story1955.xml

story1955.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-09

I work as a defense contractor in northern Virginia. Until June 2001, I had been working in the Pentagon. On September 11, 2001, I was working at a nearby office building in the Clarendon area. After doing my "morning chores," my plan was to take the Metro over to the Pentagon for a haircut, banking (my credit union has a branch there), and to pop in on the folks I used to work with.

My first inkling that something had happened came with a co-worker running down the aisle, yelling that a plane had hit the Twin Towers. I walked into an adjacent office and turned on the small TV there.

I watched as the 2nd plane hit the other tower. Everyone there said, "This is a terrorist attack." We were in a 14-story building (on the 3rd floor) and suddenly we were looking out of the big plate-glass windows, scanning the sky for anything that might be flying towards US.

Then we heard that the Pentagon had been hit and it was surreal seeing the WTC/Pentagon on split-screen on the TV and also looking out the window and seeing the black smoke billowing from the Pentagon.

I called my wife (she works for another defense contractor in Vienna). She was not there, but I left a voicemail telling her what had happened and that our building was being evacuated (she knew I had planned to travel to the Pentagon that day).

The "orderly evacuation" of our building turned into everyone leaving, all at once, from the underground parking garage. As I inched my car forward, wanting to get out of there into open air and trying to hear the AM radio reports, I couldn't think of anything but calling my parents and relatives and letting them know that I was OK.

I got out onto Washington Blvd in Arlington and headed home. OK...inched my way home. There was a lot of traffic. People nervously scanning the air from their car windows. Other folks ALREADY flying U.S. flags from their vehicles (amazing).

I tried to call my Mom from my cell, but all lines were jammed. I tried to call my wife...same deal.

I finally arrived home about 45 minutes later (normally a 10-minute commute). Several of my neighbors were standing outside, looking up. By this time, Air Force fighters were screaming overhead and setting up defensive air patrols over the capital.

I went inside and turned on the TV. I fixed myself a strong drink and tried to e-mail everyone I knew. Surprisingly, the Internet was not affected so I was able to let my in-laws know, as well as everyone on my mailing list, that I was fine. My parents, however, did not have a computer, so I continued trying to contact them. No dice.

About 3 hours later, my first wife called to find out if I was OK. I told her to call my Mom and let her know I was fine. Amazingly, my Mom did not know anything had happened. She normally has the TV on, but for some reason, she chose not to turn it on that particular morning. I'm kinda glad she didn't see the Pentagon stuff when it happened.

The rest of the day was spent watching TV, fielding phone calls and e-mails from friends and family, and just not believing what I was seeing.