Inscribed
National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial
National September 11 Memorial South Pool · Panel S-72 Dan F. Shanower
Commander U.S. Navy
What they earned
×2
Also kept at
salute.nw ↗ Commander · Chief of Naval Operations Intelligence PlotIn memory of
Dan Frede Shanower
1961 – 2001 Today would have been the birthday. A white rose is at the name.
- Born in
- Naperville, Illinois
- Killed that day
- September 11, 2001, aged 40
- Lived in
- Arlington, Virginia
- Worked
- Commander, U.S. Navy
- Held on
- September 11, 2001 · The Pentagon
Commander, United States Navy, officer in charge of the Chief of Naval Operations Intelligence Plot - responsible for current intelligence to the Navy Secretariat, the CNO's staff and the Director of Naval Intelligence.
He played varsity soccer at Naperville Central and read political science at Carroll College, interning in the office of Senator Charles Percy while Percy chaired Foreign Relations. He was commissioned an ensign in June 1985 and went to VAQ-136 aboard the Midway as squadron intelligence officer, then to Subic Bay in charge of a Pacific Fleet support detachment.
He moved to the reserve in 1990 and served four years as a foreign service officer with the State Department in the Philippines, was recalled to active duty in 1994, and served with the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific in Japan and on the staff of Third Fleet aboard the Coronado. He came to the Office of Naval Intelligence in 1999 and took the Intelligence Plot in August 2000. He was promoted commander that December.
He wrote - fiction and not - and was published in the Naval Institute Proceedings. In May 1997 he wrote an essay called Freedom Isn't Free, about shipmates lost ten years before:
Those of us in the military are expected to make the ultimate sacrifice when called. The military loses scores of personnel each year. Each one risked and lost his or her life in something they believed in, leaving behind family and shipmates to bear the burden and celebrate their devotion to our country. They knew the risks they were taking and gave their lives for something bigger than themselves.
He loved the sea, sailing, diving and water skiing, and conversation, and politics, and telling a story. Carroll College gave him its first Distinguished Alumni Award for Service to Country in February 2002.
He was buried at Arlington on the first of October 2001.
Survived by
His parents Dr Donald and Patricia, his brothers Thomas and Jonathan, his sisters Victoria and Paula, and eight nephews and nieces.
Photographs
Named together
At their families' request, these names are cut side by side on the parapet.
See all 8 →Buried together
Buried together at Arlington, Section 64 · 48 lost together
What people have said 1
We never met, but I have read your name and I will not forget it.
S. Vincent Anthony 11 September 2026