The first post on Deora Frances Bodley’s electronic obituary page, published over two decades ago, ends in a pledge. We will never forget.
For Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Security Training Specialist Kim Hood, it’s a pledge he earnestly upholds.
Hood didn’t personally know Bodley, who, at 20, was the youngest passenger on United Flight 93, one of four aircrafts to be hijacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001. She became known to him years later, when by happenstance, he was in conversation with her mother, Deborah Borza, while they were volunteering at an adult education program headed by Hood’s wife.
“One night, Ms. Borza asked me what I did for a living,” said Hood. “When I told her I was a TSA trainer, she shared Deora’s story with me. Deborah asked me to pass along her appreciation to the officers for making sure what happened to her family never happened again.”
Hood vowed he would and has kept in touch with Borza through the years.
“I explain my reason for sharing Deora’s life and death at every training opportunity I have,” said Hood. “I declare my stand during every shift. Her story gives me a purpose larger than myself, and her memory focuses me and pulls me into action.”
As Hood stood on sacred ground beside Borza at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Tuesday, he struggled to process his first visit to the memorial which was personalized when Borza escorted him into the restricted area of the crash site reserved for family and dignitaries.
Walking through an opening in the Wall of Names, Hood and Borza experienced a shift from the bustle of the public memorial space to the serenity of a nature trail opening into a clearing a couple hundred yards on the other side of a secure, chain-linked fence. A boulder and markers signify the place of impact and burial areas.
“I’m sad, but I’m peaceful about it and feel connected to Deora here,” said a thoughtful Hood when asked what the moment meant to him. “I don’t feel like a minute of time that I’ve worked at TSA has been a waste – not one minute.” A visibly moved Borza acknowledged his connection and commitment.
Attempting to create that same sense of purpose for his current new hire class, Hood polled them about what they would ask Borza if they had a chance. While standing next to the boulder, he read from a message on his cell phone.
“They asked, ‘In the context of providing encouragement to new TSOs, what quality does she remember about her daughter that she would like us to keep in mind while performing our duties.’”
“Courage,” said Borza. “As it pertains to Deora, she always made sure that whomever she was with was okay. Her friends said she just had this sense of knowing when something wasn’t right. She’d walk into their dorm room and say, ‘Okay, what’s up?’ The courage that it took on her part to follow through on an instinct is what I want for TSA officers; to allow themselves the courage and confidence to follow up when something doesn’t look right and ask, ‘What’s up with that?’”
This year’s observance is sandwiched between benchmark 20th and 25th year remembrances. The passage of half or full decades is a natural yardstick for heightened and renewed focus on who and what we lost that day. The in-between years are just as important, though.
Even more reason to hear and act on Hood’s insistence to remember, or in some cases, to be taught about the consequences of the loss 23 years ago.
“We have new hires who were not even alive on 9/11,” said Hood. “I do my best to pass along Deora’s legacy, but I also want her mom to tell her daughter’s story, so every new hire officer is presented with this mother’s journey from the worst day of her life to today. I do my best to explain how Deora’s death is the inspiration I draw from.”
Deora’s Legacy.com page is still active, with the most recent posts on Wednesday. The simple, heartfelt, anonymous promise that opened her page has been honored by Hood and countless others in myriad ways over the years.
Thousands of people joined TSA in response to that promise, a notion that sometimes gets lost amid a busy and demanding day. Hood deliberately recenters us by focusing on the 9/11 victims and their families – specifically Deora and her mother - and asks us to reaffirm, “Not on our watch.”
Editor’s note: To learn more about Deora through the eyes her mother, watch this 20th anniversary story from the San Diego CBS affiliate.
By Karen Robicheaux, Strategic Communications & Public Affairs