It’s gotten a little better as time has passed but still the sad fact is Americans don’t know how lucky we are that the death toll on 911 was a few thousand instead of more than twice that much. Also, for too many years after Rudy G. and Republicans BLASTED the notion that only NYC suffered. A bit of mention was made about the passengers who stormed the flight deck of one of the planes and forced it to crash in a field in Pennsylvania. Then there’s the Pentagon, and I know plenty about that. Had Flight 77 struck any other wing the deaths would have far exceeded those in the twin towers.
As it happens I worked closely with the families of two of the Pentagon victims. I explain more on that in a bit but for now I can say they (and from what they told me others) felt like the country didn’t know or care about them and the Pentagon part of the 911 attacks. That it was all, ALL about New York City. The Twin Towers. Those who died. And NYC firefighters. THEY didn’t seem to count for sh*t. And you know what? I don’t care if you get pissed at me for saying this but they didn’t’. Think about Rudy G., including and especially at the 2004 convention talking 911 and New York. In my adult life I’ve made a point of watching both conventions and not once did I hear Rudy or any other GOP leader mention that attacks took place AND Americans died in places other than NYC.
I said I know more than most of our readers about the Pentagon attack because I do. During my days on active duty in the Marines I stood duty at the Naval Command Center for a time. It was in C-Ring and right where the plane hit. That was sobering to me. Second, even back in the 1980s the building was starting to crumble. There was talk of razing it and building something new. In the end the decision was made to rebuild it from the inside, wing by wing. Much stronger than before. It was originally built for WWII and not intended to house the DOD for generations. However the design is brilliant and in most cases it’s possible for a person to get from the fifth deck at one ‘corner’ to the basement at the farthest point away in less than five minutes!
Twenty-five thousand or so people work at the Pentagon, and the wise decision was made to refurbish one wing at a time. Some folks were squeezed into other spaces in the building and some had to work in other nearby office space. But five thousand workers (plus) were moved out while extensive construction took place out of sight. The work had only been (mostly) completed less than two weeks prior to the attack. Various office spaces had workers completing “punch-out’ lists and only a few hundred people had moved back into their offices. In another month five thousand or more workers would have been in that wing instead of less than five hundred.
Had the plane struck any other wing it would have plowed all the way through the innermost (A) ring and the whole wing would have collapsed. Worse, had the terrorist at the controls steered it to crash in the courtyard not only would the plane have taken out an an entire wing but the whole A-Ring. It was pure luck the plane hit the (newly) strongest part of the building and it was nearly empty. There were however people in there, as well as people working in offices at the ‘corners’ of the wing as a fireball of flame shot down corridors.
Many a trooper and some civilians too ran, RAN into the danger rather than wait for firefighters to show up. At great risk (and sometimes sever injury to themselves) they displayed heroism EVERY BIT the equal of NYC’s firefighters. Hundreds of people were saved by them. As well as firefighters who responded. It took FAR too long for a memorial to be created at the Pentagon but eventually one was. Yet it usually takes second place to NYC and the site of the crash in Shanksville Pennsylivania is even more overlooked if not forgotten.
I take it personally that most people overlook the incredible set of circumstances that prevented the body count at the Pentagon far exceeding that in NYC. They also overlook the heroism of those passengers on the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania. Not just the group that stormed the terrorists and the cockpit but the other passengers who realized what was going to happen and resigned themselves to their fate.
Anyway, I know from personal/professional experience how this country so shamefully overlooked victims in places other than NYC. I’ve lived a a varied and interesting life which includes having been the Cemetery Manager for the Town of Herndon, Virginia. (It’s just outside Dulles airport) I won’t bore you with details of that awful morning, but will talk about the fact two of the victims were buried in my cemetery. One was a longtime civilian employee who’s office was in the wing that was hit but he was actually on the plane that morning on official travel. He was in his late thirties and left behind a wife and two adorable kids under ten years old.
The other was a just retired Navy Captain. The man retired rather than accept an assignment for an unaccompanied year long assignment in Central America. He might well have been able to retire as an Admiral but had two college age kids and a wife that had put up with her share of absences during his career. He had the opportunity to, as a civilian take a job working with the same people on the same mission as he would have had he stayed on active duty. This Navy Capt. decided his wife and kids had sacrificed enough so he retired, looking forward to being a full-time husband and father. And eventually a grandad. He’s just moved back into his new office a few days before the plane hit.
I worked with both families, both the widows and the children (including ‘L.T.’s young kids who hopefully wished a Pentagon could be carved into their dad’s headstone) to design their monuments. I’ll never forget the look on the kids faces seeing their dad’s headstone and mom telling them to look at the back. They lit up when they saw a large, beautifully rendered Pentagon carved into the granite. The Captain’s wife told me upfront money wasn’t an issue and gave me a figure of what she and the kids wanted to spend. It was huge, black granite (expensive) with flower vases on both sides of the base and among other things included a color rendering of the medal awarded to the victims.
Both grave markers got a lot of notice, especially as they were only twenty yards apart. People in town knew two of their own were 911 victims and when visiting their own loved ones would often pay a brief visit to these two gravesites. That brought some comfort to the families which I saw regularly until I resigned from that job. (Long story) Both widows in particular tried not to let it show but sometimes it would slip out how ignored they and other Pentagon victims families felt. I could go into a lot of details about the things they had to address in the aftermath but it’s that emotion that’s always really gotten to me. Victims of this attack on our country feeling (with justification) that the country didn’t acknowledge THEM or their loss.
I think about it more than you might think and of course a lot each year when this date comes up on the calendar. I had the TV on and saw Hegseth concluding some remarks and thought again about how long it took for news outlets to cover ceremonies other than in NYC. Then he introduced Trump who of course had my blood boiling right off the bat.
