Mississippi State University is one of five universities designated as a new “Distinguished Military College” by order of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. The announcement came during Secretary Hegseth’s speech today, Sept. 30, to active-duty tactical-level and noncommissioned officers at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. Hegseth said the new designation expands America’s Corps of Cadets, a War Department program established to expand the pipeline of “patriotic leaders of character” commissioned into the Joint Force. msstate.edu/newsroom/article…

Welles Crowther. 24 years old. Equities trader on the 104th floor of the South Tower. Former volunteer firefighter. He carried a red bandana in his back pocket every day because his father had given it to him as a boy. “One to show and one to blow.” When the second plane hit, he called his mother. “Mom, this is Welles. I wanted you to know that I’m okay.” Those were the last words she ever heard from him. He didn’t stay on 104. He went down to the 78th-floor sky lobby, where people were burned, bleeding, and lost. Survivors later described a calm young man with a red bandana over his face who found the one working stairwell and started moving them. He carried a woman on his back for 17 floors. Then he told the group to keep going and turned around. He went back up. He did it more than once. At least a dozen people who made it out later identified him from photographs as the stranger who saved them. They never knew his name that morning. They just knew the red bandana. He could have walked out with them. He didn’t. They found his body months later in the wreckage, near the firefighters. Think about the ordinary lives that continued because a 24-year-old kid in a suit decided the people on the 78th floor were his responsibility. Birthdays. Weddings. Kids who grew up with their parents. And a mother who only got that one short voicemail. Welles Crowther. Hero.

After September 11, more than a million tons of the World Trade Center was loaded onto barges and shipped to a garbage dump on Staten Island. Then hundreds of men and women stood at conveyor belts for ten months and picked through every ounce of it by hand. They were looking for people. The place is called Fresh Kills. For fifty years it was the largest landfill in the world. It took its last barge of household trash on March 22, 2001, and shut down for good. New York was finally done with it. Five and a half months later, at two o'clock in the morning on September 12, the landfill's director got a phone call at home. He had just walked in the door. Two trucks were at the gate. They were carrying pieces of the World Trade Center. He drove back. The man who ran the dump would later say, without any drama, that if Fresh Kills had not been closed, this could never have happened. There would have been no room. The garbage would have been in the way. The site was empty. So that is where the towers went. Here is how it worked. At Ground Zero, cranes and grapplers lifted the debris into dump trucks. The trucks drove to a pier on the Hudson. There, the load went onto barges, six hundred tons at a time. The barges were towed down the harbor, past the Statue of Liberty, to Staten Island. More than fifteen hundred barges made the trip. At Fresh Kills, sanitation workers unloaded them onto a hill. And then the sorting began. The debris was mechanically screened into three sizes. Chunks bigger than eight inches. Two to eight inches. A quarter inch to two inches. Anything smaller than a quarter of an inch, the size of a fingernail, fell through the last sieve. Everything above that size went onto a conveyor belt. And along the belts stood the detectives. NYPD. FBI. Port Authority police. Medical examiners. Dressed head to toe in white Tyvek suits, in masks, in gloves, on a hill that stank of jet fuel and pulverized concrete and things nobody wanted to name. Looking down at the belt, hour after hour, as the towers rolled past them a fist-sized chunk at a time. When they saw something, they reached in and took it, and placed it in a white bucket at their feet. A wedding ring. A photo ID. A set of keys. A shoe. A piece of a person. The white buckets went to a tent that served as a morgue. The volume was beyond comprehension. In mid-September the operation was processing 1,750 tons of debris a day. By mid-October, 17,500 tons a day. Ten times more. Round the clock. The 200-acre hill was declared a federal crime scene and stayed one for ten months. A retired NYPD detective later wrote down what a shift looked like, because almost nobody outside knew it existed. You wake at 3 a.m. You get a giant coffee. You drive two hours in the dark from Orange County, through New Jersey, to Staten Island. You park at the bottom of a hill that looks like the end of the world. You put on the white suit. You go to your belt. You stand there. You look. Then you drive two hours home and do it again tomorrow. Sanitation workers pulled sixteen-hour shifts, seven days a week. One of them, a supervisor named Barry Asnes, said afterward what kept him there. We were attacked on our own soil, in the city where I was born. This was personal. The operation did not stop for weather. It did not stop for Christmas. It ran until July 2002. Ten months. By the end, the men and women on that hill had recovered thousands of human remains. Tens of thousands of personal effects. Wallets, badges, wedding bands, photographs, all cleaned and catalogued and returned to families who had nothing else to bury. When they were finished, the remaining material was placed in a 48-acre section of the landfill, a mound two hundred and twenty-five feet high, and covered. It is a park now. Many of the men and women who stood on that hill have lung disease. Asthma. Cancer. PTSD. The air they were breathing, eight and ten and sixteen hours a day, was full of the towers. Some of them have died of it. Almost nobody knows their names. Almost nobody knows the place. Mention Fresh Kills and 9/11 in the same sentence, the retired detective wrote, and most people will have no idea what you are talking about. Here is what you should know. Two thousand seven hundred and fifty-three people were murdered in those towers. Only about six in ten have ever been identified. Every one of those identifications came out of a white bucket. Every wedding ring returned to a widow. Every badge returned to a firehouse. Every fragment of bone matched to a name and buried with a headstone instead of a question mark. Somebody in a white suit, standing at a belt on a garbage dump at four in the morning, reached into the World Trade Center as it rolled past, and picked that person up, and put them in a bucket, and sent them home. They did that for ten months. Nobody applauded on the hill. There was nobody to watch. They did it anyway. 🇺🇸

