This page contains news articles about Brian.




September 13. 2001

Former Marlborough High teacher receives sad message from doomed husband.
By NORMAN MILLER
News staff writer


MARLBOROUGH — When teacher Julie Sweeney got home from school Tuesday she heard her husband Brian’s voice for the last time on her answering machine.

Hey Jules, it’s Brian. I’m on a plane and it’s hijacked and it doesn’t look good. I just wanted to let you know that I love you, and I hope to see you again. If I don’t, please have fun in life, and live your life the best you can. Know that I love you, and no matter what I’ll see you again.

Brian Sweeney, formerly of Marlborough, died yesterday when the 767 jet he was flying in was hijacked by terrorists and was one of two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center buildings.

His wife, Julie Sweeney, was a physical education teacher and the cross country team head coach for two years at Marlborough High School until the pair moved to Barnstable earlier this year.

The couple had moved to Cape Cod because Brian Sweeney had got a new job as a consultant in the area.

Brian enjoyed life, " said Julie Sweeney. " He loved anything that was a challenge to him. He loved the outdoors. He was an amazing artist. He loved boating. He loved the beach.

Along with boating, Brian Sweeney loved old Jeeps, and had a few. He also loved his and Julie’s two dogs. Living on the Cape was a dream for him, his wife of two years said.

Brian is the most incredible person I have ever known — that I’ll ever know, " said Julie Sweeney. " He was trusting, he was brave. I can’t even put into words what kind of person he was.

A memorial service will be held later this week on Cape Cod, Julie Sweeney said.

Outside the Sweeney home in Spencer, where his parents live, an American flag flew in the air, and family members and friends stood talking on the front lawn.

Reporters kept coming to the door, relatives said, but it was too painful to talk about their loss any more. " Maybe in a few days, " one family member said.


September 13, 2001

School mourns a teacher’s loss.
By Bill Barnes
Hyannis News



The flags are at half-staff throughout the Dennis-Yarmouth School System as students and faculty share in the mourning of Julie Sweeney, a teacher and coach whose husband Brian, was killed when United Airlines Flight 175 slammed into the World Trade Center Tuesday.

Julie Sweeney, who joined the D-Y system this fall, teaches health and is the assistant cross-country coach at the high school. Her husband was a business consultant. They had been married for 2 1/2 years and had no children.

The Sweeneys moved to Barnstable just a few months ago, and according to their neighbor in Barnstable, Wendy Smith, he was like a little kid, just so happy to live on the Cape. He just bought a boat.

She characterized Sweeney as an unbelievable American, a top-gun pilot and a top-gun instructor.

Shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday, Sweeney attempted to call his wife from the hijacked airplane, according to D-Y acting school superintendent Tony Pierantozzi, and when he could not reach her, he called his mother in Spencer to tell her what was happening aboard his flight.

In a press conference Wednesday, Pierantozzi said that the Sweeney family had requested the media to respect its need for privacy.

He also said that to ensure that the educational process could continue without disruption, there would be no access by the media to students or staff on school property.

He said that so far as he knew no other members of the staff or student body had suffered directly from the terrorist incidents, but that student support teams were in place to provide counseling as needed.

Students were not permitted to watch television reportage in school on the disaster Pierantozzi said, because it was felt that parents should have control of what they could and couldn’t see, that teachers had been talking to the students about the events and their meaning.

On Tuesday, a large number of students left school early or were taken home by their parents in the wake of the terror attack, as many as 40 from the Nathaniel Wixon School alone, but attendance was back to normal on Wednesday.


September 18

Residents mourn with Sweeney family
By Nicole Simmons
Metrowest Daily News Staff Writer


Daily news staff writer, Dorinda Bell, with back to camera,
hugs Julie Sweeney, whose husband, Brian, died on
Flight 175. Staff photo by Milton Amador.









MARLBOROUGH — With tears in their eyes and hope in their hearts, almost 200 people gathered last night to honor the thousands who lost their lives last Tuesday, including former Marlborough resident Brian Sweeney.

A candlelight vigil organized by Marlborough resident Dorinda Bell and her 13-year-old son, John, started as an opportunity for teens to gather and express their grief.

With the arrival of Sweeney’s family, however, the gathering turned into a memorial for him.

This has been absolutely overwhelming for me with the community of Marlborough coming together like this, said Julie Sweeney, Brian’s wife of two years.

She wore his Navy jacket and carried an American flag folded in a triangle. Sweeney was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, a staff instructor for a year at the Top Gun Fighter Weapon School and served in the Gulf War. For the last six months he was a systems consultant with the Department of Defense.

