On Sept. 11, 2001, Fire Chief Terry Shaffer led the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department’s response to the crash of United Flight 93. With his quiet Pennsylvania community suddenly at the center of one of the nation’s darkest days, Shaffer became the public face of emergency response in rural America, hundreds of miles from the terrorists’ likely targets.
When FireRescue1 spoke with Shaffer for the 20th remembrance of 9/11, he detailed the department’s response and the crash’s lasting impact on the community.
Five years later, the focus has shifted toward what comes next. With only five or six firefighters who responded that day still active in the department, preserving their experiences has taken on new urgency as a younger generation enters the fire service with no personal memory of 9/11.
Shaffer’s reflections are also shaped by a more recent lesson in what people are willing to do for one another. A 2022 heart transplant deepened Shaffer’s gratitude for life and his understanding of sacrifice. It’s yet another reminder that one selfless choice can change the lives of so many others, just as the 40 passengers and crewmembers aboard Flight 93 proved 25 years ago.
Marking a milestone
Shanksville has recognized Sept. 11 every year since the crash, but the 25th remembrance carries added weight for Shaffer. It is a chance to take stock of how quickly the years have passed and the unique perspective gained from having lived with the Flight 93 story for a quarter-century.
FireRescue1: How will the community mark this year’s remembrance?
Chief Shaffer: The biggest event will be at the Flight 93 National Memorial. They will have a morning observance with the reading of the names and the ringing of the bells, then a second program after lunch for family members and visiting dignitaries.
Separately, for at least the past 23 years, we have opened our fire station for the entire day. If anyone stops by and wants something to eat, we feed them. Occasionally, the families come down. That’s really how it started. We wanted to give the families a place to get out of the public’s eye for a little while — and that’s probably where I will end up this year.
What do you hope people take away from the Flight 93 National Memorial when they visit?
I hope they consider how the passengers and crew responded. They could have stayed in the back of the plane and decided that this was it. Instead, they banded together and tried to respond. Little did we know in the first few hours of our response that the response had already started in the air. They may have prevented what could have been a much worse day on 9/11 if the plane had reached its intended target.
On the other side of that, visitors should ask themselves what they would have done. Could I have done what they did? Or would I have been the one who stayed in the back of the plane and remained quiet?
We were put in a position where we had to do our jobs, and we did them. But this has never been about us. It has always been about the 40 people on that plane and what they did in the sky.
What the town carried
For the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department, the response continued long after outside agencies left — and in some ways, it has never ended.
What lesson would you share with someone from another small town that is suddenly thrust into the national spotlight?
Something we have said almost from the beginning is that when you have an emergency, it does not matter how large it is. Whether it is a plane crash like the one we dealt with or something else, it always starts locally and ends locally.
Whoever comes in between to help is a blessing. The people who came here after the crash were some of the greatest people to work with. Everyone got along and worked toward the same goal: recovering as much as possible from the plane, the passengers and their personal effects.
But when those agencies pack up and go home, it is still your event. We have found that to be true to this day. I could probably go to the fire station now and open one or two bay doors, and within half an hour someone would stop to look around or ask questions.
I also tell people that this could happen in any small town. I would hope the outcome would be the same — that people would band together, work with the responding agencies and get through it, particularly over such a long operation.
What was the timeframe for the recovery?
We spent a lot of time at the site for several weeks, even after the FBI and the other agencies left. The coroner was very insistent on identifying all 40 passengers and recovering as many remains and personal effects as possible.
We conducted another search in October. Then, around the end of March or beginning of April the following year, the coroner called volunteers back for another search because so much material remained in the trees.
Every time the wind blew, more would come down. Even today, after a windstorm, you can walk through the hemlock grove and find small pieces of the plane on the ground.
From helper to helped
In early 2022, Shaffer was hospitalized with advanced congestive heart failure. After waiting two months for a donor heart, he underwent a nine-hour transplant surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
How did the heart transplant experience change you?
I am more grateful for every morning I wake up, to tell you the truth. I spent 17 weeks in Pittsburgh, first waiting for a heart, then the transplant itself and the rehabilitation.
The transplant was in April 2022. Since then, I have had two cervical disc fusions and major back surgery, which I am currently recovering from. But I am doing very well. I can still go to the fire station and see what is happening when I feel well enough.
When we spoke several years ago, you talked about being a helper during and after 9/11. Was it difficult to become the person who needed help?
Yes. I think everyone wants to do things on their own terms, but sometimes your body tells you differently. A lot of people reached out and helped me in different ways during that period. I will be forever grateful for everything anyone did for me at that time.
