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To honor 'heroic' crews killed on 9/11, former flight attendant will push a beverage cart 300 miles
Retired United Airlines flight attendant Paul Veneto remembers his colleagues killed on September 11, 2001, as "great American heroes."
He embarks on a journey by foot on Monday to help ensure that the memories of these sky-borne American patriots are never forgotten.
He calls it Paulie’s Push.
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It’s a 300-mile, month-long journey from New Jersey to western Pennsylvania as he pushes an airline beverage cart in front of him the entire way.
Flight crews "were the first first responders on 9/11," the Milton, Massachusetts native told Fox News Digital.
"The beverage cart to me is pretty sacred."
It’s the third walk by Veneto — with a fourth and final push planned — retracing the tragic journeys flown by each of the four domestic airliners hijacked by Islamic terrorists on one of the most horrific days in human history.
Veneto departs from Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday and plans to arrive in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 11.
These are the same terminal points flown by United Airlines Flight 93 on 9/11.
The plane departed Newark at 8:42 a.m. with 37 passengers and seven crew members on board.
It nosedived into a field near Shanksville at 10:03 a.m., following what is believed to be a fierce battle by passengers and crew to regain control of the plane after hijackers overpowered the pilots and killed at least one person on board.
"I’m not sure people still fully recognize the heroics shown by the crews that day," said Veneto.
"They had no military training, they saw people murdered in front of their eyes, yet they reported what they saw to the ground, organized a plan with complete strangers and fought back against trained terrorists."
The mission to honor the 9/11 crew members is deeply personal for Veneto.
He knew each of the crew members aboard United Airlines Flight 175, which departed Boston Logan International Airport bound for Los Angeles at 8:14 a.m. that same morning.
Veneto had actually arrived on the same aircraft flying the same route back from Los Angeles to Boston about 12 hours earlier.
The plane crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City at 9:03 a.m., the second of the Twin Towers struck by aircraft that morning.
The awful tragedy of the second plane striking the World Trade Center was witnessed by thousands of shocked people on the ground and seen live on television by millions of people around the world.
Among the Flight 175 crew members killed that day was Veneto’s friend and colleague Amy Jarret of North Smithfield, Rhode Island.
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She "was hopelessly in love with her college boyfriend … a glittering diamond engagement ring seemed only months away," father Aram Jarret told the Voices Center for Resilience and its 9/11 Living memorial.
"She was wonderful."
Veneto and Jarret often teamed up to work together on flights, typically overseeing coach service from the back of the plane.
"Every flight attendant has their preferred partners and place to work on a plane. That (the back of the cabin) was ours," said Veneto.
He made his first Paulie’s Push (www.pauliespush.com) in 2021, walking with his beverage cart more than 200 miles from Boston to the World Trade Center Memorial to honor Jarret and the rest of UA175 crew.
He pushed a beverage cart from Washington Dulles International Airport to the Pentagon last year in honor of the crew aboard American Airlines Flight 77.
Veneto plans another walk from Boston to the World Center for the fourth Paulie’s Push in 2024 to honor the crew of American Airlines Flight 11.
The American Airlines flight from Logan was the first plane hijacked on 9/11 and the first to strike the World Trade Center, hitting the North Tower before the world fully embraced what was happening.
Paulie's Push from Newark to Shanksville will be Veneto's longest and most challenging yet.
The journey takes him across New Jersey and into the Allegheny Mountains, more than halfway across the rugged terrain of Pennsylvania.
Veneto will be joined on the trip by high school buddies Dennis Morrissey and Steve Lynch, who drive a support RV donated by an anonymous benefactor in Massachusetts.
The route was plotted with an assist from Boston Marathon race director Dave McGillivray and mapmaker brothers Jeff and Chris Henderson.
"I never pushed the cart up mountains like I will on this trip," said Veneto.
The extreme challenge reflects the extreme heroism displayed by the crew of United Airlines Flight 93.
It was the fourth and final plane hijacked on 9/11, and the only flight in which the souls on board learned that the aircraft was commandeered as part of a wider effort to inflict terror on the United States and kill people on the ground.
On Flight 93, said Veneto, "the crew members knew what they were up against."
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"Everybody remembers the famous words, ‘Let’s roll.’ But when [Todd Beamer] said that, somebody else said, ‘No, wait, not yet. Wait until we’re over a non-populated area.'"
The crew and passengers, in other words, knew the plane was likely to crash in the effort to stop the terrorists — and they wanted as few people on the ground to suffer.
"If that’s not a true American hero," said Veneto, "I don’t know what is."
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