Our PIECE OF SH*T President started off NOT by honoring the victims and the heroes who rushed into the flames and collapsing structure to rescue others, but with a couple of minutes of lionizing Charlie freaking Kirk. About what he ‘hero” HE was and that he’d be getting a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Oh, and that it would be a huge ceremony with more people than you can believe. For families of 911 victims in attendance I can’t imagine the pain this inflicted. Trump’s remarks would include some mention of the Pentagon but he talked just as much about NYC and threw in a reference to Shanksville. He also made a BFD about renaming the DOD into the WAR Dept. How we always won until we started calling it the DOD. How “everyone” agreed it was overdue and even essential to rename it.
Over and over Trump rhetorically slapped the families of the Pentagon victims. And the heroes who ran into danger to prevent more lives from being lost. Once again, he made them feel like (at best) an afterthought. So, here I am asking you to remember that NYC wasn’t the only target. Nor the only place where Americans lost their lives, or other American displayed actual heroism. Please. for a little while think about this and adopt the motto of my Marine Corps in the spirit of Semper Fidelis.
Very well said, Denis. Thank you.
Thank you for your kind comment. Tonight I’m filled with sadness over the fact that despite the title image and the headline not even a hundred people have clicked on the article. There was so much more I could have said, and even wanted to say to try and describe the effects the attack had in the DC area. My day had started like it always did. Head to the cemetery and spend some time talking with my grounds superintendent and I spoke with some families visiting loved ones. Then to the office, a bit later than normal. I had dug into working on getting an order placed for a monument and called up the guy who’d ordered it (for his mom and dad) to confirm the details. While we were talking he apologized for being distracted and given what was going on hoped I understood. I didn’t have a clue WTF he was talking about. Once he told me I realized why no one else was in the old Town Hall where my office was. My assistant was off that day but I later learned the town attorney and his assistant were over at the main govt. building.
I called across the street to the funeral home knowing they had a TV going and asked to come over. When I got there Chris was at work trying to borrow a funeral coach from another town because he had two funerals that afternoon and only one funeral coach (hearse) available. Bill had one of theirs that he’d taken to Arlington National Cemetery that morning and he (a fellow jarhead) was right there as the plane came screaming over and hit the Pentagon. The cemetery itself was locked down and he’d been told he wouldn’t be allowed to leave until he’d spoken with federal agents which he knew would be hours!
Years later when living and working in WV the husband a couple I knew down the street had the husband who questioned the official narrative. He was a sculptor and an Army Veteran so political differences aside we got along well. I told him about Bill and that was that. The word of a jarhead and fellow Veteran was all he needed and sometimes he’d tell me about shutting friends down with the CT talk. I also had to, sadly more than once shut down the husband of one of our direct care workers over the same CT crap. I liked them both. Quite a bit and Deena’s hubby and I would get into some spirited debates. But I was harsh when he’d try to float the CT crap. I’d explain things I wrote in my article to counter his bullshit about the plane disintigrating. The new, far more robust construction and the fireball and flames ensure there’d be litttle wreckage. And I reminded him of being on the phone with a fellow jarhad and Gulf War I veteran who was in Arlington Cemetery that morning after the plane hit. I flat out challenged him to call me and my colleague Bill liars. The look in my eye always made him back down and eventually he grudingly came to accept the CT was bullshit.
Anyway, I have a heavy heart tonight. So few people have looked at this article. It tells me what I gleaned from victim’s families. that for most people Pentagon and the passengers who crashed the plane in PA don’t count. Only NYC does. Not that all those victims and their families shouldn’t be remembered. They damn well should. But goddam. They and everyone else should have the decency and compassion to give more than minor lip-service (and often not even that) to non NYC victims, their famlies and the responders.
One of my staff lost her Dad in that Pentagon strike that day, I will never forget that tragedy. Great article and perspective, Dennis, Thank you.
Please tell your staffer for me that some of us DO know in our hearts they suffer just like the NYC victim’s families have suffered. And are appalled this country as a whole doesn’t properly acknowledge or honor them. Tell her for me how proud I am to have served two of the victims and (having had formal training in counseling) helped them at least partially to work thro0ugh their grief.
I will also carry in my heart until the day I die the gratitude expressed to me for caring and getting others to care (people would leave flowers at the graves, and even tell them how the cemetery had spread word those two men were buried at Chestnut Grove). Some of us will always remember those who have been largely forgotten. Please let her know that.
I don’t forget them. Ever. I wrote about NYC because I was on the edge of Manhattan and could see the smoke. It’s not at all fair that they are a small side note. I know someone who was in the Pentagon that day, and he was lucky enough to be in another area. It will haunt him to the end of his time here on earth. It will haunt me to the end of my days here on earth.
And unsurprisingly, PTSD joined me because of it. A group of us went down to see the wreckage, thinking it would help cope. A backhoe looked like a Tonka toy next to the piles of wreckage. That made it worse. And I was lucky because 2 of my friends were on a train that was delayed and therefore, weren’t at work when the Towers fell.
I posted a piece about this and struggled with words for months.
So I don’t forget. Ever.
Thank you Denis. My oldest woke to the news of the first hit. We watched as the 2nd hit, & the buildings fell. My Navy, now retired, Capitan cousin was in the Pentagon, that day. Luckily, he survived. My son was friends with the daughter of the heroes of the 4th plane. They were able to call & tell him what was going on, & so they stormed the cockpit. I’ll never forget any of the 4 planes, the loss, & the heroes.
Denis, Don’t be too sad thinking not may people read your article. Many more did later. I for one can never read Politizoom right away — there are so many articles each day and I want to read them thoroughly, so I do not do so until I have enough time to read them fully. Thank you for writing and reminding us that Sept. 11 involved many more people than just at the World Trade Center.