Santa Monica lost two of its own in the attacks nearly three years ago. Dora Menchaca, 45, and Carolyn Beug, 48, were aboard airplanes that were hijacked and flown into the Pentagon and the north tower of the World Trade Center.
Menchaca was on American Airlines flight 77, which took off from Dulles International Airport in Virginia. Beug was aboard American Airlines flight 11 from Boston.
Menchaca wasn’t supposed to be on flight 77 — she boarded the plane as a standby passenger so she could get back to her Sunset Park home sooner to be with her family, husband Earl Dorsey, her then teenage daughter, Imani Dorsey, and her son Jaryd Dorsey.
Beug, a former Walt Disney Records executive, was flying home with her mother, Mary Wahlstrom, after a week of helping her twin daughters settle into their new college at the Rhode Island School of Design. She is survived by her husband, John Beug, her daughters, Lauren and Lindsey Mayer-Beug, and her son, Nicky.
“I’m hopeful that those will be the words that the people of Southern California will want to hear and the words that will offer the most healing,” — he said at a press conference Wednesday morning
Like Santa Monica, Sacramento will host its first “We Remember Walk” on Sept. 12. New York and Arlington, Virginia, will host the “We Remember Walk” for the third time this year. Last year, about 100 people walked from the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington to the Pentagon.
Minson said he was still contacting family members, survivors and friends to notify them of the event, and said everyone is welcome to participate. He said he would encourage walk participants to carry pictures of lost loved ones and American flags.
“As a nation, we owe the 9/11 families a great debt of gratitude for their outstanding sacrifices and contributions in the development of the 9/11 Commission Report,” Minson said. “Their efforts contribute to all Americans being safer. The families also express to me their deep concern for the families in the military who are hurting and losing their loved ones.
“They can be a tremendous resource to these families.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 12, 2004. Read the original PDF.