Giuliani speaks to grads
MONTOURSVILLE — Rudy Giuliani scanned the names of the 21 TWA Flight 800 victims engraved on the stone and marble base of a statue of an angel outside the high school.
The painful memories quickly came flooding back.
Nearly 11 years after the jumbo jet plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island, the Republican presidential candidate returned Sunday night to Montoursville to honor graduating seniors and pay tribute to victims of the 1996 crash that bound New York to this small, tight-knit borough.
Meeting some of the families of the 16 students and five chaperones from Montoursville the morning after the crash was a moment Giuliani said he would remember "until the day I die."
For Giuliani, reading the victims' names Sunday on the memorial next to the school conjured memories of when he came across the same names for the first time on Flight 800's passenger manifest.
"I will never forget meeting those families ... hoping and praying that it wasn't really true, and then letting them know that it was," he said during the service Sunday in a packed basketball gym.
Giuliani, then New York mayor, rushed to mourners' sides after the Paris-bound plane fell ablaze into the Atlantic Ocean a dozen minutes after taking off from Kennedy airport. All 230 aboard, including the 21 passengers from Montoursville, died.
Giuliani said Montoursville held a "special place in my heart." It was Giuliani's first visit to the school since 2001, and many residents here hold him in high regard for how he handled the aftermath of Flight 800.
He could easily win election for mayor of Montoursville, said John Dorin, who has held the office for 25 years.
"He really took that tragedy to heart," Dorin said. "If the voting was tomorrow, they would vote Giuliani in."
At least several hundred people packed the gym adorned with championship banners as graduates entered the building wearing caps and gowns wet from showers that fell through the evening.
They heard Giuliani also thank residents for their outpouring of support to New York following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Giuliani said some of the crisis management operations initially installed following the Flight 800 crash, such as setting up an assistance center for victims' families, were used following the terror attacks.
After the service, which featured hymns and Bible readings, Giuliani met privately with some families of victims in a library where they exchanged warm handshakes and hugs.
The appearance Sunday at the invitation-only program for graduating seniors wasn't designed to be a campaign stop, said Giuliani aides and school officials. Giuliani accepted an invitation to speak from the school.