Lisa: Yes sir, I’ve been talking with a passenger, a Todd Beamer, on Flight 93 who managed to get to an air phone unnoticed. Goodwin: Where did this flight originate, and what was its destination? Lisa: The flight left Newark New Jersey at 8 A.M. departing for San Francisco. The hijackers took over the plane shortly after takeoff, and several minutes later the plane changed course – it is now flying east. Goodwin: Ms. Jefferson…I need to talk to someone aboard that plane. Can you get me thru to the planes phone? Lisa: I still have that line open sir, I can patch you through on a conference call…hold a mo….. Todd: Hello Lisa, Lisa are you there? Lisa: Yes, I’m here. Todd, I made a call to the FBI, Agent Goodwin is on the line and will be talking to you as well. Todd: The others all know that this isn’t your normal hijacking. Jeremy called his wife again on his cell phone. She told him more about the World Trade Center and all. Goodwin: Hello Todd. This is Agent Goodwin with the FBI. We have been monitoring your flight. Your plane is on a course for Washington, DC. These terrorists sent two planes into the World Trade Center and one plane into the Pentagon. Our best guess is that they plan to fly your plane into either the White House or the United States Capital Building. Todd: I understand…hold on……I’ll…….I’ll be back.. Lisa: Mr. Goodwin, how much time do they have before they get to Washington? Goodwin: Not long ma’am. They changed course over Cleveland; they’re approaching Pittsburgh now. Washington may be twenty minutes away. Todd: (breathing a little heavier) The plane seems to be changing directions just a little. It’s getting pretty rough up here. The plane is flying real erratic….We’re not going to make it out of here. Listen to me….I want you to hear this….I have talked with the others….we have decided we would not be pawns in these hijackers suicidal plot. Lisa: Todd, what are you going to do? Todd: We’ve hatched a plan. Four of us are going to rush the hijacker with the bomb. After we take him out, we’ll break into the cockpit. A stewardess is getting some boiling water to throw on the hijackers at the controls. We’ll get them….and we’ll take them out. Lisa, …..will you do one last thing for me? Lisa: Yes…What is it? Todd: Would you pray with me? They pray: Our father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses As we forgive our trespassers, And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory Forever…..Amen The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want… He makes me to lie down in green pastures He leads me beside the still waters He restores my soul He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me….. Todd: (softer) God help me…Jesus help me….(clears throat and louder) Are you guys ready?…….. Let’s Roll……………………

