"Horses were Ronald's passion. He loved to train and care for them and even had the opportunity to watch the birth of his stallion BarNone, known as 'Barney.' Ronald kept his horses at his parents' home in Kansas. But we shared a dream together, to have a home with land to raise horses and our children. He was looking for property in Virginia when September 11th happened. His parents, Bob and Shirley, still treasure his horses." -- Marinella Hemenway, wife

Profile:

After pursuing jobs in the field of horse breeding, Ronald John Hemenway joined the Navy and built a successful career that landed him a job in the Pentagon, where he was working on Sept. 11 when Flight 77 slammed into it.

The 37-year-old Hemenway, an electronics technician first class, was raised in Alaska and attended the University of Fairbanks.

His mother, Shirley, told the Washington bureau of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that when he was 30 and the family was living in Kansas, she found a note from her son one morning that said, "I won't be home until I've found a job."

He came back and said he planned to join the Navy -- and he did, training in electronics and graduating at the top of his class. After a tour on the USS LaSalle, he took a job at the Pentagon to be closer to his family.

Hemenway has a wife, Marinella, and two children, Stefan, 3, and Desiree, 1.

-- Valerie Strauss

Source: The Washington Post, AP and washingtonpost.com

The profiles in this feature were written in the months following Sept. 11, 2001.