Braman spent three dangerous and gruesome days as a search and rescue worker, plucking survivors and human remains from the building, working alongside firefighters are other rescue workers.

He shed 19½ pounds from the strain and stress, and at one point was believed to be missing and presumed dead.

Only his wife, Samaria, knew he was alive during the hours after the plane hit, immersed in a job he strove to carry out with delicacy and dignity.

In all, Braman recovered and bagged 63 separate sets of remains, making sure none of the body bags touched the ground — out of respect.

He and other rescue and recovery workers pulled the first 17 bodies out of the Pentagon and Braman arranged for those and other remains to be temporarily stored in a refrigerated truck.

Braman also saved a life.

Sheila Moody was on her second day at work at the Pentagon and was one of only three in her office of 34 to survive. Braman pulled her and two others from the building. The other two later died.

"I could taste the adrenaline on my lips," Braman said of the traumatic task. "My faith and training got me through it. It was as if a switch had been flipped."

Later, Braman said, the nightmares started. He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. The sight of ribs at a family barbecue sickened him.

"To this day, I can't eat them," he said. "Human rib bones were in my hands."