Wednesday, September 09, 2009

WE REMEMBER CAPTAIN JASON M. DAHL


I am honored to be a part of his project again. Please be sure to visit Project 2,996 to read about so many others that lost their lives on September 11, 2001.


JASON DAHL


Jason M. Dahl was the Captain of United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001 that was hijacked and crashed in a Pennsylvania field.


He was born Nov. 2, 1957 and raised in San Jose, California but was residing in Littleton, Colorado. He graduated from San Jose State University in 1980 with a degree in aeronautical engineering and joined United Airlines in 1984. Later he worked for United Airlines as a flight instructor in their Denver training center. As part of the requirements to keep his flight certification current, he had scheduled himself to captain Flight 93.


From reading many, many tributes to Captain Dahl, the one thing I kept coming back to was his love for his family. A wife he was hoping to get back home to celebrate an upcoming wedding Anniversary and a son that he frequently changed his schedule to be available for.


The Post-Gazette had a wonderful biography of Captain Dahl that I’d like to share:

” Jason Dahl learned how to fly before he learned how to drive a car. Relatives say from the time Dahl could talk, all he wanted to do was fly. He was the captain of the crew of Flight 93 and had moved up his schedule in order to celebrate his wedding anniversary

At 13, the San Jose, Calif., native joined the Civil Air Patrol and earned a scholarship for flying lessons. He was flying solo before he was 16, and while working at the municipal airport he did his best to wrangle flight time, including flying photographers over the area.

Immediately following his graduation from San Jose State University in 1980 with a degree in aeronautical engineering, he became a corporate pilot. By 1984, he was a pilot with United Airlines.

Popular with his fellow pilots, Dahl endured good-natured teasing about his height -- he stood a shade under 5 feet, 6 inches. He and another pilot used to stand on tiptoe for photos to make themselves appear taller.

Flying was Dahl's love but family was his life. He rose rapidly through United's pilot ranks, and in 1993 became a "standards" pilot for training and testing other pilots. The job allowed him to spend more time at home with his wife, Sandy, and son, Matthew, 15.

Dahl spent nearly three years remodeling the family home in Denver, doing the wiring, plumbing and dry wall with help from a brother-in-law. He found time to take his family snorkeling and scuba diving, and they vacationed in Australia and New Zealand.

He would trade flights to be home for his son's band activities, to help at his Cub and Boy Scout meetings and to coach his Little League team.

When Matt was in sixth grade and taking a class trip to Washington, D.C., Dahl arranged to be the pilot because he felt there was no one in the world who could fly a plane as safely as he could, especially one carrying his son.

He was particularly proud that Matt was 6 feet tall, bursting through what his father called "the Dahl barrier."

Dahl's fifth wedding anniversary was Friday, Sept. 14. To surprise his wife he planned to buy her a baby grand piano, a manicure and pedicure, and fix dinner for her and eight couples. On Sunday, the couple would leave for a three-day trip to London.

In order to get that time off, Dahl and his wife agreed he would fly on Sept. 11-13.”


He leaves behind a wife, Sandy and a son, Matthew. His wife Sandy has been quoted as saying "May he soar with the eagles and sleep with the angels. Love from family and friends."


He was featured in the movie UNITED 93 based upon the events of that flight. United Airlines has honored Captain Dahl by naming an award for aviation excellence after him. There is also an elementary school in his honor: Captain Jason M. Dahl Elementary School, located in San Jose, California, serves grades K-6 in the Franklin-McKinley Elementary School District.


The Captain Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund has been established to provide scholarships to the children of the flight crews and to provide an annual scholarship for an individual attending an accredited flight school.

http://dahlfund.org/


A beautiful and touching story is shared about Captain Dahl here:

http://www.motivateus.com/stories/remembering-jason.htm


More memorials regarding Jason:

http://dahlfund.org/jasonmemories.html

http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=jason_dahl_

http://www.legacy.com/gb2/default.aspx?bookid=91558

http://www.unitedheroes.com/Jason-Dahl.html

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/flight/honorroll/honorroll_01_02.html

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=sh&GRid=5800201

3 comments:

Jackie said...

What a wonderful tribute. Thank you for sharing.

jackie
www.9-11HealingandRemembrance.org

Anonymous said...

Best of all, Jason Deal in heaven would have said, “Come on, Ladies and Gentlemen! There is a greater adventure beyond!” Instead of “The End,” rather, “The Beginning.”

Anonymous said...

Best of all, Jason Dahl in heaven would have said, “Come on, Ladies and Gentlemen! There is a greater adventure beyond!” Instead of “The End,” rather, “The Beginning.”