Pentagon survivors recall horror of 9/11 attack, reflect on war

Twenty-nine people inside the Pentagon were killed when Flight 77 carrying 64 including five hijackers crashed into it. Located on the south side of the Potomac River opposite the city of Washington, DC, the five-sided Pentagon building is a massive symbol of US military power.

For the roughly 23,000 military and civilians who go to work there, September 11, 2001, started out as another day of routine. The heat of summer was fading and the weather was cooling amid the first signs of approaching autumn. The sky was clear blue.“It was just a beautiful, normal day coming to work at the Pentagon.” said Army Colonel Marilyn Wills, a congressional affairs officer who was sitting at a conference table in a meeting when a commercial airliner struck the Pentagon. American Airlines Flight 77 carrying 64 people including five al-Qaeda hijackers crashed into the west side of the Pentagon at 9:37 in the morning. The damaged area of the Pentagon building, where a commercial airliner slammed into it on September 11, is seen in the early morning at sunrise with the US Capitol building in the background, on September 16, 2001 [File: Larry Downing/Reuters]

Roy Wallace, who was assistant deputy chief of staff for the Army, was 50 feet from the path of the aeroplane crash. He vividly recalls the fire sucking the oxygen out of the room where he was. An officer staggered out of the fire and fell to the ground in front of Wallace, his uniform “a molten blob”. Lieutenant Colonel Brian Birdwell was yards from the plane when it hit. He was engulfed in flames. Wallace later retrieved a clock from his office. It had stopped 19 minutes after the time the plane struck.“That’s how long it took for the heat of the flames to melt the crystal, forever freezing the hands in time,” Wallace said at Wednesday’s media briefing. With the building still smouldering and the US on high alert, the Army’s focus quickly turned to preparation for deployments to Afghanistan, recalled Mark Lewis, acting secretary for manpower and reserve affairs at the time ....................... Source:.ctvnews.ca