Proof of the impact a single brave person can have on the world. Let’s roll. Lisa: Can you tell me how many hijackers are on the plane? Todd: There are three that we know of. Lisa: Can you see any weapons? What kind of weapons do they have? Todd: Yes…. they don’t have guns….they have knives – they took over the plane with knives. Lisa: Do you mean…like steak knives? Todd: No, these are razor knives…like box cutters. Lisa: Can you tell what country these people are from? Todd: No…..I don’t know. They sound like they’re from the mid-east. Lisa: Have they said what they want? Todd: Someone announced from the cockpit that there was a bomb on board. He said he was the captain and to stay in our seats and stay quiet. He said that they were meeting these men’s demands and returning to the airport… It was very broken English, and… I’m telling you…it sounded fake! Lisa: Ok sir, please give me your name. Todd: My name is Todd Beamer. Lisa: Ok Todd….my name is Lisa…Do you know your flight number? Todd: It’s United Flight 93. Lisa: Has anyone been injured? Todd: Yes, ..they…they killed one passenger sitting in first class. There’s been lots of shouting. We don’t know if the pilots are dead or alive. A flight attendant told me that the pilot and copilot had been forced from the cockpit and may have been wounded. Lisa: Where is the 3rd hijacker now Todd? Todd: He’s near the back of the plane. They forced most of the passengers into first class. There are fourteen of us here in the back. Five are flight attendants. He hasn’t noticed that I slipped into this pantry to get the phone. The guy with the bomb ordered us to sit on the floor in the rear of the plane……….oh Jesus.. Help! Lisa: Todd….are you ok? Tell me what’s happening! Todd: Hello…..We’re going down….I think we’re going to crash……Wait – wait a minute. No, we’re leveling off….we’re ok. I think we may be turning around…..That’s it – we changed directions. Do you hear me….we’re flying east again. Lisa: Ok Todd…. What’s going on with the other passengers? Todd: Everyone is… really scared. A few passengers with cell phones have made calls to relatives. A guy, Jeremy, was talking to his wife just before the hijacking started. She told him that hijackers had crashed two planes into the World Trade Center……Lisa is that true?? Lisa: Todd…..I have to tell you the truth…..it’s very bad. The World Trade Center is gone. Both of the towers have been destroyed. Todd: Oh God —help us! Lisa: A third plane was taken over by terrorists. It crashed into the Pentagon in Washington DC. Our country is under attack….and I’m afraid that your plane may be part of their plan. Todd: Oh dear God. Dear God…….Lisa, will you do something for me? Lisa: I’ll try….if I can….Yes. Todd: I want you to call my wife and my kids for me and tell them what’s happened. Promise me you’ll call.. Lisa: I promise – I’ll call. Todd: .You have the same name as my wife…Lisa….We’ve been married for 10 years. She’s pregnant with our 3rd child. Tell her that I love her…….(choking up)..I’ll always love her..(clearing throat) We have two boys.. David, he’s 3 and Andrew, he’s 1…..Tell them……(choking) tell them that their daddy loves them and that he is so proud of them. (clearing throat again) Our baby is due January 12th…..I saw an ultra sound…..it was great….we still don’t know if it’s a girl or a boy………Lisa? Lisa: (barely able to speak) I’ll tell them, I promise Todd. Todd: I’m going back to the group—if I can get back I will… Lisa: Todd, leave this line open…are you still there?…… Lisa: (dials the phone..) Hello, FBI, my name is Lisa Jefferson, I’m a telephone supervisor for GTE. I need to report a terrorist hijacking of a United Airlines Flight 93….Yes I’ll hold. Goodwin: Hello, this is Agent Goodwin.. I understand you have a hijacking situation?

A message from the family of Dolly Parton.

This photo was taken on this day at Omaha Beach in 1944 by Robert Sargent. It shows American troops leaving their amphibious boat to head to shore. With Germans shooting from coastal positions on high, treacherous waves and heavy equipment, almost all of these soldiers died soon after it was taken. "Into the Jaws Of Death" is the photo that gets me most. These men knew what they were getting into and still did it for our country.

Well said

After a great camp and talk with Coach Elliott, I am blessed to receive an offer from Freed-Hardeman University

Your first smile of 2026.. 😊

𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 🏆⚽️ YOUR 2025 @NCAADIII NATIONAL CHAMPIONS! #WashU | #DefendTheStandard

Update: My soon-to-be wife said we can move the wedding if I get 1 million reposts. Make it happen boys. @CollegeGameDay @PatMcAfeeShow @JoeyMcGuireTTU

Welcome Back To Your Favorite Spot. Welcome 𝐻𝑜𝓂𝑒.

NEW: Hundreds of high school students line the hallways of an Alabama hospital to say goodbye to their classmate as she heads into surgery to become an organ donor. 18-year-old Kimber Mills was shot at a party over the weekend. Mills was shot in the leg and head, allegedly by 27-year-old Steven Tyler Whitehead, after a fight broke out. Mills did not know Whitehead, who has since been charged with m*rder and three counts of attempted m*rder. The high school cheerleader was taken off life support on Tuesday. "Our sweet baby sister went to be with the Lord at 7:08 last night. She had the biggest gathering for Honor Walk the doc has ever seen," Mills' sister said. "She was and is so loved by so many. We will miss you, Kimber." Heartbreaking. RIP.

📷 HEISMAN PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK: Nile Kinnick💥 In 1939, Nile Kinnick etched his name in history by winning @HawkeyeFootball's first Heisman Trophy, delivering a remarkable season of grit, skill, and leadership. As a halfback, Kinnick passed for 638 yards and 11 touchdowns, rushed for 374 yards, and contributed as a stellar punter and defensive back, leading Iowa to a 6-1-1 record. His 16 total touchdowns and relentless work ethic earned him the nickname “The Cornbelt Comet.” Off the field, Kinnick’s academic excellence and humility made him a beloved figure. His Heisman campaign wasn’t just about stats, it was about heart, inspiring a generation of Hawkeye fans. Tragically, his life was cut short in World War II, but Kinnick’s legacy as a scholar, athlete, and hero endures as one of the most revered in Heisman lore. #Heisman | #MoreThanATrophy

Parents who sit alone aren’t avoiding people. They are avoiding negativity, drama, and complaining. They just want to watch their kid play… without the noise.

Former FSU WR Pokey Wilson with possibly catch of the year in football. WOW.

Fun idea: Play a @HailStateSOC Saturday night game in Davis Wade Stadium with all of football pyrotechnics, music, lights, and game day experience during 🏈 bye. Set the record for most people to watch a women’s collegiate soccer match. The NCAA record is 14,400 set in 1999.