Todd Beamer – 1968–2001

A New Jersey resident who worked for the Oracle software company, Beamer was one of 37 passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 out of Newark and bound for San Francisco. When Islamic terrorists hijacked the airliner as part of a cluster of suicide attacks in which hijacked planes were crashed into New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Beamer and other passengers fought back, attempting to wrest control of the airplane from the terrorists. Over an open cell phone connection, Beamer was heard to say “Let’s roll,” apparently as a signal to the other passengers. The phrase became a verbal icon of heroic resistance on this day. Beamer, the other passengers and crew, as well as the hijackers were killed when Flight 93 crashed in rural Pennsylvania.