Paulie’s Push honors 9/11 flight crews

WEST HAVEN — You might know Paulie’s name.

In every Connecticut town he passes through, more and more people do.

Paul Veneto, a former flight attendant of 30 years from the Boston area, has been pushing an airline beverage cart from Logan Airport to ground zero in New York City on foot since Aug. 21. The journey, known as Paulie’s Push, is 220

“We all watched that happen: the enormity of that day, everybody was in shock. Don’t forget the beginning of the day, when crew members were trying to survive on those airplanes and trying to protect people.”

Paul “Paulie” Veneto

miles long and is scheduled to end when he arrives at the former site of the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2021, the 20-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Veneto passed through West Haven this week, where he was greeted by a crowd waiting just for him. Mayor Nancy R. Rossi greeted Veneto, and his cart at the base of the Kimberly Avenue bridge near Elm Street.

Veneto said his purpose is to honor the airline crew members who died on that day in 2001, with whom he flew “all the time” and whom he calls first responders and heroes. His mission has made national and local headlines, which has brought increasingly larger groups to wait for him at stops on his route during each leg of the trip.

“I feel like I’ve accomplished already what I set out to do” by bringing attention to the memories of his former colleagues, he said.

As he connects with people across Connecticut, Veneto is finding that many people already support his mission of seeing the flight crews of the four hijacked planes as fallen heroes.

One of those who met Veneto in West Haven was Steve Spooner, a Old Lyme resident and United Airlines pilot for 21 years based out of New York.

Spooner said that, although the attack was devastating for much of the world, there is a community of airline personnel that experienced that devastation in a unique way.

“A few days later we had to put our boots back on and go back to work and fly airplanes,” he said.

On the Saturday following the attack, Spooner said he was already in the air flying to London.

“That was not an easy thing to do, but the work needed to be done and we did it,” he said.

Spooner has three daughters, all of whom were born after the attack; he brought them to meet with Veneto. He said he tells them his story, but he wanted them to hear the stories of others.

“I hope our younger generations can understand it — maybe not to the level of us that lived it did, but can certainly understand it and hear the stories of those that didn’t survive that day, and those that did survive the aftermath of living through it,” he said.

Veneto, who is 62, began training for this journey in October 2020. By this week, almost two weeks into his journey, he had traveled over 14 miles on the day alone.

“We all watched that happen: the enormity of that day, everybody was in shock,” he said. “Don’t forget the beginning of the day, when crew members were trying to survive on those airplanes and trying to protect people.”

Because of his training — beginning with stamina and breathing before moving onto pushing the beverage cart for long distances before pushing it in real-life urban conditions with traffic and potholes — he said he has felt fine.

“I’ve made it through a hurricane when I left Boston, I made it through this storm the other day. When I started out I knew there was nothing going to stop me from getting this beverage cart to ground zero,” he said. “I’m prepared mentally, physically and now I’m just getting the job done.”

Although Veneto’s primary focus is on honoring the fallen flight crews, he believes his journey also has some additional resonance for people with addiction. Veneto said it was not long after the attack that he developed an addiction to opiates. On Sept. 11 when Veneto arrives at his final destination it will be his sixth anniversary of sobriety.

“It’s a perfect storm for me,” he said.

Veneto said his approach to pushing his beverage cart for miles daily is similar to that of working through recovery: one day at a time.

Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media United Airlines pilot Steve Spooner, left, of Old Lyme, speaks with former flight attendant Paul “Paulie” Veneto, who is pushing a beverage cart from Boston to ground zero in New York City.

Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media Former flight attendant Paul “Paulie” Veneto, center, who is pushing an airline beverage cart from Boston to New York as a tribute to flight attendants and crew killed in the 9/11 attacks, is presented with a West Haven Fire Department T-shirt by Deputy Chief Bill Johnson, right, during a stop at the Center Fire Station on Elm Street in West Haven on Thursday.

United Airlines pilot Steve Spooner, left, of Old Lyme, speaks with former flight attendant Paul “Paulie” Veneto, who is pushing an airline beverage cart from Boston’s Logan Airport to Ground Zero in New York City.