This year marks the 18th anniversary of the day that people in America will never forget – September 11th. The terrorist attacks which took place on this day claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people, whom the media has quoted as ordinary. Yet, the word ‘ordinary’ doesn’t do justice to the firefighters, police officers, paramedics and regular citizens who showed great courage in the wake of the tragedy and went down in history as heroes. One of those brave people is Tom Burnett, a man who lost his life aboard the hijacked Flight 93 before fighting back against terrorists and potentially saving the lives of many.

On September 11th, soon after the hijacked planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Virginia, 40 people were aboard Flight 93 whose initial target was the U.S. Capitol Building. However, this plane was the only one out of the four planes that didn’t reach its intended target. Instead, the plane crashed into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. There were no survivors.

More info: tomburnettfoundation.org

“It has been said that those aboard Flight 93 were just ordinary people. There was nothing ordinary about Tom Burnett. He was, in short, exceptional,” Tom’s wife Deena wrote about her late husband. The phone transcripts witness the courage of her husband who united with a few other passengers and stormed the cockpit of the hijacked plane and confronted the terrorists preventing them from reaching the target building. Today, Tom Burnett, along with three other passengers, Mark Bingham, Todd Beamer, and Jeremy Glick are known as heroes who became exemplary citizens to the whole nation.

To commemorate the memory of Tom Burnett, television host Mike Rowe shared a heartfelt Facebook post which includes phone transcripts to show why Tom is his true hero.

Here’s what people had to say

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