Thomas Edward Burnett Jr

September 11th Terrorist Attack Victim. He was a passenger on United Airlines Flight 93 that was taken over by Al-Qaeda terrorists on September 11, 2001, and was one of the passengers who gained widespread acclaim for his part in thwarting the plane being flown into a target in Washington, DC. A former high school quarterback, he was an alumnus of the University of Minnesota. He was the senior vice president and chief operating officer of Thoratec Corporation, a medical research company. He and his wife Deena, married in April 1992, were the parents of three girls. On September 11, 2001, he was flying home from a business meeting when terrorists took control of the plane, presumably with the intent of crashing it into a target in Washington, D.C. Burnett used his cell phone to call his wife four times. During their conversations he told her of the happenings on board the plane and she told him of the attacks on the World Trade Center. His last call to his wife ended with Burnett saying, "We're going to do something. I've got to go." The plane then crashed at 10:03 AM in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, far from what is believe it's intended target. His remains were eventually recovered and interred in Fort Snelling National Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota. His name can be found on Panel S-68 of the National September 11 Memorial in Manhattan, New York City, New York, and on the on the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Somerset County, Pennsylvania.