Did the transplant change your perspective on 9/11 or your role in the response?
It increased my awareness of people and what they are willing to do for each other, including laying down their lives if they have to. I am a strong supporter of organ donation, as you can imagine, and I mention it to anyone willing to listen. It is a powerful decision for someone to say they are an organ donor. If they die under circumstances that allow their organs to be donated, one person may help eight or 10 other people. I am living proof of that. Sometimes it is hard to think about, but I am very grateful.
A family commitment to remembrance
Shaffer has not carried the Flight 93 story alone. Over the years, his wife, Kathie, and son Adam have taken on their own roles in preserving its history and helping a new generation understand what happened. As Shaffer shared in 2020, “We talk about before the plane crash and after the plane crash. After the plane crash, just about every day was Flight 93 in one form or another.”
What was it like to watch your family become so involved with the Flight 93 National Memorial?
I am really proud of all the work they have done.
The oral history project that my wife worked on wrapped up about five years ago. That project contributed a great deal to the stories they tell at the memorial today. Researchers who want to learn more about a particular person can contact the curator at the park and request the transcript of that interview. My wife and her assistants did an amazing job getting that work done. They completed well over 800 interviews. After they stopped conducting interviews, she continued working for a while to transcribe the interviews she had completed.
My son is still employed by the National Park Service. There are times when he’ll call home during the workday with a question. My wife may know the answer because she interviewed someone in that family or has background on the subject.
How has your son’s role in the Memorial changed over the years?
His major focus over the past four or five years has been education in the classroom. Many of the people visiting these memorials today were not even born when 9/11 happened.
The National Park Service and the Friends of Flight 93 group recently held a symposium where 40 teachers came to the park to learn more about the memorial and discuss how to teach this history in the classroom. The response was overwhelming. Additionally, the University of Pittsburgh School of Education has been incredibly supportive of the symposium. Teachers have embraced teaching the story.
Since 2023, the ranger staff, under his direction and Friends of Flight 93, have conducted Teach to Remember 9/11 programs on Sept. 11, averaging 40 states per year and three foreign countries.
Passing the story forward
The Shaffer family’s work is one part of a larger handoff already underway. As firsthand witnesses grow fewer, the Flight 93 story increasingly depends on educating a new generation of firefighters.
Why is the education component so important?
Think back to 2001. You could not go anywhere without seeing the phrase “Never Forget.” Flags were flying everywhere, and there was a strong sense of unity. The only way we’re going to get back to that is by educating younger generations. As those of us who remember the day begin to pass away and move on, we need to make sure the next generations know exactly what happened.
Have you seen new firefighters embrace the responsibility of learning and preserving that history?
It is not for lack of trying on my part, even though I am a retired chief.
If you grew up here, you definitely have some knowledge of what happened, but new firefighters may not know the details, including the fire department’s role. That is what we try to teach them.
I had my son come to the station and meet with our members. It was not a formal lesson. He talked with them about the questions visitors may ask about the fire department and what happened on 9/11.
A lot of the younger members are a little hesitant to talk to people about 9/11. They don’t want to be put on the spot and not know the answer. We try to educate them as well as we can. If someone asks about the department’s role, they should at least be able to explain that we responded and that our first mission was search and rescue. They should be able to give an informed answer. If the question goes deeper than that, they can find someone else who can answer it for the visitor.
The legacy of “Never Forget”
Education can carry the story beyond those who lived it, but remembrance must go beyond knowing what happened. For Shaffer, that means returning year after year with the same sense of duty to the passengers and crew, their families and the history entrusted to the department.
As we approach the 25-year remembrance, what does “Never Forget” mean to you now?
We simply cannot forget. It is not fair to the people who died on 9/11 to brush the remembrance off as another holiday or a day away from work.
We cannot let something like this happen again. It was an extraordinarily costly day in many ways. That’s why education is such a major part of that work at the Flight 93 National Memorial.
How do you ensure the act of remembering never becomes routine?
We are always ready to welcome people into the station and talk about 9/11. But what we have always done, more than anything, is open the station to the families so they can have a meal and spend time with us.
We have also served as the honor guard for the National Park Service, and we assist with different activities at the memorial.
As long as we remain involved, I think the memory will remain alive. I do not see that changing even after I am gone. The people here understand that they have to continue the work.
Our fire department president, Brad Shober, was a 9/11 responder. He was new to the department at the time, but he was here. He says all the time, “This is who we are.” People come here knowing that we responded on 9/11. We have to continue honoring the legacy of those 40 heroes.
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