Paulie’s Push: One man’s journey to honor airline workers killed on 9/11

Brut America

“Nobody’s ever called them a hero.”  Former flight attendant Paulie Veneto lost his coworkers on 9/11.  Now, to honor their memory, he’s pushing a beverage cart all the way to Ground Zero ...  Paulie's Push

Transcript

00:00I knew it, five days after 9-11, that no one was going to recognize these guys.

00:04I knew it deep down in my soul.

00:06Unfortunately, I was right.

00:08Because every year, the anniversary would come up,

00:11nobody ever recognized them as heroes.

00:15I'm going to walk on the street, so be careful out here, okay?

00:18That day was horrible for everybody.

00:31But because I was a flight attendant and knew these guys,

00:35it's my duty, as I feel, as a fellow crew member,

00:39to get them recognized for what they did that day.

00:48And this picture here is the crew that I knew, flight 175.

01:00That's the captain and the first officer.

01:03And that's Amy and Michael, they were engaged to be married.

01:07That's Amy Jarrett, I used to fly with her all the time.

01:10When those towers came down, the shock we all saw with our own two eyes,

01:14we forgot about what happened at the beginning of that day.

01:17And what happened at the beginning of that day is these crew members

01:20were hand-to-hand combat with trained terrorists,

01:23trying to protect people on the airplane.

01:25And they knew nobody was coming up there to help them,

01:28and they just kept going.

01:30They kept making phone calls.

01:32It wasn't a pretty scene for them.

01:38Every day it gets, I feel more stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger

01:43because more people are beeping, beeping, beeping,

01:45more people are coming out, coming out.

01:47As I get closer to New York, it gets a little bit more emotional.

01:49I'm hearing more stories that are even more.

01:52There's so much more that's coming out of this than I ever expected.

01:55I was on my way to the World Trade Center when it fell.

01:59I was working for a company in New York.

02:02And I was on the highway, I saw the whole thing.

02:04So God bless you, I've been reading a lot about you.

02:06Yeah, it's long overdue.

02:08When do you think you'll be at the World Trade Center?

02:11I'll be there on September 11th, I guarantee you, 100% I'll be there.

02:14I've had a guy come up to me, and he said,

02:17I was in a helicopter watching people jump from the towers.

02:20So he must have been a news helicopter guy,

02:23and I could tell he didn't voice that to anybody in years.

02:26But in his mind, those visions are in his mind,

02:29and he waited on the side of the road until I came by

02:31so he could shake my hand and tell me that.

02:35I'm guessing he hasn't told anybody,

02:37but I sure got the impression that he needed to voice that.

02:41And I'm glad I was able to push this cop by there and see him,

02:46because I'm sure he got some sense of relief.

02:49How you doing, man?

02:51Thank you so much.

02:52Thank you, I appreciate it.

02:53God bless you.

02:55Thank you for your service.

02:57I don't need anybody to confirm what I'm doing is right.

02:59I know what I'm doing is right.

03:00But it's so nice to see people come out and bring their kids and everybody,

03:03because I know they're teaching their kids what happened that day.

03:06We were seeing him on social media and his website,

03:09and just the size and the meaning of that day.

03:13We wanted to help out and be with him

03:16and make sure that the Bridgeport Fire Department was represented

03:19coming through our city, and our department and our people were here

03:22to help him and assist him with his cause

03:25and show that we all stand together and that he's not out here alone.

03:29So on my day off, just wanted to come out

03:31and make sure someone was here to see him through the city of Bridgeport.

03:40After 9-11, I fell into an opioid addiction.

03:44It almost took my life.

03:46And when I finally beat that thing,

03:49it was a miracle that the obsession was lifted.

03:52Absolute miracle.

03:54I was in the middle of places I couldn't believe I was in,

03:58trying to shut my head off, shut the emotions off,

04:01so I knew once I turned my life around that it was time.

04:05It was time to do this, because nobody has ever called him a hero.

04:15I have another car that I needed to use

04:18because I went through the woods, 40 miles in the woods in Connecticut,

04:21so these tires wouldn't work in the woods.

04:31I was going to have a friend with a pickup truck follow me to New York.

04:34That's all I was going to do.

04:35But it's turned into something, it's just, I'm so grateful for it.

04:39Now everybody knows what I was sick of for 20 years.

04:43I know they're looking down saying, thank you.

04:45That's what they're saying to me, thank you.

04:47Because I know the comfort is going to happen.

04:50The family members are going to be comforted now,

04:52by all of us, by this whole country.

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