Capt. Hanna Born was three years old inside the Pentagon's daycare center when American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the building roughly 200 yards away. Twenty-five years later, the Alexandria-based Air Force pilot is running one mile for every one of the 2,977 people killed that day, speaking a victim's name aloud with each mile she completes.
Born and her younger sister, Heather, were among the roughly 140 infants and toddlers inside the Pentagon's Child Development Center on Sept. 11, 2001, according to historical reporting from CBS News. Military personnel and staff evacuated every child at the center without injury, carrying infants out in their cribs to a grassy area near the Pentagon Lagoon. Both sisters evacuated the Pentagon safely and went on to serve in the U.S. military, as DC News Now reports.
Born's father, retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. Timothy Born, spent 90 minutes navigating gridlocked Washington, D.C. traffic to reach the Pentagon that morning, according to historical U.S. Naval Academy News coverage. He found his two young daughters sheltered inside a ring of cribs that military personnel had set up near the Potomac River. Her mother, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Dana H. Born, was a squadron commander at Bolling Air Force Base and saw smoke rising over the Pentagon, according to Harvard Kennedy School, while her husband went to retrieve the children.
A Return to the Pentagon, and a Mission Born From It
Her father later brought Born and her sister back to the Pentagon after the attacks, wanting his daughters to see people helping with the recovery and rebuilding, per the same DC News Now account. Born has said her father helped her and her sister find inspiration and a way to give back after the trauma, and that her Sept. 11 memories shaped her views and continue to drive her running mission. She said she and her sister want to contribute their lives to a bigger purpose.
Born now serves as a TH-1H Huey helicopter instructor pilot with the 23rd Flying Training Squadron at Fort Rucker, Alabama, training military aviators in rotary-wing flight, according to DVIDS. Her younger sister, 1st Lt. Heather Born, was four months old inside the same daycare during the attack. She graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2023 and serves as a Marine Corps communications strategy officer, per EMS1.
One Mile, One Name, 2,977 Times
Born began sharing her journey publicly under the page name Run to Remember 2,977 last year. She uses her runs to remember people who did not have the opportunity to continue their lives, sharing the name of a victim with each completed mile she logs. The Pentagon attack killed 184 people in the building and on the flight, part of the 2,977 total victims of the coordinated Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that Born is running to honor.
According to a Facebook post describing the campaign, Born launched the initiative on Sept. 11, 2025. DC News Now separately reports Born expects the full effort to take about two years to complete. Her campaign is officially partnered with the 9/11 Legacy Foundation.
A Northern Virginia Tradition of Running to Remember
Born's mileage commitment fits into a broader Northern Virginia tradition of using endurance athletics to raise funds and preserve victims' memories. The Arlington 9/11 Memorial 5K, created by first responders who worked the Pentagon site, passes the Flight 77 impact site each year and has raised over $1 million for first responder charities since it began, according to ARLnow. Endurance athletes also take part in the annual 9.11 Promise Run, a three-day, 240-mile relay that begins at the Pentagon Memorial and ends at Ground Zero in New York City, funding scholarships for children of first responders.
The Pentagon Child Development Center where the Born sisters were rescued closed in fall 2004 over safety concerns, with Fort Myer involvement. That closure makes Hanna and Heather Born part of a distinct, small cohort of survivors tied to a facility that no longer exists — one now carried forward mile by mile, and name by name, as the 25th anniversary of the attacks arrives.
