lc_story270.xml

lc_story270.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2004-01-21

I am a Major in the United States Marine Corps and currently work in the Joint Tactical Radio Sysytem Joint Program Office in Rosslyn, Va. On Septemeber 11th, 2001, information filtered into my office that a commerical airliner had just slammed into the WTC building. Then the second one hit, followed by the reports of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. From our office windows we could saw the billows of smoke from the Pentagon and we decided to close down the office. I immediately made my way to the Pentagon to see if I could be of assistance.
When I arrived there was chaos everywhere and I linked up with a triage unit. I spend the next four days at the Pentagon assisting with the victim recovery efforts. On the 12th of September, President Bush made a visit to the compound and it really lifted our spirits. I was able to brief the President on the tasks we (mortuary recovery team) were performing.
The next day the demo crew started to knock down some of the damaged areas of the Pentagon, so as not to pose a threat to the crews we were sending into the building. Up in the exposed third floor, just inches from the where the building had crumbled down, stood a Marine Corps flag surprisingly unscathed by the turmoil, but now threatened by the demolition. Being one of the only Marines on the scene, I decided that the USMC colors would not become another casuality in the conflagration.
Asking numerous heavy equipment crews, I finally found one that would lift me in a cherry-picker up to the ledge and retrive the flag. Local and national media saw the fire crew and me carrying the flag away from the rubble and captured the moment on tape and film. The Washington Post carried the picture on page 1. The image has since appeared in other newspapers, magazines, and books. It was the kind of spontaneous moment that the folks on-site needed and the effect wasn't lost on the local viewing public.
Later I presented the colors to General Mike Williams, the Assistant Commandant of the USMC. I basically refused requests to talk about what we had done and I asked the reporters to focus more on the firefighters and medics. To this date I haven't written or said much about the those four days (sep 11-14), but I will never forget them. I often think about some of the victims we took out of the Pentagon ... I do hope their loved ones know they were treated with reverence when their remains we taken from the Pentagon.