2001-12-12
Se
video:
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"My
name is Frank Culbertson and I am the commander of Expedition Three
and of course, we were flying on board the station on Sept. 11 at
8:36 a.m. Eastern when the first attack occurred.
We
were informed of it fairly shortly after it happened. We were flying
over North America at the time so we were able to look out one of
the windows and actually see New York City under attack. That was
quite a disturbing sight as you can imagine, to see my country under
attack.
We
could see the smoke streaming off to the south, we could see the smoke
pall over New York and I believe all three of us were thinking how
terrible this must be for the people that were at the point of attack
and their families. The same thing was true for Washington DC as we
flew over that an hour and a half later, with the smoke over the Pentagon.
All
of us were affected by that day, greatly. All of us thought about
it and talked about it a lot on board and received a lot of messages
from people around the world in support of what we are doing and in
support of the United States and the response that was necessary to
this terrorist threat. And obviously, it affects everybody all around
the world.
So
to all of those who lost loved ones, to all of those who worked so
hard to help people survive and to the people who are trying so hard
to stop this threat, we wish you the best. We have thought about you
often over the last three months and we will continue to think of
you and keep you in our thoughts and continue to do everything possible
to demonstrate good international cooperation through the space program
of all the countries involved in the international space station and
continue to, we hope, set a good example of how people can accomplish
incredible things when they have the right goals.
So
thank you very much for your time. We will continue to think of how
we can improve peace around the world, how we can improve knowledge,
and hopefully, that will bring people together", sa Frank
Culbertson.
"The
American space program has a long history of flying items to commemorate
courageous acts ... and this flight is no exception," sa shuttle
commander Dominic Gorie. "We have literally thousands of items
on this flight. We're carrying 6,000 small American flags that will
be distributed when we return to the families and loved ones of the
victims of Sept. 11 in New York and Washington DC and Pennsylvania.
We
have several large flags that were flying, one is honoring the men
and women who helped save untold lives with their actions on Flight
93 in Pennsylvania. We have a Marine Corps flag that some young marines,
as they were running through the Pentagon after it was attacked, found
in a burning conference room.
But
I think one of the most significant items we have, if not the most
significant, is a large American flag that was flying on top of the
World Trade Center. This was found amongst the rubble. It has a few
tears in it, you can still smell the ashes and when we first saw it,
we were amazed that this flag survived.
But
it's just a tremendous symbol of our country. Just like our country
was a little bit bruised and battered and torn, with a little repair
it's going to fly high and as beautiful as it ever did and that's
just what our country is doing."
