Sept 11, 2001

Twenty years ago I was a brand new journalist in the US Army. After completing training I had been stationed at Fort Myer VA. It was my second week writing for the base newspaper, The Pentagram, covering the National Capital region.

I normally turned on the news while I dressed and even though I was running late that morning, I flipped on the news at about 8:55. I instantly stopped dressing as I watched the coverage of the first crash. When the South Tower was struck, I snapped out of it and called the shop to make sure they knew, no answer. I threw the rest of my uniform on and bolted out the door. I sprinted into the office and found everyone gathered around a tv.

Our office consisted of a public affairs officer and a public information officer (government civilian employees), the newspaper editor (sergeant) a staff writer (private first class), myself (private), an assistant editor, 2 staff writers, and a photographer (civilian contractors).

After hanging out watching the coverage for a few minutes, I told the PAO that it was clearly an attack and the Pentagon would inevitably have a briefing and that he should send me over there to wait for the briefing. Both of the other soldiers from my office were off base and I saw an opportunity to get assigned to an important story. I was shameless, hoping to get a jump at what I saw as a monumental moment in history. I was new, eager to prove myself and was convinced I was a good journalist because I had done so well in school (I was wrong.) He told me that they weren’t going to send anyone to the Pentagon until the briefing was announced. He also said that since I hadn’t written anything for the paper yet, he didn’t know if I was as any good and didn’t want to send me on something important yet.

We were all on his office when flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. I heard and felt the crash, but what I’d heard didn’t immediately register. About a minute later I looked out the window and saw our base commander running from his house (next door) towards our building (the post headquarters.) We all rushed out to the hallway and when he burst in he announced there had been an explosion at the Pentagon. We all knew what that meant. We immediately sent Dennis (staff writer) and Paul (photographer) to the Pentagon (about a mile away. They ended up being some of the first media on scene and came back with some powerful photos.

I still hadn’t received an assignment and was still watching tv when the South Tower collapsed. Most of the rest of the day became a blur of activity.

I got sent out to do a man on the street. The question I was supposed to ask was “How do you feel about what is happening today?”. Nearly everyone answered the same, just like nearly everyone in the country would have, a mixture of surprise, fear, and anger.