Tom Murphy, who grew up in Garden City, wrote Reclaiming the Sky to salute the "heroism" of aviation workers. All royalties will go to aviation charities. For more details see: reclaimingthesky.com. Like many of the "quiet heroes of aviation" in his new book, Reclaiming the Sky: 9/11 and the Untold Story of the Men and Women Who Kept America Flying, Tom Murphy, who grew up in Garden City, came to a fascination with flight early.

"After school at St. Anne's, I'd set up in front of the big picture window of our split level on Vassar Street," he said. "I'd aim my binoculars into the sky over Dartmouth Street and wait for the planes to come. I'd watch them on their final approach to Kennedy, flying low like the arc on a Mickey Mantle home run, and that's how I first came to learn how big the world was, by reading logos on the wings of airplanes."

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Murphy - who had been staying with family in Garden City - caught a flight out of Kennedy. His plane took off to the west at 8:35am. "I had a view of the twin towers gleaming silver in the sun," he said." It's a final image that I will carry forever."

His American Airlines flight turned north, as unseen by him out his window the first plane to strike the towers angled below him, heading south.

For ten years before 9/11, Murphy, an aviation consultant who develops customer service training programs for airports around the country, had worked out of the 65th floor of the North Tower, headquarters for the Port Authority's aviation division. That morning he had been scheduled to attend a meeting in the building, but the meeting got canceled, and so he had caught an early morning flight to the west coast.

"'Move on,' people say 'Time to get over,'" Tom Murphy said. "But how do we forgive the unforgivable?"

Rather than suppress his emotions, Tom Murphy decided to confront them: he went back to his friends and colleagues in aviation, workers at Boston, New York and Washington airports, to learn the secret to recovery.

"These were the three airports where the four planes had departed from," he said. "From my work I knew many of the aviation workers who had been directly affected."

Not wanting to know simply the "headlines" on their courage, he decided to explore the core beliefs that informed their actions.

"I wanted to know the source of their strength," he said. "What beliefs about life did they hold that had allowed them to rise up that day, and every day since - because truly I believe aviation workers are the "unsung" heroes of our time. Every day they swallow their fears. They put on their uniforms and go to work to keep our country flying."

Murphy's journey became a book, Reclaiming the Sky - and a website, reclaimingthesky.com - all profits from which he will donate to aviation charities.

And what is the secret to recovery? "Those who are doing better are those who have found a purpose," he said. "Some way to come out of themselves and do for others."

Reclaiming the Sky, a book about the strength of the human spirit, can be purchased at bookstores everywhere or online at reclaimingthesky.com.