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By TONY PLOHETSKI
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Feb. 20, 2010, 10:17PM
Valerie Hunter had just stepped off the elevator at the northwest Austin building where she and her husband have worked for years.
She heard a loud explosion and felt a violent shake. She bolted toward the nearest exit with co-workers and started searching for her husband, Vernon, according to family and friends.
As minutes ticked away Thursday morning, she figured he was helping others escape. After all, she reasoned, he was a volunteer safety coordinator for his floor.
‘Would have helped him'
But after two days of helpless waiting, family members received confirmation Saturday that Hunter, 68, who was an Internal Revenue Service employee for more than two decades, was killed when a pilot identified as Andrew Joseph Stack III flew his single- engine plane into the building, which houses IRS offices. Stack died in the inferno.
“It still probably hasn't all set in,” Hunter's son, Ken Hunter, of San Antonio said. “It didn't seem like something that could happen.”
Before taking off, Stack left behind a lengthy letter blaming the IRS for many of his troubles and saying, “take my pound of flesh and sleep well.”
“My dad, in that building, he didn't write the tax laws,” Ken Hunter said. “If he would have talked to my dad, my dad would have helped him.”
In a prepared statement, Hunter's family said their thoughts are with Stack's family.
“We are not angry at them because they did not do this,” the statement said. “We forgive Joe for his actions, which took Vern's ‘pound of flesh' with him.”
Loved ones shared more stories of Hunter's life Saturday, as a second injured victim, Shane Hill, was released from a San Antonio burn unit.
“I am so blessed to be home today,” said Hill, an employee of the state comptroller's office. He requested privacy so that he can “focus on making a quick and full recovery.”
Another man in the building was treated and released Thursday, officials have said.
On Saturday, crews began removing parts of the plane. Officials said they hoped to reopen the frontage road of U.S. 183 today.
The American-Statesman also confirmed Stack's audio transmissions with an airport in Georgetown, where he departed around 9:30 a.m. Thursday. The conversations provide little indication of the destruction that happened minutes later, although Stack told an air traffic controller that he was heading south.
At Hunter's home in Cedar Park, friends, fellow church members at Austin's Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church and IRS co-workers tried to comfort his family.
Adopted as a child
Harold L. Jackson, 79, of Huntsville, Ala., and Hunter's oldest brother, said Hunter grew up in a small South Carolina town.
Hunter was adopted by the Jackson family when he was 2 months old and although he kept his original name, he was part of five brothers who called themselves “The Other Jackson 5.”
He joined the Army after high school.
Harold Looney, a retired Army chief warrant officer who met Hunter in 1962 when they were students in the military in Augusta, Ga., remembered Hunter as one of the most mild-mannered men in the military.
Relatives said Hunter served two tours of duty in Vietnam and will receive a full military funeral with honors in Austin. He will be buried in the Texas Veterans Cemetery in Killeen.
Ken Hunter said his father, who had three children, three stepchildren and seven grandchildren, retired in El Paso after more than 20 years in the military.
He worked as a substitute teacher before the IRS recruited him.
Hunter said work brought his father to Austin in the mid-1990s.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6877151.html
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Feb. 20, 2010, 10:17PM
Valerie Hunter had just stepped off the elevator at the northwest Austin building where she and her husband have worked for years.
She heard a loud explosion and felt a violent shake. She bolted toward the nearest exit with co-workers and started searching for her husband, Vernon, according to family and friends.
As minutes ticked away Thursday morning, she figured he was helping others escape. After all, she reasoned, he was a volunteer safety coordinator for his floor.
‘Would have helped him'
But after two days of helpless waiting, family members received confirmation Saturday that Hunter, 68, who was an Internal Revenue Service employee for more than two decades, was killed when a pilot identified as Andrew Joseph Stack III flew his single- engine plane into the building, which houses IRS offices. Stack died in the inferno.
“It still probably hasn't all set in,” Hunter's son, Ken Hunter, of San Antonio said. “It didn't seem like something that could happen.”
Before taking off, Stack left behind a lengthy letter blaming the IRS for many of his troubles and saying, “take my pound of flesh and sleep well.”
“My dad, in that building, he didn't write the tax laws,” Ken Hunter said. “If he would have talked to my dad, my dad would have helped him.”
In a prepared statement, Hunter's family said their thoughts are with Stack's family.
“We are not angry at them because they did not do this,” the statement said. “We forgive Joe for his actions, which took Vern's ‘pound of flesh' with him.”
Loved ones shared more stories of Hunter's life Saturday, as a second injured victim, Shane Hill, was released from a San Antonio burn unit.
“I am so blessed to be home today,” said Hill, an employee of the state comptroller's office. He requested privacy so that he can “focus on making a quick and full recovery.”
Another man in the building was treated and released Thursday, officials have said.
On Saturday, crews began removing parts of the plane. Officials said they hoped to reopen the frontage road of U.S. 183 today.
The American-Statesman also confirmed Stack's audio transmissions with an airport in Georgetown, where he departed around 9:30 a.m. Thursday. The conversations provide little indication of the destruction that happened minutes later, although Stack told an air traffic controller that he was heading south.
At Hunter's home in Cedar Park, friends, fellow church members at Austin's Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church and IRS co-workers tried to comfort his family.
Adopted as a child
Harold L. Jackson, 79, of Huntsville, Ala., and Hunter's oldest brother, said Hunter grew up in a small South Carolina town.
Hunter was adopted by the Jackson family when he was 2 months old and although he kept his original name, he was part of five brothers who called themselves “The Other Jackson 5.”
He joined the Army after high school.
Harold Looney, a retired Army chief warrant officer who met Hunter in 1962 when they were students in the military in Augusta, Ga., remembered Hunter as one of the most mild-mannered men in the military.
Relatives said Hunter served two tours of duty in Vietnam and will receive a full military funeral with honors in Austin. He will be buried in the Texas Veterans Cemetery in Killeen.
Ken Hunter said his father, who had three children, three stepchildren and seven grandchildren, retired in El Paso after more than 20 years in the military.
He worked as a substitute teacher before the IRS recruited him.
Hunter said work brought his father to Austin in the mid-1990s.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6877151.html
