United States of America
Darin H. Pontell
Lieutenant
1975 – 2001





Vietnam Wall · Panel 73W
Lieutenant Darin H. Pontell served the Naval Intelligence - and Carrier Air Wing Seven aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower for 3 years. Darin was 26 years old.
How They Died
Manner
Homicide
Cause
Multiple traumatic injuries
Place
Virginia
What Happened
Killed at the Pentagon on the morning of 11 September 2001, when American Airlines flight 77 struck the western face of the building at 9:37. A hundred and twenty-five people inside and fifty-nine aboard the aircraft were killed.
Biography
Lieutenant, United States Naval Reserve, an intelligence officer. He was finishing a twelve-hour shift when the aircraft struck.
He was commissioned out of the Naval Academy in 1998 and trained at the Navy and Marine Corps Intelligence Training Command at Dam Neck, then went to Carrier Air Wing Seven at Norfolk as collections officer. He deployed to the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf aboard the Eisenhower, where he worked on strike planning and on getting reliable intelligence to the pilots flying the missions.
He married Devora Wolk in March 2001 and they lived at Gaithersburg. She said he was one of those people you hope to run across in life - thoughtful and generous, and wanting everyone around him happy; that he would do whatever it took to make his family and friends smile.
His eldest brother, Ensign Steven Pontell, had been killed in an aircraft accident in 1989.
He was commissioned out of the Naval Academy in 1998 and trained at the Navy and Marine Corps Intelligence Training Command at Dam Neck, then went to Carrier Air Wing Seven at Norfolk as collections officer. He deployed to the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf aboard the Eisenhower, where he worked on strike planning and on getting reliable intelligence to the pilots flying the missions.
He married Devora Wolk in March 2001 and they lived at Gaithersburg. She said he was one of those people you hope to run across in life - thoughtful and generous, and wanting everyone around him happy; that he would do whatever it took to make his family and friends smile.
His eldest brother, Ensign Steven Pontell, had been killed in an aircraft accident in 1989.
Survivors
His wife Devora, his parents Gary and Marilyn, his brother Michael, and his grandparents Louis Pontell and Lillian Makoroff.
Service Record
U.S. Navy
Naval Intelligence - and Carrier Air Wing Seven aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower
1998 – 2001
For service and achievement
Purple Heart posthumous
Memorials
National September 11 Memorial
Panel 73W · Line 2
cut as Darin H. Pontell
Also Remembered
September 11, 2001 — The Pentagon
In Our Keeping
Permanent identifier
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Record added
September 14, 2026
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Darin H. Pontell
Lieutenant
U.S. Navy
1998 - 2001
Naval Intelligence - and Carrier Air Wing Seven aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower
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