Former Flight Crew Member Honors Co-Workers who died during 9/11 Attacks

by Katie Vasquez

Paulie Veneto may look like he’s traveling light, carrying with him nothing but a beverage cart. Veneto knows he has a crew of angels at his side. On September 10, 2001, Paulie was a crew member on United Flight 175 heading to Boston. He made his destination, but the crew who boarded the exact same aircraft the next day, didn’t. They lost their lives after the plane was hijacked and flown into the Twin Towers. Two decades later, Paulie has made it his mission to remember their bravery.

“I’m just making sure all of us remember that what they did was extraordinary,” said Veneto. “Their families should be proud and not live in sadness.”

He started “Paulie’s Push” in 2021, rolling a beverage cart from Boston Logan International Airport to Ground Zero in honor of his fallen crew. The following year he went from Washington to the Pentagon in honor of Flight 77.

This year, he will be making his longest trek yet.

For the next 30 days, Paulie will travel 300 miles from Newark Airport to Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

That was the ultimate route of United Flight 93, a San Francisco-bound plane that was hijacked by terrorists, but the crew and passengers onboard decided to crash it instead of letting the aircraft hit its target, the nation’s capitol building.

“I get emotional, can you imagine? They said let’s do something,” said Veneto. “Flight attendants brought boiling water in the galley to throw on the terrorists. Strangers that were never military trained. They thought of us on the ground as they are fighting terrorists up there.

The trek is back-breaking and emotional, but part of what keeps Paulie going is his faith, and that crew of angels he will never forget.

Veneto said,  “The whole thing is to help people and that’s what this is all about. Why were on earth right? Help your next neighbor, help your family and that was instilled in me as a kid from my parents, my Catholic faith obviously.”