Retired flight attendant from Mass. is pushing a beverage cart from Boston to NYC to honor 9/11 flight crews

A retired flight attendant from Braintree is pushing a beverage cart 210 miles from Boston to New York City in honor of the flight crews that lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001.

Paul Veneto began his walking journey, called Paulie’s Push, at the Boston Public Garden 9/11 Memorial on Aug. 18 with the goal of arriving at Ground Zero in New York City on Sept. 11.

A total of 36 flight crew members lost their lives during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, which involved four commercial airplanes. At the time, Veneto was a regular flight attendant on the doomed United Flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles but took the day off, reported the Associated Press. His survivor’s guilt resulted in a 15-year prescription drug addiction, reported the AP.

Veneto called the flight crews the “first, first responders” of the terrorist attacks in a previous Boston.com story. Veneto told Boston.com he became sober in 2015 and after that began training for Paulie’s Push.

During Paulie’s Push, Veneto makes pit stops to speak to supporters and some even join him on the road. For example, Veneto is currently in Connecticut where firefighters walked with him from Bridgeport to Fairfield and the Fairfield Fire and Fairfield Police “brought us into town with so many flashing lights it felt almost presidential,” Veneto posted on Facebook.

His first “push” was in 2021 from Logan International Airport to Ground Zero in time for the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks and honored the flight crew aboard United Airlines 175, which crashed into the South Tower.

Veneto made subsequent trips in 2022, from Dulles International Airport to the Pentagon National Memorial in honor of the flight crew aboard American Airlines 77 that flew into the Pentagon and from Newark Liberty International Airport to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Stoystown, Pa. in honor of the crew aboard United Airlines 93, which crashed in a field in Shanksville.

This year’s journey honors American Flight 11, the first plane hijacked on Sept. 11, which took off from Boston and struck the North Tower. His route follows a similar route as the original trek in 2021, going through Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York before arriving at Ground Zero, according to his website.

“All I ever wanted really … was national attention because that’s the key to this whole thing,” he told Boston.com during a previous story. “These family members, these crew members, are from all over the country and every one of their relatives all over this country should hear it, and they’re going to hear it, finally, that their family member … was a hero on 9/11.”

Supporters can make donations toward Veneto’s journey and for families of the crew members who perished on 9/11 on his website and follow Veneto’s progress on this map.