On the 23rd anniversary of 9/11, Heather "Lucky" Penney will speak at RISE West 2024 about her preparation for a suicide mission that day and what it means to be a hero. In this interview with RISE, she explains why she believes that despite the anger and divisiveness across the country, the American Dream and the DNA of the greatest generation is still alive and well within us.
It's never easy for Heather "Lucky" Penney, a former F-16 fighter pilot, to recall and share her experience on the morning of September 11 when she prepared for a suicide mission to take down hijacked Flight 93. But she says she continues to do so because of the heroism, sacrifice, and service of the 40 passengers and crew, who thwarted the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Penney, who now serves as a senior resident fellow for the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies at the Air Force Association, will present her keynote, “Unlocking the Hero Within,” on the first day of RISE West 2024, Wednesday, Sept. 11, in Colorado Springs.
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“It never gets easier to share my experience of the day,” Penney told RISE. “It never does because I think for those of us that remember and have stories and were there, it was an incredibly impactful and emotional day. But the part of what remains so poignant and so strong is the level of heroism and sacrifice and service that the passengers on Flight 93 did that day. They rose to the occasion and that never fades.”
Penney believes that we all have that kind of heroism inside of us. We just need to reawaken it. “We talk about the Greatest Generation because normal and ordinary Americans went to war and did extraordinary things. It just proves that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things and, again, the passengers on Flight 93 proved that to me. So, the DNA of the Greatest Generation is still alive and well within us. It's just that we've become disconnected from the call to use it.”
Our nation has become so divided and divisive that Penney says she believes it’s necessary to remind Americans about what we are capable of if we choose to let go of the hate that we have toward one another. She hopes that after her opening keynote, RISE West 2024 attendees will feel inspired to practice heroism and help heal the country. “We need to reach down inside of ourselves and connect with the best parts of who we are as a nation and who we are as people,” Penney says.
How to practice heroism
Heroism, she says, is comprised of three primary qualities that we can choose to practice daily: Bravery, service, and belonging. “They're not nouns, they're verbs,” she says. “We can choose to practice bravery. We can choose to practice service. We can choose to practice belonging connection and I truly believe that through these practices it really helps us connect with the better angels of our nature.”
By connecting with each other, we can find the humanity and embrace other Americans in a way that is more meaningful and more powerful than the hate and the sensationalism that Penney describes as the “angertainment” that we have been drawn to in the last few years. “Once you get sucked into the drama, it has its own emotional high and so people seek it out and it's like dopamine. We're addicted to it, and we've got to break ourselves of that,” she says.
Her hope is that people will choose to calm themselves and connect with people who don’t necessarily look like them, act like them, or vote like them. “We just have to connect and that's what real community is,” Penney says. “It’s realizing that we're all in this together and it takes all of us to create strong communities to create a strong nation that has vision and power and purpose and meaning.”
The idealism of the American Dream
The idealism of the American Dream and what American stands for still exists, according to Penney. While what we were founded on might not be perfect, she says, we do strive to confront our faults to be better.
“What other nation could go through what we have been through,” she wondered. “As a nation we strive to better ourselves through accountability and responsibility and trying to live to our ideals and our virtues and trying to make not only our nation but the world a better place. I mean, who else could have gone to the moon? We need to just stop the navel gazing and stop and refuse to become addicted to the sensationalism.”
Her advice: Practice how to be brave and do the right thing. This means acknowledging the fear but focusing on what needs to be done. Practice service and what it takes to make the world around us a better place. “Our bubble might be kind of small, but if we can make one thing that day better, then we have achieved service and it's important to note that if you feel self-righteous, if you feel vindicated, that is not service, that's an agenda,” she says.
Practice belonging by choosing to make a connection with a real human being instead of going on the internet, Penney suggests. “I think there are so many things we can do to turn this around. For me, it’s the legacy of Flight 93. As tragic as that entire day was, we were also blessed with seeing incredible bravery, incredible sacrifice, service, and heroism. We saw Americans coming together to take care of each other. And you know what? On that day, nobody cared what political party you were. Nobody cared what religion you were. Nobody cared what race you were. Nobody cared what sexual orientation you were. We were all in it together and I think that's the real legacy. It's one of hope. It's one of community. It's one of connection, it really is…We saw the best of ourselves on that day and that's what I hope people will walk out inspired to be.”
RISE West 2024 will take place September 11-13 at The Broadmoor, Colorado Springs. Penney will present the opening keynote, “Unlocking the Hero Within,” at 4:15 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11. Click here to learn more about the annual event, including the full agenda, roster of speakers, networking opportunities, and how to register.