The couple lived in Marlborough for two years before moving recently to Barnstable. Julie taught physical education and coached cross-country at Marlborough High.

Brian’s wife, his parents, Louise and Len, and his siblings came to Marlborough just for the vigil.

I feel such a sense of home here, Julie Sweeney said, adding that she’s received endless phone calls, letters and e-mails from Marlborough families, many of whom she doesn’t know.

The Sweeney family was able to meet some of those people last night as they gathered at the Bell home at 290 Lincoln St. with candles light

The community definitely needs to mourn, said state Rep. Steve LeDuc, D-Marlborough, a Marlborough native who attended the vigil. People are itching out of their skin to express themselves.

LeDuc said there will be a city-sponsored memorial service next Monday at a location to be announced, but for many they needed to do something sooner.

Marlowe Peltak, a seventh-grader at the Middle School, said she went to the vigil with her mom, Donna, and some friends to show respect for those who died. She said she was shocked when she learned after school last Tuesday that planes had crashed into two World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

I didn’t think it was real because I didn’t think it would happen here, Peltak said.

At 8 p.m., the crowd walked around the corner to the basketball court at the Immaculate Conception School.

The group formed a circle and listened over a megaphone to a collection of sound bites from radio and television broadcasts. A Sweeney family friend asked that they stop playing the montage, however, because it was visibly upsetting the family.

The group — some sitting in strollers, others walking with canes — sang patriotic songs, including songs, Proud to be an American, The Star-Spangled Banner and God Bless America.

Louise Sweeney said the cowards who attacked America couldn’t stop the community from uniting.

They don’t know our freedom, she said, crying. They don’t know our love ... I ask us all. Don’t let this end. Don’t let this end.

Marlborough showed the Sweeney family its love at the end of the vigil when the crowd joined hands, forming a circle around the Sweeneys, and then all moved in around them, giving them a symbolic hug, some waving flags and giving the peace sign over their heads.

Please understand that Brian, my husband, was not afraid to die, Julie Sweeney had said earlier. He was my angel here and he will be my angel until the day I meet him where he is.





Obituary

September 20, 2001

Brian D. Sweeney, 38
Navy officer on F-14 fighter jets; flight school instructor



Brian D. Sweeney, 38, a resident of Barnstable and formerly of Spencer, died Tuesday aboard hijacked United Airlines Flight 175, which struck the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. He was the husband of Julie L.(Busa) Sweeney

Mr. Sweeney was born in Worcester and lived most of his life in Spencer before moving to many locations with the Navy.

He also lived in Marlborough for two years, and for the last two months in Barnstable.

He was a 1981 graduate of David Prouty High School in Spencer, where he was co-captain of the football team and on the track team. He received a football scholarship to Boston University, played on the varsity squad for four years and earned a bachelor's degree in mass communications in 1986.

He received additional education in Navy postgraduate schools.

Mr. Sweeney was a lieutenant in the Navy and a Desert Storm veteran, protecting the no-fly zones.

He was a radar intercepting officer aboard F-14 Tomcat fighter planes in the VF-211 Bounty Hunters squadron, serving on the USS Nimitz and USS Ranger aircraft carriers.

He graduated at the head of his class at the Naval Officers Training School in Pensacola, Fla.

He was a staff instructor at the Navy's prestigious Fighter Weapons Schoo1 in Miramar, Calif., from 1995 to 1996, and a staff member for the Tomcat Strike Fighter Weapons School in 1993.

He was also squadron avionics/weapons division officer from 1991 to 1993 and squadron weapons training/tactics development officer from 1993 to 1995.

He worked for a variety of private sector aeronautical companies in recent years, including Lockheed Martin Corp., Spectratek Corp. and Horizons Technology.

Since March, he was a systems consultant for the Department of Defense and aeronautics industry at Brandes Associates in Los Angeles.

Besides his wife of two years, he is survived by his parents, Leonard H. and Luise A. (Mulhall) Sweeney of Spencer; two brothers, Kevin F. Sweeney and John P. Sweeney, both of Spencer; a sister, Anne E. Sweeney of Spencer; his maternal grandmother, Rachel V. Demers of Spencer; and aunts and uncles.

A celebration of his life was held at the David Prouty High School Athletic Field, 302 Main St.. Spencer.

Memorial donations may be made to the Brian D. Sweeney Fund, c/o Spencer Savings Bank, 176 Main St., Spencer, MA 01562.






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