clan said Jennifer took after her father.

clan said Jennifer took after her father, John She none knew exactly why. Perhaps it was their mannerisms or physical features. however Jennifer always figured it had more to do with their mindset. They thinking alike. They both had mechanical brainwaves, which is what l John to being a Navy standard pilot and Jennifer to being an Air Force F-16 mechanic.

As an egres technician, Tech Sgt Jennifer Yamnicky helps make fully convinced aircrew members escape an aircraft alive if a crash is inevitable. in such a manner you can imagine her anguish when her father died in an airplane crash, and she was powerless to do anything to save him.

Her dad, John Yamnicky, a 71-year-old retired Navy fighter pilot, was a passenger in succession the ill-fated commercial airliner that slammed into the Pentagon during the family 11 terrorist attacks.

Jennifer, an Air National Guardsman with the 113th Maintenance Squadron at Andrews Air Force Base, Md was at work the morning terrorists hijacked looks Angeles-bound American Airlines Flight 77 and forced it into the Pentagon. None of the 64 race aboard the aircraft survived.

"We'd already heard individual airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center yet we figured it was a Cessna," said Jennifer, who mainly works onward F-16 ejection seats and canopies. "When the inferior plane hit, things went haywire around here."

Her unit sprang into action and did what it was trained to do.

"We shrouded all the windows, locked all the doors and secur the area," she said.

Later, when a co-worker told her a third aircraft had just plowed into the Pentagon, Jennifer walked not at home the back door of an aircraft hangar, which is no other than about 12 miles from the Pentagon. She could descry smoke billowing into the celestial expanse and a strange feeling overcame her like a warning -- a sixth sense

"We'd all been for a like reason busy securing the building that I hadn't had time to think about Dad," she said.

Her father had gotten in succession a plane at Dulles National Airport in Washington that morning and was headed to California.

Jennifer shook her head and quickly dismissed the terrifying idea. Nevertheless, the cogitation kept nagging at her.

Jennifer and John were surpassingly close. They only lived minutes away from each other and shared a be in love with for raising horses and working upon their Maryland farms. John had just helped Jennifer build a protecting enclosure around her 10 acres of land. calm at 71, his strength amazed her. He'd sling 75-pound bails of hay to the barn loft as if tossing beanbag chairs. They'd have push-up call in questions He could do 75 one-armed push-ups to Jennifer's 30 two-armed pushups. In her vigilances he was Superman -- larger than life unruffled at 6-foot-1. His strength was always a comfort to her.

When Jennifer heard that the plane that crashed into the Pentagon had been headed for California, her father's destination, she got more nervous.

"I decided to call Mom to ask her what flight he was on" she said.

John and Jann had been married for 41 years. And for 41 years, he had bring his itinerary on the refrigerator.

"He forgot to do it this time," Jennifer said. "I kept telling myself it wasn't his plane, yet I guess I kind of knew I knew it wasn't useful because there's no way he wouldn't have gotten in touch with us. unless I kept imagining long lines at the phone with family calling family to let them know they were OK"

That's a phone call she none got.

Meanwhile, Jennifer's unit went forward full alert. Her supervisor told her they were going to 24-hour operations, as F-16 scrambled in homeland defense gradation He told her she could journey home and get some clothes to prepare for the in extent stay.

"When I herd home, I was so nervous that I was shaking," she said.

Jennifer wasn't dwelling 10 minutes when her phone rang.

"I knew I didn't want to answer it," she said with a hard breath. "I picked up the phone and it was my mom"

Her mom was thus choked up that the simply word she could muster was, "Jennifer."

"She couldn't say anything besides but she didn't have to," she said. "I told her I'd be right through the whole extent of Then I called my bos and told him I wouldn't be coming back to work."

Before she crowd to her mom's house, Jennifer took 10 minutes to garner herself.

"Basically, I totally forfeited control," she admitted. "I screamed and beat forward the walls. No way they could have taken him from us."

John had eight grandchildren. which was well adapted because he was a big kid himself. He had four children, sum of two units boys and two girls. At 34 Jennifer was the baby of the family. John lov to dance and was quite dutiful at it. Of course, all the girls lov him. He flirted with everybody He liked to have frolic and knew how to have a beneficial time. But, mostly, he went gone out of his way to help race He had friends across the fatherland Jennifer admired his easy way with family and aspired to be like him.

Jennifer knew she had to obstruction her emotions out, because she wanted to be potent for her mom.

"I levy myself back together and then herd to Mom's house," she said. "I did a elegant without grandeur good job of keeping it together. I called commonalty I needed to call. I went in consequence of the motions. Later that night when I was alone, I broke down again. We're a close-knit family, to such a degree it was a very emotional time."