story11296.xml
Title
story11296.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2005-02-15
911DA Story: Story
i was 10 when the pentagon was hit. i am now 14. i have a story, just like everyone else in this country. the only difference is, that nobody has ever listened before.
everyone was shocked. rumores were flying around the 5th grade faster than the flights that hit the pentagon and the twin towers - san fransisco is bombed. the white house was hit too. the president is dead. new york is a pile of ash. everyone is dead. everyone will be dead.
but the one thing, no matter where i went - "the pentagon only has four sides! its a square now!"
that might seem amusing, but it definitely wasnt then. my father was an officer in the army. he worked in DC, and i knew he went into the pentagon a lot. i spent the entire day listening to the announcements. "please send so-and-so to the office for pick-up". but it was never me, and that more than anything was what worried me. i wasnt sure what would happen if something had happened to my dad. would my mom come and get me, and my brother and sister? or would she leave us at the schools, presuming we were safer, and not wanting to worry us?
my dad had stayed home from work that day. i was lucky. hundreds of other kids werent. but i have an even deeper revelation, one that i did not learn of until much later, after being assured that my dad was safe.
in my dad's last 3 years in the army, he was in charge of the Litigation Division, or LitDiv. the offices ran at Ballston, in DC. i had been there many times, and even had a favorite paralegal who took me to get fries. but what i didnt know was that LitDiv was only in Ballston because their offices at the Pentagon were being renovated. a few weeks before the Pntgn was hit, the military considered moving LitDiv back into their offices, and moving the next 1/5 out in to Ballston. they decided instead to move the next 1/5 into the newly renovated offices for the time being. my dads offices.
the very same offices that were hit by a plane only a week later.
my father was supposed to have a dentist's appointment in the Pentagon. It was scheduled for 9/12.
everyone was shocked. rumores were flying around the 5th grade faster than the flights that hit the pentagon and the twin towers - san fransisco is bombed. the white house was hit too. the president is dead. new york is a pile of ash. everyone is dead. everyone will be dead.
but the one thing, no matter where i went - "the pentagon only has four sides! its a square now!"
that might seem amusing, but it definitely wasnt then. my father was an officer in the army. he worked in DC, and i knew he went into the pentagon a lot. i spent the entire day listening to the announcements. "please send so-and-so to the office for pick-up". but it was never me, and that more than anything was what worried me. i wasnt sure what would happen if something had happened to my dad. would my mom come and get me, and my brother and sister? or would she leave us at the schools, presuming we were safer, and not wanting to worry us?
my dad had stayed home from work that day. i was lucky. hundreds of other kids werent. but i have an even deeper revelation, one that i did not learn of until much later, after being assured that my dad was safe.
in my dad's last 3 years in the army, he was in charge of the Litigation Division, or LitDiv. the offices ran at Ballston, in DC. i had been there many times, and even had a favorite paralegal who took me to get fries. but what i didnt know was that LitDiv was only in Ballston because their offices at the Pentagon were being renovated. a few weeks before the Pntgn was hit, the military considered moving LitDiv back into their offices, and moving the next 1/5 out in to Ballston. they decided instead to move the next 1/5 into the newly renovated offices for the time being. my dads offices.
the very same offices that were hit by a plane only a week later.
my father was supposed to have a dentist's appointment in the Pentagon. It was scheduled for 9/12.
Collection
Citation
“story11296.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 23, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/17549.