story1052.xml

story1052.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-18

I am a Major in the US Marines. On September 11, I was stationed at Headquarters Marine Corps at the Pentagon. My office was immediately adjacent to the wedge that was struck. I had just returned to my desk from an office where I had seen the WTC towers get hit. It was 9:30 a.m. I was about to go and get a bottle of water from a snack bar when my phone rang. I almost didn't answer it, but something told me I should. It was my Brother, James J. Webber Jr., an American Airlines pilot. We discussed what had just occured when, at 9:45 a.m., I felt a severe "shudder" and heard two distinct explosions. I told my brother that something had just happened and that I had to go. We evacuated the Pentagon in an orderly fashion and immediately noticed the black acrid smoke rising from the bright orange flames. We made our way up the hill toward Arlington Cemetary when I noticed plane parts scattered over the ground. We made our way to Henderson Hall Marine Base where we began to notify the rest of the Marine Corps as to what had just happened. We worked throughout the day. I had attempted several times to notify my family, wife and four kids, that I was O.K. but to no avail. I finally made it home at about 3:00 P.M. and had not felt the trauma of the earlier events until I saw the faces of my wife and children. (Special note: The snack bar that I was going to go to was severly damaged in the attack. The irony of it all is that my Guardian Angle was an American Airlines pilot and it was an American Airlines aircraft that was used in the attack on the Pentagon)