Major LeRoy Homer, Jr.

Major LeRoy Homer, Jr. (1965-2001), pilot. LeRoy Wilton Homer, Jr. was the son of an African American serviceman and a German woman. His father died when he was twelve, and his mother raised him and his eight siblings on Long Island. He was fascinated with flight from an early age, building model airplanes and reading books about aviation. He worked after school to pay for flying lessons and took his first solo flight at the age of fifteen, then earned his pilot’s license three years later. In 1987, Homer graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy. During his eight years of active duty in the Air Force, he rose to the rank of captain, flew the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter in the Gulf War and Somalia, and was named 1993 Aircrew Instructor of the Year in his unit. Upon his honorable discharge in 1995 he joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve, where he continued instructing in the C-141, recruited candidates for the Air Force Academy and Air Force Reserve Officer Corps, and rose to the rank of major. Homer also became a pilot for United Airlines, starting as a Second Officer on the Boeing 727 and within a year becoming First Officer for the Boeing 757 and 767. He used the travel opportunities provided by his work to visit museums around the world, also taking his mother back to Germany to visit family members. Although he had lost his religious faith after his father’s death, he now regained it with support from his wife. He was respected by peers in the military and civilian worlds for his calm demeanor and ability to get along with nearly everyone, living by his mother’s advice: “Never put anyone down…You can’t throw stones, they might be thrown back at you.”

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Homer was on United Airlines Flight 93, which was scheduled to travel from Newark to San Francisco. The seven crew members and thirty-seven passengers included four members of al-Qaeda, a terrorist group that intended to hijack four planes and crash them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. Within thirty minutes of Flight 93’s departure at 8:42am, the first two planes crashed into the World Trade Center. While at home with their infant daughter, Homer’s wife Melody saw the attacks on the news and had a message transmitted to him stating “Just wanted to make sure you are okay,” while an aviation official warned the crew “Beware any cockpit intrusion – two a/c hit World Trade Center.” Five minutes later, the terrorists hijacked Flight 93 and turned it around towards Washington D.C., although Homer and the other pilots managed to send emergency messages. The passengers fought back and had nearly succeeded in entering the cockpit when the terrorists crashed the plane into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. This saved countless other lives in Washington D.C., which was only twenty minutes away; “He was a very brave man,” his wife later stated, “I know he would have done whatever he could do to not have that plane harm any more people.” All forty-four people on Flight 93 died, part of the 2,977 victims of the September 11 attacks. Homer received several posthumous awards, including honorary membership in the Tuskegee Airmen, and he is memorialized at the Flight 93 National Memorial on the crash site, at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York, and in the films “Flight 93” and “United 93.” His widow serves as president of the LeRoy W. Homer, Jr. Foundation, which provides information and scholarships to young people interested in aviation careers.

©David Brodnax, Sr.