23 Years Later: Minnesota’s Tom Burnett, Jr. Remembered as Hero on Flight 93

I turned the TV on this morning and I watched the families of 9/11 victims read the names of their loved ones at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.

And the moments of silence, marking the moments passenger jets were flown into the Twin Towers. And the moments the towers fell.

I couldn't help but think about Flight 93, the United Airlines passenger jet that terrorists overtook, intending to crash into some important target. Maybe the White House. Maybe the US Capitol.

The passengers made calls to their families as they were forced to move to the back of the plane.

One of those passengers -- Bloomington native Tom Burnett, Jr. -- called his wife, Deena from the plane.

One of his alma maters -- St. John's University, where Burnett went to school in the mid '80s and played football -- republished the chilling transcript of his conversation a few years ago:

"Don't worry, we're going to do something."

Burnett and the other passengers tried to retake the plane. They were successful in preventing the plane from hitting its intended target, whatever that specifically was.

Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsvylvania killing everyone onboard.

There is a memorial near that site and a Wall of Names maintained by the National Park Service.

Tom Burnett's name is inscribed there with the other heroes of Flight 93.

Burnett is buried at Fort Snelling in St. Paul.

Officials laid wreaths in Shanksville today to remember Burnett and the other heroes of 9/11

Burnett went to St. John's University, the Carlson School of Management at University of Minnesota and Pepperdine University.

He was 38 and the father of four.

And he was a hero.