From Cook To Sept. 11 Hero

There were many heroes on Sept. 11. Some will never be recognized, but CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports an Army Ranger with medals for combat in Iraq and Yugoslavia was.

Staff Sergeant Christopher Braman never imagined he'd be fighting the enemy in the United States.

"As we went down the hallways, we recovered our first 17 of the victims," he recalls.

Assigned as a cook at the Pentagon, Braman is also a specialist in rescue and recovery. When the plane hit, he dove back into the burning building to help others.

"The woman that I first encountered, she was clapping her hands vigorously because she couldn't breathe, she was choking," he said.

The smoke was so thick and the heat so intense, the woman was severely burned. Braman risked his own life to pull her out.

"She said that she was on the ground praying, and said that the prayers were answered at that moment," he said.

Rescue quickly turned to recovery, and Braman never left. For four days he ignored his own injuries and worked to retrieve remains of fallen comrades.

The second day, the sergeant saw something amazing. It was in an office exposed by a wall that had been sheared off: A Marine flag was still hanging — untouched. Braman and other rescuers were determined to recover it.

"It was a symbol of America whether it be a Marine Corps, an Army flag, an American flag," he said.

At night, Braman still sees images too horrible to describe. In all, he pulled out the remains of 63 people.

"When our first body came up the rule was once you had the person you did not allow it to touch the ground again," he remembered. "We were falling over ourselves to make sure that it didn't hit the water...that it didn't touch anything, out of respect."

Battling a rare form of chemical pneumonia associated with jet fuel, Braman now is recovering at home with his family.

He has two new medals, a Soldier's Medal and a Purple Heart, but insists the best reward is hearing from that first woman he rescued, who calls regularly.

And that Marine flag that survived the attack? The military says it's being sent up on the next space shuttle — a symbol of perseverance amid destruction and despair.

©MMI CBS Worldwide Inc., All Rights Reserved