This Day in History: The 25th Anniversary of 9-11

On this day 25 years ago, terrorists attack our country. Many everyday Americans step forward, courageously working to help those around them. Some of their names have since become synonymous with the heroism of that day.

But there were so many others who remain relatively unknown.

The flight attendants aboard American Flight 11 were among these. Calm and professional in the midst of chaos, Betty Ong called American’s reservations center. “I think we’re being hijacked,” she reported. Elsewhere on the plane, Amy Sweeney had also reached the airline.

Together, they passed on critical information: descriptions of the hijackers, their actions, seat numbers, and conditions aboard the plane.

Sweeney had made an unusual pre-takeoff call to her husband because she was filling in for a sick colleague and sad to be missing her daughter’s first day of kindergarten. But as the terror unfolded, she steadily reported the plane’s final moments.

“I see water. I see buildings. We’re flying low, we’re flying way too low,” she reportedly said shortly before the plane struck the North Tower. “Oh my God, we are way too low!”

Port Authority employees Frank De Martini, Pablo Ortiz, Pete Negron, and Carlos da Costa were working in that tower, several floors below the point of impact. They could have left. Instead, they rushed up the stairs, working to unjam doors that were blocking people from escaping into the stairwells.

“All I remember is that yellow helmet, a flashlight, and him standing at the front door,” survivor Dianne DeFontes says. It was Ortiz. “We have to go now,” he told her. She went down—but he kept going up. It’s estimated that those men saved at least 50 people before perishing themselves.

The South Tower was soon hit, too. One man there had long feared such an attack. For years, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter’s chief of security had drilled that firm’s employees on how to evacuate. Rescorla’s training proved invaluable on 9/11. In fact, Rescorla had the firm’s employees evacuating as soon as the first plane hit the North Tower, so many were already partway down the stairs when United Flight 175 hit.

“[Rick] was on that bullhorn, in the pitch black, reassuring people,” one employee recalled. Another remembered that Rescorla kept saying, “We’re good Americans, walk down slowly, be good Americans.”

He was also belting “God Bless America” into his bullhorn!

Rescorla is credited with saving more than 2,600 people but was last seen headed back upstairs.

More heroes emerged as a third plane slammed into the Pentagon. Col. Marilyn Wills was thrown across a room by the impact. Someone grabbed Wills in the darkness and smoke.

“Hold on to me, Lois. Where I go, you go,” Wills told her.

The smoke was stifling and Lois’s nylons were melting on her legs. She wanted to give up, sobbing that she could not go on. “Oh yes, you can,” Wills said. “Just get on my back.” They found a window and climbed out.

Then-Staff Sgt. Christopher Braman, a cook and former Ranger, searched for survivors, finding one woman who was unable to scream for help in the thick smoke. Sheila Moody had been clapping and hoping someone would hear.

Braman suffered permanent lung damage, but Moody thought him a “guardian angel.”

These guardian angels, of course, are just a handful of the many heroes who emerged that day. There were others, too: In New York Harbor, hundreds of thousands were ferried to safety by an armada of boats. In the streets, many were pulled into buildings as they fled the collapsing towers. Doctors and nurses volunteered, setting up makeshift treatment areas.

It was a tragic and devastating day. But it was also a day in which the very best of the American spirit was on full display.

May we never forget.

Primary Sources:

• Douglas Rogers, MY HERO: ‘An Honor to Be in the Foxhole’ at Pentagon on 9/11 (AARP Veteran Report; Sept. 8, 2022)

• Gail Sheehy, Stewardess ID’d Hijackers Early, Transcripts Show (New York Observer; Feb. 16, 2004)

• Gary Sheftick, 15 years later, Army Pentagon personnel remember 9/11 (U.S. Army; Sept. 9, 2016)

• Gary Sheftick & Marcia Triggs, Heroes saved lives in Pentagon 9/11 (U.S. Army; Sept. 8, 2008)

• Hawker Vanguard, Honoring the flight attendants of American Airlines Flight 11 (Fox 40 Sacramento; Aug. 24, 2026)

• Honoring Madeline Amy Sweeney, Flight Attendant Who Kept Her Calm (9/11 Memorial)

• Honoring the 9/11 Civilian Heroes of the 88th Floor (Fallen Yet Not Forgotten; Feb. 13, 2022)

• Jenny Pachucki, Remembering Pablo Ortiz: A Hero of the 88th Floor (9/11 Memorial)

• Linda Kozaryn, Sheila Moody’s Story (War.gov; Sept. 8, 2002)

• Marylin Wills (Tunnels to Towers Foundation)

• Oral Histories: Dianne DeFontes (9/11 Memorial)

• September 11 Attack Timeline (9/11 Memorial)

• The 9/11 Commission Report (chapter one)