Video (below) tells how an Iraq vet came to narrate the audio book.
9/11 Resiliency Project 2025
Sponsored by SSP America
An Opportunity for aviation's Young Professionals to explore and apply resiliency lessons from the stories of 9/11's Aviation Heroes
Aviation employees showed great courage, selflessness and resiliency on 9/11.
The Human Resiliency Institute at Fordham University is partnering with Airports Council Int'l - North America and major sponsor SSP America to give aviation's Young Professionals - airport employees forty years old and under - a chance to explore lessons from the 9/11 aviation heroes chronicled in "Reclaiming the Sky" and adapt them to meet challenges in their lives.
"Reclaiming the Sky" profiles airport and airline employees in Boston, New York/Newark and Washington, DC who "rose up" on the morning of the 9/11 attacks and continued to respond in the days, weeks and months that followed to rebuild their airports - and "reclaim" their lives and the sky.
The 9/11 generation of heroes serve as models for a new generation of aviation employees to learn invaluable lessons - while helping to keep the memory of our industry's heroes alive.
Learning Resiliency from 9/11
Heroes to Meet Today's Challenges
Essay participants will have a chance to glean lessons of courage and resiliency from employees profiled in "Reclaiming the Sky: 9/11 and the Untold Story of the Men and Women Who Kept America Flying."
Consider gathering as group to read the story and discuss the lessons, then submit an essay.
All profits from "Reclaiming the Sky" support aviation charities – including flight attendant charities - so reading the story in a group can be a great way to honor 9/11's aviation heroes and promote community.
Book Fund:
We're enlisting sponsors to cover the administrative costs of the contest and provide free books to aviation workers. Contributions are tax deductible.
Photo on right shows, back row: Bernie Schettino, Tom Innace, Sue Baer.
Front row: Terri Rizzuto, Toni Knisley, Tom Murphy, Debbie Roland.
Essay Advisory Committee
We're grateful to aviation leaders for promoting this competition, including University Aviation Association, AAAE/NEC, ACI-NA's HR Committee and others.
When "Reclaiming the Sky" was first published in 2006 on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, author Tom Murphy broke out the elements of heroism reflected in the stories of the aviation employees he profiled. Listen to the radio clips below:
Photo above shows Ken and Jennifer Lewis, the married flight attendant couple aboard American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon.
The audiobook for "Reclaiming the Sky" (available on Amazon) was created by an Iraq War vet who used the experience to overcome the challenges of PTSD.
Healing principles from "Reclaiming the Sky" inform the curriculum for the Human Resiliency Institute's nationally successful Edge4Vets program.
Edge4Vets has trained more than 1500 military veterans and service personnel in eight states and Canada since 2011. The workshops teach them how to tap their resiliency strengths to prepare for jobs that can lead to careers.
Veterans from Edge4Vets are helping administer the essay competition.
Offers training to help today's employees cope with pressures from congestion, delays and high security.
Operating out of Fordham's Gabelli School of Business, the Institute expands upon work initiated by Reclaiming the Sky, a non-profit that supported workers' resiliency after 9/11.
"Resiliency Edge" integrates priciples from "Reclaiming the Sky" into the training curriculum.
Aviation
workers profiled, include (top left) Bernie Schettino, Tom Innace, Sue
Baer. Front row, Terri Rizzuto, Toni Knisley and Debbie Roland, with
author, Tom Murphy.
Special thanks to American Airlines captain, Terry Thames, pictured above, who draped a flag out his cockpit window after returning to Washington following 9/11. The second photo shows a memorial offered for Port Authority of NY and NJ staff by the Newark Liberty International Airport Airline Managers Council (NIAAMCO.) Viewed from either direction, front or back, it reads: 9/11. In the third photo, Oneka Lupe, a customer service agent at Newark, does her best to enhance the traveling experience for customers.
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The book "Reclaiming the Sky" Offers Profiles
in Aviation Courage
View news clips from the book's 2006 introduction at the Pentagon - interviewing American Airlines Flight Attendant colleagues of the crew from Flight 77.
- All author profits support Aviation Charities. Learn how each charity is serving its community in unique fashion.
- Read first-person accounts from today's aviation professionals who embody the resiliency principles reflected in Reclaiming the Sky's stories of aviation courage:
- See photos from several of our participating charities' 9/11 anniversary Remembrances.
"Claiming Your Sky" Supports Students
We offer a program that helps students prepare for a career in aviation using the principles in the book.
- "Claiming Your Sky" puts the "leadership principles" from the stories into a curriculum to help students enhance decision-making skills, deepen their capacity for empathy and increase their chances for aviation employment.
