Their Story
Remembering LeRoy W. Homer Jr.
LeRoy Homer was a soft-spoken man with an ever-present smile; his friends described him as having a heart of gold. He grew up as one of nine children, seven of them girls. LeRoy had dreamed of flying since he was a young boy. As a child he built model airplanes and read every aviation book he could find.
He began flying lessons at 15 and made his first solo flight at 16. By the time he entered the U.S. Air Force Academy, he already held a private pilot license.
He graduated from the Academy in 1987 with Cadet Squadron 31 and began his military career flying the C-141. He served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm and received a commendation for flying humanitarian missions in Somalia, an assignment that put his life at risk.
LeRoy achieved the rank of Captain on active duty and was later promoted to Major in the Air Force Reserve. In 1995, he joined United Airlines.
That same year, LeRoy met Melodie, his future wife. Introduced by friends, they got to know each other by telephone and finally met in person at LAX. The former Melodie Thorpe wondered whether she would recognize him on their 3,000-mile blind date. Easy, he told her: he would be the one in the pilot's uniform. They were engaged two years later and married in 1998.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, United Airlines Flight 93 carried 44 people: 33 passengers, seven crew members (the two pilots and five flight attendants), and the four hijackers. The pilots had received a warning from United Airlines dispatch that read, "beware of cockpit intrusion. 2 ac [aircraft] have hit the wtc."
Melodie Homer also sent a message to her husband through the cockpit computer system. When the cockpit door was breached, the FAA's air traffic control center in Cleveland heard LeRoy Homer declare "Mayday" amid the sounds of a struggle in the cockpit.
According to the official transcript of the cockpit voice recorder, the hijacking took place 46 minutes after takeoff, and the plane turned toward Washington, D.C. It was later determined that it was headed for the U.S. Capitol.
As the hijackers tried to fly the aircraft, the passengers and crew used GTE Airfones to call family and friends, and learned of the other attacks. They were determined to take back the plane. What the hijackers did not realize was that the autopilot had been set in a way that made the Boeing 757 difficult for them to fly.
On the cockpit voice recorder, the hijackers can be heard saying, "This does not work now," and a minute later, "Inform them, and tell him to talk to the pilot. Bring the pilot back." The pilots were the first to fight the terrorists, and together with the crew and passengers, they saved Washington, D.C. from attack.
Martin Luther King Jr. said, "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." We know where LeRoy W. Homer Jr. stood on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
The LeRoy W. Homer Jr. Foundation carries his name forward. It encourages and supports young adults who wish to pursue careers as professional pilots, works to increase awareness of the field of aviation, and awards flight scholarships toward private pilot certification.
