For the people of 'Forgotten Ground Zero', this was a day like no other

On the edge of Shanksville's baseball field, the Somerset County Community Brass Band was playing Irving Berlin's "God Bless America".

The musicians in a hotch-potch uniform of white T-shirts worked their way fluidly through the tune, veterans barely glancing at the sheet music set on stands in front of them. Polished tubas, trombones and trumpets gleamed like precious metal in the morning sunshine.

As good as they were, the men and women of the community band were a sideshow here yesterday as the people of Shanksville celebrated 4 July in a way they said they had never done before – and most likely will never do so again.

"This is the first ever 4 July parade in Shanksville and it will probably be the last. We are not going to make a habit of this," said Donna Glessner, one of the organisers who was among 273 people in red-white-and-blue T-shirts making up a human Stars and Stripes. "This is all to honour the firemen. We just want to honour those people."

The honouring is all about what happened on 11 September, just two miles from Shanksville, on a hillside bordered to the south by a forest of hemlock trees.

There the United Airlines Flight 93 crashed, after the crew of the Boeing 757 overpowered the hijackers who had intended to crash the plane in Washington – probably aiming at the White House or the Capitol. The devastation seen at the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre was averted by those passengers, led by Todd Beamer and his now totemic call to arms: "Let's roll".

Shanksville is a small community. The parade of fire engines, tractors and floats that trundled its way through the town yesterday morning before speeches, songs and celebrations at the sports field took no more than 45 minutes.

At the last count, Shanksville had 245 residents and, as one might expect, most were deeply affected by the disaster. Many were involved, including the local fire department, whose members were first on the scene after the aircraft plunged into the hillside, tearing up the land and scattering bodies, debris and wreckage.

President George Bush has yet to visit Shanksville, something that has been noted by many of its residents, who would like him to pay his respects in the way he has done in New York and Washington. Some have called Shanksville the forgotten ground zero; it is not so much bitterness they feel but the desire for the town to secure its place in history.

But though the community is tiny, the mood here yesterday encapsulated that Americans across the nation, defiantly determined to celebrate a day that has always been associated with freedom. Despite an FBI warning that the al-Qa'ida terrorists might be planning another attack on this symbolic day, Shanksville – whether Mr Bush had visited or not – wanted to wave its flags, sing its national anthem and swear its pledge of allegiance.

The town's fire chief, Terry Shaffer, said: "It's just really emotional for all of us to be honoured by the town in this way." Sitting on a podium with his team of volunteers, his tie knotted tightly despite the 90F swelter, he said: "It is a remembrance of what we have. It's the day we remember our independence."

What did Chief Shaffer, whose regular job is with Pepsi, remember about the morning he and his volunteers rushed to help at the scene of the crash? "I would just as soon not talk about that today," he said, his eyes red with tears.

Whether people chose to talk about them or not, the events of that morning – the frantic hours and days as rescuers searched in vain for survivors and then went about clearing up the crash – were never far from their minds.

At one point, a speaker introducing the latest of a series of singers entertaining the crowds was interrupted by a Marine helicopter that had flown in specially and was departing in a massive cloud of dust. Kay Dively, 61, who was sitting on a blanket playing with her grandchildren, said: "You know it makes me feel better to see those people – it's good to know they're out there for us." Daniel, Mrs Dively's son, was a member of the volunteer fire brigade. He was up there on the podium sitting proudly beside Chief Shaffer. Even now, she said, he still only talked about what he saw that morning to his colleagues at the fire house and his wife.

"It's awesome to see all the people of the town coming together like this," said Mrs Dively, who works on a local restaurant. "I guess it reminds you just how quickly our freedom can be taken away from you. I remember in the days after the crash passing the fire house on my way to work and it was just full of people, people bringing food, volunteers. It was always full. People just wanted to help."

The crash site itself is just a short, twisting drive from the town. A temporary memorial decked with flags, prayers, photographs and a monument draws people from across the country. Looking down towards the trees, they can see the fenced-off land where the fuselage of the jet came to a halt.

The local coroner, Wally Miller, said he believed that less than two per cent of the human remains had been recovered. "They were vapourised," he said. "What you have out there is a cemetery."

George and Carm Colton, both in their mid-seventies, were looking out across that cemetery. Most years they celebrate 4 July with a trip to the beach or a picnic, but they decided that this year was different. "This means our freedom, our liberty, our lives," Mr Colton said.

It is easy to get carried away with this apple-pie eating, hand-on-heart patriotism. The events of 11 September have also brought into focus darker threads in American society: one poster at the memorial site featured a F-16 fighter with the words "Don't mess with the US" while one woman said that the FBI was watching her local mosque "because they could be there".

To be fair there was little of this. But in Shanksville yesterday, while people were not trying to forget about what had happened, there was the sense that most were trying to move on. The pledge that there would be no 4 July celebration like this again, was said in hope.