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9/11 Pentagon Memorial Heroes

John P. Sammartino

Born November 8, 1963, 37 years old

John P. Sammartino, 37, an engineer at XonTech Inc. in Rosslyn, left his Annandale home just after dawn September 11th for Dulles International Airport. With a colleague, he boarded American Airlines Flight 77 to attend a conference in Los Angeles. 

By that night, his wife, Deborah Rooney, and other family members were getting ready to tell 4-year-old Nicole Sammartino that her father was dead. 

The last time the relatives had gathered, it was a far happier occasion. Over the Labor Day weekend, John Sammartino showed them the window frames and cabinets he had carved with his 83-year-old father, Frank, and was installing in the family’s home. “It was terrific,” Personick said. 

Woodworking was a hobby Sammartino had cultivated since moving to the neighborhood five years ago, Personick said. He was born in New York and came to Washington in the 1980s to study at George Washington University, then earned a Master’s degree at Johns Hopkins University. 

Out of college, Sammartino was hired as an engineer at the Naval Research Lab; he had worked 11 years at XonTech, a research and development firm involved in defense issues. His mother, Ann, and father live in the Mount Vernon area of Fairfax County.

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9/11 Pentagon Memorial Heroes

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The Pentagon Memorial was created to remember and honor those family members and friends who are no longer with us because of the events of September 11th, 2001 at the Pentagon.