Paul “Paulie” Veneto woke up in pain from head to toe. The day before, the Braintree resident had pushed his airline beverage cart from the Public Garden in Boston to the Verve Hotel in Natick. It was the first leg of his 205-mile journey through about 50 cities that will end at Ground Zero in New York City on September 11.
“I’m not an athlete,” admitted the 65-year-old Veneto, taking a sip of hotel coffee. “It’s really a mental thing.”
What drives him? On his galley cart hang pictures of the flight attendants of United Airlines Flight 175. They were his friends and crew members.
Flight 175 was Veneto’s regular flight. It arrived at Logan on September 10, 2001 with the Boeing 767-200 and the crew from Boston.
He had the next day off. He was helping a friend build a concrete wall on Quincy’s Hospital Hill when he heard about the first crash at the World Trade Center. He saw the second crash on television, not knowing it was the flight he normally worked on. Six United flight attendants and two gate agents were on board.
Veneto described his fellow flight attendants as “the first responders” of September 11 because they took care of the passengers.
This year is his fourth foray, and he honors American Airlines Flight 11, the first to be hijacked. It is called “the final foray” because it concludes the commemoration of the four different flight crews who died on September 11.
“Doing the right thing.” Why Paulie is literally going to great lengths to honor the 9/11 flight crews
Veneto’s father served in the Marine Corps in World War II. He said he was raised to respect and honor self-sacrifice, especially the ultimate sacrifice.
“We’re honoring a hero,” he said. “That’s what we’re doing. That’s what you’re supposed to do.”
Veneto can’t think of anything more heroic than the actions of the flight crews on September 11. He said they were thrown into a situation that would have tested the courage of experienced soldiers and fought to protect their passengers as best they could.
Her heroism was barely mentioned in media coverage of the first anniversary of 9/11, Veneto said. That silence sparked the idea for Paulie’s Push.
“I was angry,” Veneto recalled. “I looked at the beverage cart and said to myself, ‘I’m going to push one of those beverage carts from Gate C19 on the street to Ground Zero. That’s going to wake them up.'”
Before the push: Paulie’s recovery story
Veneto has become a walking tribute to the heroic crew members who lost their lives on 9/11. His own story has made him a symbol of struggle and a source of inspiration, he said. During his missions, people struggling with suffering unrelated to 9/11 often accompany him on part of his journey and tell him their stories.
9/11 and the loss of close friends and colleagues took a heavy toll on Veneto’s mental health. After being prescribed painkillers for his back, he became addicted to opioids. He was forced into retirement and it took him five years to get clean, he says.
He never intended to make his personal problems public, but as “Paulie’s Push” gained more and more attention, his story gradually came to light and became part of a larger story.
“I couldn’t do this if I didn’t turn my life around,” Veneto said. “If it inspires other people, then of course that’s fine with me. … I love all of this. I see the faith in people.”
For example, on the first day of his first trip in 2021, during a hurricane, a woman jumped out of the passenger seat of a passing car just outside Boston. She had seen Paulie on the news and felt compelled to tell him that she had just had a kidney transplant.
“I wonder what this has to do with 9/11 and flight attendants, even though I didn’t say that,” Veneto said. “She walked with me for about two hours, soaking wet. The next day, more people, different stories.”
He can’t explain it, but somehow Paulie’s struggle and trauma, so closely tied to perhaps the deepest collective trauma Americans have suffered this century, have become a trauma for everyone. And Paulie is healing, step by step – himself and those he touches along the way.
Really the final spurt?
Logic says this year will be the last for Paulie’s push. By the time he reaches Ground Zero on September 11, he will have retraced the paths of all four hijacked airliners that crashed 23 years ago, killing thousands and changing the course of world history.
Veneto is also getting older.
“I don’t know how long the body can endure this,” he said.
But he has a vision, suggested by a friend, of how Paulie’s Push could mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11 in 2026.
The idea is that the communities that connect Boston to Manhattan, Newark to Shanksville, and Dulles International Airport to the Pentagon will each run their own initiative, passing the iconic beverage cart from town to town, and from city to city – a joint effort to heal and memorialize a common wound.
“That would bring everyone together,” he said.
Paulie’s Push 2023: Paulie Veneto prepares for his biggest push to honor the ‘heroes’ of 9/11
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Reach Peter Blandino at [email protected].
