About this hour twenty-five years ago, I was at my desk in the Pentagon when my XO rushed in and suggested I come look at the news. At the time, I was a Major General and Chief of Legislative Liaison for the US Army. In those days we had a TV on CNN in the reception area of our offices. The first aircraft had just stuck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. I remember we were debating at the time whether it could have been an accident of some sort, but already the consensus was likely a terrorist incident.
At 0903 the second aircraft struck and all doubt vanished. I had an immediate call from the Vice Chief that we were fully manning the Army Ops Center, and to notify Congressional leadership what was going on from our perspective. I had just hung up my second call which was to Trent Lott's chief of staff, when the building shook to the sound of a dull rumble. Bits of our ceiling tiles came down and the area began to fill with smoke reeking of burning fuel and insulation.
I walked my immediate staff out of the building while my XO called our larger team in another wing to insure they were in good shape. I then hurried around the corner from our ground level location hoping that this had been an Army Aviation incident of some sort at the helipad. The ground was littered with bits of silver, red, and white aluminum shards, not exactly the colors of a UH-60 and quickly disabused me of those thoughts.
Before the facade collapsed, we were able to help a few out of windows or open spaces in the side of the building. Most were badly burned. Several friends and colleagues in DCSPER and DCSOPS, as the G1 and G3 were then called, did not make it out to include the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel whose offices were directly in line with the aircraft impact.
The Army had responsibility for evacuation of Congress and key personnel, and most of the day was spent trying to coordinate and support that effort as Army aviation flew out members and key staff to secure locations. Early that evening key leadership returned. They had then called the SECDEF's office to get a briefing on what was known, and Rumsfeld was apparently too busy to be bothered. The next call was to Jack Keane who was Army Vice Chief of Staff and a man with excellent relations with members. He quickly grabbed a young major out of the intel team, sent him to me, and we headed over to the Hill.
We then met the congressional leadership in the Capitol Hill Police Headquarters conference room. Lott, Daschile, Hastert, Gephardt, and Armey among a few others were present. We briefed that our assumption was this was a terrorist attack perpetrated by Al Qaeda. We further briefed that we had no indications of an immediate follow-on attack. A quick discussion by the leadership ensued and a decision was made to fully open the government the next day. They then went outside, walked over to the Capitol steps and sang God Bless America in a show of national unity. The young major and I stood quietly off to one side before heading back to the Pentagon.
A lot has happened with our society over the last couple of decades - not a lot of it good. I pray we don't require a similar event to create such unity of purpose again. Sadly, I suspect we will. God's blessings on all those who were victims of that day - then and in the months and years that followed.
At 0903 the second aircraft struck and all doubt vanished. I had an immediate call from the Vice Chief that we were fully manning the Army Ops Center, and to notify Congressional leadership what was going on from our perspective. I had just hung up my second call which was to Trent Lott's chief of staff, when the building shook to the sound of a dull rumble. Bits of our ceiling tiles came down and the area began to fill with smoke reeking of burning fuel and insulation.
I walked my immediate staff out of the building while my XO called our larger team in another wing to insure they were in good shape. I then hurried around the corner from our ground level location hoping that this had been an Army Aviation incident of some sort at the helipad. The ground was littered with bits of silver, red, and white aluminum shards, not exactly the colors of a UH-60 and quickly disabused me of those thoughts.
Before the facade collapsed, we were able to help a few out of windows or open spaces in the side of the building. Most were badly burned. Several friends and colleagues in DCSPER and DCSOPS, as the G1 and G3 were then called, did not make it out to include the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel whose offices were directly in line with the aircraft impact.
The Army had responsibility for evacuation of Congress and key personnel, and most of the day was spent trying to coordinate and support that effort as Army aviation flew out members and key staff to secure locations. Early that evening key leadership returned. They had then called the SECDEF's office to get a briefing on what was known, and Rumsfeld was apparently too busy to be bothered. The next call was to Jack Keane who was Army Vice Chief of Staff and a man with excellent relations with members. He quickly grabbed a young major out of the intel team, sent him to me, and we headed over to the Hill.
We then met the congressional leadership in the Capitol Hill Police Headquarters conference room. Lott, Daschile, Hastert, Gephardt, and Armey among a few others were present. We briefed that our assumption was this was a terrorist attack perpetrated by Al Qaeda. We further briefed that we had no indications of an immediate follow-on attack. A quick discussion by the leadership ensued and a decision was made to fully open the government the next day. They then went outside, walked over to the Capitol steps and sang God Bless America in a show of national unity. The young major and I stood quietly off to one side before heading back to the Pentagon.
A lot has happened with our society over the last couple of decades - not a lot of it good. I pray we don't require a similar event to create such unity of purpose again. Sadly, I suspect we will. God's blessings on all those who were victims of that day - then and in the months and years that followed.
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