[Bringing back my original post]
HERO:Remembering
Tom Burnett, a Hero of Flight 93.
Tom was one of the leaders of the passengers who fought back to retake Flight 93 and prevent even more devastation and death.
A born leader, Tom
quarterbacked his high school football team to the state championship game. After college, he took a sales job and worked his way up to vice president of Thoratec Corporation in San Ramon, CA.
He met his future wife, Deena, in 1989 and they were married three years later. They had three beautiful daughters. A devoted father, he once insisted that he and Deena travel separately by plane on vacation, so that their girls could not be left parentless should something happen.
When flight 93 was taken over by hijackers,
He made four calls to his wife, Deena, from the plane. Deena Burnett said that her husband told her that one passenger had been stabbed and that "a group of us are going to do something.". He also told her that the people on board knew about the attack on the World Trade Center, apparently through other phone calls.
Tom,
Tod Beamer, and
Jeremy Glick led the passenger revolt when they learned of the planes that hit the twin towers, and soldiered the first counterattack in the War on Terror.
Tom's legacy is best summarized by a
schoolchild commenting on the September 11 website:
[A]t my school we were asked to write about someone brave that was in this horrific tragedy. So I picked Mr. Burnett because he was one the most wonderfulest man that I have ever read about and heard about. He is my hero because of everything he has done
Mine too.
There is a
street named for Tom Burnett in
Pleasanton, CA, honoring his life and his heroism.
