Air Force Captain runs a mile for every life lost on Sept. 11

On September 11, 2001, my little sister and I were both inside the Pentagon daycare center

She was about four months old. I was almost three years old. My birthday was two weeks later

And we were safely evacuated that morning. About 140 kids in the daycare all made it out because

people showed up. Essentially, as soon as light 77 hit the building, somebody showed up at the door

saying, how can we help? And so for the daycare workers, what they said was, we just need to get

these kids and these infants to safety and they weren't going to be able to do it by themselves

So the group of people who showed up loaded a few babies like my sister into cribs and they

carried the cribs about half a mile towards the Potomac River and they set them up in kind of

like a circle. For me, since I was three years old, I held somebody's hand and I walked out or

some of the other toddlers got carried and they set us up inside that circle of cribs

and that's where the daycare workers stayed also just comforting us until our parents could show

up and pick us up that day. My memories from that day are kind of like five second increments

throughout different portions of the day and I didn't really understand what those really vivid

memories were until talking with my parents a lot growing up and like starting to figure out where

they fit in context. The biggest memory or I guess the biggest theme of the memories I have from that

day, I would say, is just overwhelming confusion. I had so many dreams growing up about like one

exact moment, which was kind of in between when we were leaving the daycare center and about to

step foot outside, looking at the doors that we were evacuating through, hearing the sirens

holding somebody's hand and just completely unable to process what was going on. I was so confused

I didn't know why I wasn't in the class that I had been in before. I didn't know why we were

leaving, why sirens were going off. And I just really had, like, it wasn't even fear

It was just confusion in that moment. And that was kind of the same theme

as soon as we stepped foot outside, starting to see and hear and smell everything

that was so different just confusion through and through And then I remember my dad coming to pick us up and like finally just having some sense of comfort I screamed out I was like daddy and he says it a sound that he

never forget I was actually home last September on a TDY and I was sitting around with my parents

early September and we had the realization that we were coming up on you know the following year

the 25th anniversary and just kind of simultaneously finding it hard to believe that it's been 25 years

because that's a long amount of time, but it also in a lot of ways feels like yesterday

And I just kind of found myself kind of rewinding through what that 25 years looked like

and this promise that we made to never forget. And one theme, I guess, that came to mind while I was thinking about it is I remember

early on elementary school, I went to school on the Air Force Academy, Douglas Valley Elementary

So it was a big military community, a lot of kids, a lot of families that continued to be

impacted by 9-11 in the years afterwards. You know, parents, brothers, sisters deployed in support of

GWAT. And so I remember going to school every year, September 11th, our teachers would take a

moment and they would pause and they would talk about it, you know, at a level that was appropriate

for whatever grade we were in, still being very young and a difficult topic. But it was something

that they made sure that we acknowledged every single year. And so when we say never forget

I feel like that promise was being carried out. And then it kind of shifted a little bit. I remember

I went to, I showed up to high school one morning and it was the anniversary of September 11th. And

when I was walking into the building, the flag was flying at full staff. And that really stung

when I saw it because I said, that's not right. It should be at half staff out of respect for 2977

seven people who never went home to their families that night. And so I missed the first

couple of classes that day, just trying to track down a janitor and talk with the principal and

have that amended so that they would lower the flag and respect. And they did. But I think

you know, that year was kind of the first spot where I thought, are we, are we still

you know continuing this promise that we made to never forget And there were a couple more for instances just in the timeframe between then and the 24th anniversary last year where it felt like the day came and went and it

wasn't really acknowledged or events were planned on top of it and those types of things. And so

I started to think, you know, what can I do as part of this promise? And how can I do something

in a way where it's not just every September 11th or not just every September, but something that's

kind of incorporated daily into our lives specifically for those 2977 people and families

who for 25 years you know those families have been living without somebody that they thought they

would get to spend that time with and make memories with and so running has always been a big part of

my life everybody was asked about like the endurance of it and like you said the the running's not the

hard part that is you know that's the one thing that's guaranteed i can go out and i can do these

miles. I don't even know if challenge is the right word, but one thing that has just been

I think, the biggest demand is the emotional side of this. Because, you know, every day I get to

learn these stories about the people that I'm running for, through the people who had the

opportunity to know and love them while they were here. And in some ways, it's a lot of

of feeling like we're going back to that day, but what the experience over 25 years have been

which is a significant emotional toll in also the most fulfilling way, right

Like I wouldn't trade it for the world, but it's definitely, I think something

that I didn't fully anticipate when I started this project. And it's something that I'm so grateful for

Like I said, I wouldn't trade it. I'm so grateful to be able to learn these stories from everybody

But I think in a lot of ways, it's also to some extent been a healing process for me because I felt like I had the emotions that I had when I was three years old

And I struggled with the things I did for, you know, the years after that while I learned how to process it

And I think in my mind in some ways I put a stamp on it and said I not scared of fire drills anymore I can hear a siren and I don cry And now I good to go but now being able to talk to families and to learn their stories and just to feel so connected to this again

I think has been a blessing in the sense of like I've been able to go back and think a lot more about my experience and process

what things meant to me now with like all of the skills and experience that comes with the extra 25 years I've had since then

And in your run to remember journey, where are you right now in the mileage

I'm approaching 1,000 miles for the first year. Initially, my goal was to do all 2,977 before the 25th anniversary

But it's been so much more rewarding to focus on the purpose, not the pace of this effort

And so I've really enjoyed being able to bring more people into it, share miles, read names with others, put together events and just kind of grow the community

So I've slowed down the pace at which the miles are being completed. There's still a promise that all 2977 will be run and all the names will be read

But I am very grateful that more people want to be involved and I want to keep building opportunities where they can be

One of the things I love about this is that it's for everyone, right

like we might hear stories about specific people that have been more publicized over the past 25

years but this is a mile for every person a mile for every name it's a name you may not have heard

you know a story about yet but uh through this following along hearing the names even reading

through the comment section is sometimes the best spot to be because you'll have comments from people

who knew them and who loved them and who are sharing stories so i think just being part of

the community. And then if they if they do want to be involved, I mean, send me a message, I'll

send you a name to run for, go out, do your own miles. Like, this doesn't have to be my project

This is this is everybody's effort so that we can continue to honor them. Yeah, definitely. That's

amazing. So those were actually all the questions that I had for you. Thank you so much again for

taking the time out of your morning. And I know you have a busy schedule. So I really appreciate that