Patriot Day

From our underground office at the Pentagon, it was hard to understand exactly what was going on the morning of September 11, 2001. Every TV news channel was airing the same images - smoke billowing out of one of the World Trade Center towers, people frantically running down the street, reports of an airliner having crashed into the side of the building.

I am a pilot in the U.S. Air Force, and at that time I was sharing an office with a lieutenant colonel. Between the two of us, we tried to figure out how the airliner's crew could've lost control and crashed on such a clear day. The tone of our speculation changed dramatically the minute we saw a second plane hit the second tower. I didn't want to believe what my officemate began to suspect - that there could be more planes, more targets - but this was clearly no accident. Compelled to figure out what was going on, my officemate picked up the phone and called another friend of his whose office was upstairs in the Pentagon's west side.