A retired flight attendant Paul Venetian will soon be approaching the Pentagon, pushing a beverage cart from Dulles International Airport. This feat is to commemorate the victims of United Airlines Flight 175, on which he was to be a flight attendant. On the fated night, September 10, he and his crew had just finished their shifts, and handed the flight over to their colleagues, all of whom he knew personally as friends. The path from Dulles International Airport to the Pentagon is the path of American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon and killed 184 people.
Last year, Veneto undertook a 230-mile journey, ending on the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 at Ground Zero. He had pushed his cart from Boston Logan International Airport to Ground Zero in New York, through hurricane-like rain, hills, heat, and railroad tracks – people cheering him on wherever he was, with fire trucks, crowds clapping hands, veterans saluting.
It should be noted that Veneto, had struggled with drug addiction as a consequence of losing his loved ones and friends on 9/11, and commemorative feats like this inspire him to remain sober while perpetuating their memory and supporting his similarly afflicted friends today.
