Wednesday, September 26, 2001
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Wednesday, September 26, 2001 |
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Pentagon victim lived here in '80s
By DAVE
HAMRICK
Peachtree City resident Sandy Thomas remembers Marjorie Salamone as "a wonderful wife and mother" who was active in the community during the two and a half years her family lived in Fayette County. The heart-rending story of Salamone's death in the attack on the Pentagon Sept. 11 is told in a Sept. 18 article by Michael Laris in the Washington Post. According to the Post article, Salamone had just recently helped her daughter Amanda move out on her own, to New York City. Just after a passenger jet slammed into World Trade Center tower one, Amanda phoned her mother at the Pentagon to let her know she was all right after witnessing the attack from her Manhattan window. Marjorie then phoned husband Ben, and left a simple message on his voice mail: "Amanda is safe." It was the last time Ben Salamone heard his wife's voice. Amanda, 22, and Ted and Sandy Thomas' daughter Katie were "the best of friends," Sandy told The Citizen following the tragedy. Ben Salamone retired a year ago as a colonel in the U.S. Army, and Katie visited Amanda when at various times as the military family moved to Italy, Texas and Virginia. Marjorie had always worked as an Army civilian, said Thomas, and moved into a job as a budget analyst at the Pentagon when Ben's duties brought the family to a home in Springfield, Va. Having worked in the Veterinary Corps in the Army, Ben was giving a briefing at the Department of Agriculture at the time of the attacks. "They're a wonderful family really," said Sandy Thomas. "Marjorie was very active with her girls [Amanda and Ann Marie, 24], always involved with them." Marjorie worked in Brownie Scouts and was active at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, she said. "They were really happy when they were here," she added. "They were both from the South ... she was from Pine Mountain [Ga.] and he was from the Birmingham area." A memorial service is set for this Sunday at Arlington Cemetery, and Katie, herself an intelligence officer and a lieutenant in the Army, hopes to be able to travel to Washington and attend with the family, Thomas said. The Washington Post article quoted other friends of Amanda and Ann Marie, saying she always looked out for them, too. "'I needed a comforter. She went and bought one for me,' said Maire Soosaar, 23, whose own mother had passed away.," says the article. "'She told Amanda she wanted to do everything she could for me,' Soosaar said, 'because nobody shouldn't have a mom.'"
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