From the Pentagon Daycare to the Pilot’s Seat: A Story of Duty, Healing, and Flight w/ Capt. Hanna Born

Capt. Hanna Born was one of the children evacuated from the Pentagon daycare on September 11, 2001, too young to fully grasp what had happened, but old enough for it to leave a mark. Now an Air Force Captain and helicopter pilot, she carries that day not as a wound, but as a compass. In this installment of Next Steps Forward, Hanna opens up about growing up in the shadow of a national tragedy her family lived from the inside: a Marine father racing through gridlocked roads to find her, a mother commanding a military unit while not knowing if her daughters were alive, and two little girls trying to make sense of a world that had suddenly changed. She shares what it looked like to heal as a child, how art became her first language for processing fear, and what it meant to grow up surrounded by service members who modeled quiet duty over recognition.

From the role of protector she assumed over her younger sister before she could even read, to the cockpit of a military helicopter, Hanna reflects on the through-line connecting that September morning to the life she has chosen. She talks about leadership under pressure, the weight and privilege of a family legacy in uniform, and what it means to honor a story you were almost too small to remember.

For anyone who has ever wondered what it looks like when the children history touched grow up and choose to serve, this conversation is for you.

About Capt. Hanna Born: Hanna Born was not yet three years old on September 11, 2001, when her father Tim raced through gridlocked traffic to reach her at the Pentagon daycare center after Flight 77 struck the building. It was the sound of her voice, crying out "Daddy!,” that greeted him when he finally found her safe, sheltered within a ring of metal cribs set up by unnamed Marines who had carried the children to safety and disappeared.

In the aftermath of that day, Hanna quietly bore the weight of what she had witnessed. She slept for twenty-four hours straight, a common trauma response in young children, and cycled through regression and anxiety in the weeks that followed. She channeled her emotions into art: watercolors, crayons, finger paints and took on an early role as protector to her younger sister Heather. A photograph from those first raw days captures her stoically comforting Heather while the two looked at the still-smoldering Pentagon from a distance.

Growing up surrounded by Air Force Academy cadets in Colorado Springs, and shaped by a family legacy of military service stretching back generations, Hanna found her path. Today she serves as a Captain in the United States Air Force and a helicopter pilot stationed at Fort Novosel, Alabama. She has also spoken publicly at 9/11 commemorations, carrying forward the story that began before she was old enough to fully understand it.