Posted on 09/10/2006 3:16:16 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback
While searching for her birth parents two years ago, Mariah Mills found more than she bargained for: A hero of Sept. 11, 2001.
Mills' biological father, who had given Mills up for adoption when he and his then-girlfriend were in college, was Tom Burnett, a leader of a group that fought back on United Flight 93 before it crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001.
Mills, 21, learned about her birth father in 2004 — after she turned 19, the legal age in Minnesota for requesting a birth certificate with names of birth parents — and subsequent DNA tests confirmed that Burnett was her father.
"Before I was even born, my birth dad made a brave decision — to give me a life," Mills told the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Sunday's editions. "It was a selfless act, just like his actions on Flight 93. And, as awful as it was that he died, and I never got to know him, there is good that came out of this."
Today, Mills has developed a relationship with Burnett's widow, Deena, her three daughters, husband and stepson, and other members of Burnett's family. She also celebrated her birthday with her birth mother, who lives in St. Paul with her husband and two children and asked not to be identified.
Mills transferred to the University of Minnesota and is entering her senior year. She will spend her first semester studying abroad. Her dream job, she said, would be writing about baseball and covering the Minnesota Twins.
Mills and her adoptive parents visited Jefferson High School in Bloomington during the spring of 2004 after Mariah found out about her birth parents. Mariah wanted to look up Tom Burnett in his senior yearbook. She found his photo and one of her birth mother, too.
"It was weird to finally look like somebody," Mills said. "I have her eyes, but mostly I look like a Burnett."
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The real heroes are the folks who adopted her.
not worth your precious breath ..
I'm tellin I'm tellin! :-)
Perish the thought, huh?
I still might do it. He needs to realize the GOOD in this everyday Catholic man, who was called upon to act extraordinarily heroic and he answered that call.
.
9/11 Lifesaver RICK RESCORLA =
'The Man Who Predicted 9/11'
The History Channel
10 am & 4 pm
Monday, September 11, 2006
http://www.RickRescorla.com
http://www.ArmchairGeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24361
*Where RICK RESCORLA walked in Vietnam, exactly, 40 years ago:
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set1.htm
*1st Picture
Did I read that right? Did Tom Burnett's widow, Deena get remarried? and now she also has a stepson? You never get to read about how the families have moved on, which is a good thing. Life does go on.
I think they just use the terms birth parents and adoptive parents so readers can keep track of who is what. I have no problem with it from a technical standpoint. But you raise good points.
2. I suppose it could be argued in some way that revelation of Tom's sexual history is somehow Deena's private affair now, but I doubt such a claim would hold up in court, and she's not asserting such a claim.
3. Do you really think any less of Burnett because of this story? If not, who cares who knows?
4. Didya notice that the birth mother is not indentified for privacy reasons? Looks like everybody who wanted privacy got it.
Some Freeper was dissing this guy? Do tell.
(You don't have to name names if you do not wish to ping him/her.)
No, Tom burnett is a real hero. He gave this child a real chance at a good life when he could have insisted on an abortion, or just walked away. More importantly, on September 11th he gave his life to save an unknown number of others on the ground. Are her adopted parents heroic? Yep. But that doesn't take anything away from Burnett.
Mom always did like you best!
Sort of. Just refused to call him a hero and was worried that his wife's book would be used to make "gullible" Catholics support the WOT.
This poster was not just out to lunch, he didn't even bring a brown bag.
I wasn't talking legally I was talking morally. I'm glad he and his girlfriend chose life for their daughter back then. Can you be assured that he would want this story told? He's gone so nobody could have asked him.....maybe not everybody who wanted privacy got it. I don't think less of him at all. The whole story just makes me sad.
That's how it sounds, huh. It has an ending that is uplifting. Good for her.
You must spend a lot of time feeling sad if that's what you get from what to everyone else is an uplifting story.
How do you get sad from this story? If I were the adoptive girl, I would be so proud to find out he was my dad. It shows us how much Tom Burnett valued life, an unborn baby's life when he was young, and untold lives that would have been lost if flight 93 would have hit its intended target. I think it would also be inspiration to live my life the way my dad did and to really strive to accomplish great things.
Yes, I seem to recall Lisa Beamer did too.
I remember one firefighter left behind ten kids, all minors. I hope his wife has found a guy who wouldn't be scared away by the number of kids, but would realize how much love there must be in that house.
As I would be dead, I would have more important things to deal with.
If Burnett was not a hero (and he was) then he was my friend. Jesus said so:
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."--John 15:13
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