial site for the 25th anniversary.

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