A ceremony is taking place near Dallas today, in the smallish town of Grapevine, Texas.

A dedication ceremony — to honor the 33 airline crew members who died on September 11, 2001.

They deserve to be remembered — because they were magnificent. By all accounts (from personal cell phone calls, from final communications with headquarters), these men and women were professional, compassionate and caring til the end. I’m sure they were scared. Who on the face of this planet would not be? But they did their jobs, and they did what they could to take care of their passengers. That is a quiet sort of heroism, an every day gallantry that we so rarely recognize or praise — until a day like September 11th.

I think those lost crew members would have loved their memorial… not because of the beautiful sculpture that is its focal point…but because it was built by those who cherished them, and miss them every day. It began with a determined American flight attendant named Valerie Thompson who came up with the idea, and she was soon joined by many in the aviation community — unpaid volunteers, every one of them — including pilots and flight attendants who fly in and out of DFW and call little Grapevine home.

But it wasn’t just the aviation community. People with no connection to any airline, people who never even learned the names of the dead crew members felt a need to honor them, and they began sending in what they could, a dollar at a time. It is moving to learn that most of the money for the memorial came from these small donations, whatever people could spare, until finally there was enough.

And so they built their memorial. And we will not forget.