I was a young LCDR working at my desk in the pentagon that day. As CWintington stated in an earlier post it was an absolute beautiful crisp fall day in Northern Virginia. There was not a cloud in the sky that morning and it was a shade of blue that I had never seen before nor have I seen since.
To understand my experience you need to first understand how the Pentagon is constructed. For those unfamiliar with the building it has five sides, five floors if you count the attic offices without exterior windows, and five rings. The "A" ring is on the inside with windows facing the 5 acre courtyard and the "E" ring that houses all of the executive offices has windows facing to the outside of the building. Only the "A" and "E" rings have a first floor go to ground level and have a first floor, the other three rings (B,C &D) have windows on both sides but are on concrete pillars like a beach house. My OPNAV N82 office was in suite number 4C460; so the fourth floor, "C" ring, side 4, room 60. We were extremely fortunate that day because side four of the building had just been remodeled with new windows that included a shatter proof film much like a your car’s windshield.
That morning someone came by my desk to say a plane had crashed into the WTC tower. I continued to work and a few minutes later the same person came by to say a second plane had crashed into the towers. At that point I stood up and walked into our break room which had a TV, where our entire office staff was glued to CNN. The next thing I can remember, is getting up off the floor with everyone else and my ears ringing. I felt as if I had been cold cocked. When I looked out the windows there were flames and inferno burning outside on both sides of our office. I would later learn a plane had hit the outside of the building at ground level. The wings had sheared off when it penetrated the "E" ring and the inertia of the plane’s fuselage had skidded under rings D, C & B knocking down the second and third floors before finally coming to rest with its nose against the outside of the "A" ring. At this point the rote Navy training kicked in for myself and LCDR John Eckerd the only other uniformed member working in our office that morning. We quickly assembled our 20 shook up largely female civilian colleagues, conducted a head and began our egress. The nearest exist was a stair well, but when we reach the door and put the back of our hands near the metal door it was hot, so we knew then there was a fire on the other side. We reversed course moving clockwise and headed to the nearest corridor. From the air corridors look like wagon wheel spokes, connecting the five rings where each of the building’s five sides come together. Again we checked the door for heat, it was cool, so we opened it and spilled out into the wide dimly lit corridor. Looking towards the "E" ring to our left, it looked like the LA River scene in the movie Terminator when Arnold shoots the gas tanker while riding on the motor cycle; black smoke and flames were rolling towards us down the corridor. Obviously we headed right towards the "A" ring, we went down three flight of stairs and out into the grassy court yard. The sky above us was still blue as hundreds of dazed people spilled out side with us. Our immediate assessment was the building had been bombed, but we did not know on which side or how how many sides the attack had come from. So, we decided the safest route was to go down into the Pentagon’s basement and then down into the METRO station in order to catch the underground train away from the scene. When we got down there, we found that the METRO system had been shut down all over the city, so eventual we had to come up outside the building at the METRO’s adjacent city bus station.
Thirty minutes after the event and once outside a full view of what had actually happened appeared to us all. There were dozens of rescue vehicles and helicopters, with black smoke rising and the strong smell of burning jet fuel in the air. No one’s cell phone would work, so our group walked over to Chrystal City mall where we knew pay phones existed. When we got there they had locked all the mall's doors. At that point our group separated, and I started walking the 2 miles north along the Potomac River towards the Rosslyn Metro station in hopes of catching the Orange Line heading west to my house in Vienna. Reaching the Memorial Bridge, which connects the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery, I saw thousands of workers from the district walking across the bridge to get their homes in Virginia. Finally, when I got to the Rosslyn metro station I found they had opened back up the above ground trains and I was able to get home around one that afternoon.
Epilogue. Standing there with my head spinning not knowing what had just happen. I ask God to please let me see my little boy and bride just one more time. So, mine is not a story of heroics, but one of pure divine intervention. My little guy just turned 29 and my bride and I have been married now for 31 years. Lastly, although it is caveman like, I have kept a land line phone in all our houses since.
To understand my experience you need to first understand how the Pentagon is constructed. For those unfamiliar with the building it has five sides, five floors if you count the attic offices without exterior windows, and five rings. The "A" ring is on the inside with windows facing the 5 acre courtyard and the "E" ring that houses all of the executive offices has windows facing to the outside of the building. Only the "A" and "E" rings have a first floor go to ground level and have a first floor, the other three rings (B,C &D) have windows on both sides but are on concrete pillars like a beach house. My OPNAV N82 office was in suite number 4C460; so the fourth floor, "C" ring, side 4, room 60. We were extremely fortunate that day because side four of the building had just been remodeled with new windows that included a shatter proof film much like a your car’s windshield.
That morning someone came by my desk to say a plane had crashed into the WTC tower. I continued to work and a few minutes later the same person came by to say a second plane had crashed into the towers. At that point I stood up and walked into our break room which had a TV, where our entire office staff was glued to CNN. The next thing I can remember, is getting up off the floor with everyone else and my ears ringing. I felt as if I had been cold cocked. When I looked out the windows there were flames and inferno burning outside on both sides of our office. I would later learn a plane had hit the outside of the building at ground level. The wings had sheared off when it penetrated the "E" ring and the inertia of the plane’s fuselage had skidded under rings D, C & B knocking down the second and third floors before finally coming to rest with its nose against the outside of the "A" ring. At this point the rote Navy training kicked in for myself and LCDR John Eckerd the only other uniformed member working in our office that morning. We quickly assembled our 20 shook up largely female civilian colleagues, conducted a head and began our egress. The nearest exist was a stair well, but when we reach the door and put the back of our hands near the metal door it was hot, so we knew then there was a fire on the other side. We reversed course moving clockwise and headed to the nearest corridor. From the air corridors look like wagon wheel spokes, connecting the five rings where each of the building’s five sides come together. Again we checked the door for heat, it was cool, so we opened it and spilled out into the wide dimly lit corridor. Looking towards the "E" ring to our left, it looked like the LA River scene in the movie Terminator when Arnold shoots the gas tanker while riding on the motor cycle; black smoke and flames were rolling towards us down the corridor. Obviously we headed right towards the "A" ring, we went down three flight of stairs and out into the grassy court yard. The sky above us was still blue as hundreds of dazed people spilled out side with us. Our immediate assessment was the building had been bombed, but we did not know on which side or how how many sides the attack had come from. So, we decided the safest route was to go down into the Pentagon’s basement and then down into the METRO station in order to catch the underground train away from the scene. When we got down there, we found that the METRO system had been shut down all over the city, so eventual we had to come up outside the building at the METRO’s adjacent city bus station.
Thirty minutes after the event and once outside a full view of what had actually happened appeared to us all. There were dozens of rescue vehicles and helicopters, with black smoke rising and the strong smell of burning jet fuel in the air. No one’s cell phone would work, so our group walked over to Chrystal City mall where we knew pay phones existed. When we got there they had locked all the mall's doors. At that point our group separated, and I started walking the 2 miles north along the Potomac River towards the Rosslyn Metro station in hopes of catching the Orange Line heading west to my house in Vienna. Reaching the Memorial Bridge, which connects the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery, I saw thousands of workers from the district walking across the bridge to get their homes in Virginia. Finally, when I got to the Rosslyn metro station I found they had opened back up the above ground trains and I was able to get home around one that afternoon.
Epilogue. Standing there with my head spinning not knowing what had just happen. I ask God to please let me see my little boy and bride just one more time. So, mine is not a story of heroics, but one of pure divine intervention. My little guy just turned 29 and my bride and I have been married now for 31 years. Lastly, although it is caveman like, I have kept a land line phone in all our houses since.
