Special Report: Day Of Terror

Defense Chief Tended To Injured Then Got Back To Work; Some Reports Suggested That Fatalities Could Climb to 800; Pentagon Explodes As Staff Watches TV News

by Michael Doyle
The Minneapolis Star Tribune
September 12, 2001

 


A suicidal airplane plunged into the Pentagon on Tuesday morning, killing and injuring untold hundreds of Americans and savaging a building that has stood inviolate since World War II.

The hijacked Boeing 757 tore into the massive building's southwest side at about 9:40 a.m., while many of the Pentagon's roughly 24,000 workers were captivated by live television coverage of the burning World Trade Center complex.

"We were all watching together and kind of talking to ourselves about what other large American icons could be targeted," said Air Force Maj. Scott Smith, a KC-10 tanker pilot. "Then I heard a blast that sounded like a sonic boom.

"The whole room shook and there was a moment of, 'What the hell was that?' "

American Airlines Flight 77, bound out of northern Virginia's Dulles International Airport for Los Angeles, loaded with fuel and with 64 people aboard, was steered into the Pentagon's outer ring and crashed close to the helicopter landing pad used by top Defense Department officials. There was no firm report of the number of casualties. Officials put the number of dead and wounded at the Pentagon at about 100 or more, with some news reports suggesting it could rise to 800.

Among them was Flight 77 pilot Charles Frank Burlingame III, who was born in St. Paul, family members confirmed. He would have turned 52 today.

"We're still taking bodies out of this building," Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said grimly at an evening news conference.

"The numbers will be calculated, and it will not be a few."

Six bodies were carried to a doorway an hour after night fell, and recovery workers _ cautioned that they faced a difficult task _ were preparing to remove dozens more. It was unclear whether the bodies were of those who had been aboard the plane or people who had perished inside the building where 24,000 military and civilian personnel work.

The region's emergency medical system prepared for massive casualties from the attack, but by late afternoon, the network of hospitals in suburban Virginia and the District was easily able to care for the approximately 70 people brought to them.

By Tuesday night, firefighters were just gaining control of the fire.

Part of the area of the Pentagon that was attacked was recently renovated with new blast-resistant windows, and parts of it were empty.

"We're fortunate . . . in that the part where the plane hit was just beginning to be occupied," said John Jester, chief of the Defense Protective Service. "So part of it was occupied, but not all of it."

Rumsfeld was working in the building at the time but was not injured.

He helped load some of the injured into ambulances and then returned to work in the bunker-like National Military Command Center. None of the military's top leaders, including the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was known to be among those injured.

"This is a terrible day," Defense Department spokeswoman Torie Clarke said. "It is a tragic day for America."

Still, Rumsfeld made a point of stressing that the Pentagon _ completed in 1943 as the nation's largest federal government building _ will "be in business" today.

Smoke rising from the crash site was easily visible for hours from downtown Washington, across the Potomac River. Flames kept licking at the 34-acre building despite constant effort by fire crews.

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Steve Honan, a helicopter pilot now working as a legislative liaison, said he saw "aircraft debris' and "heavy pieces of metal" blown hundreds of yards from the building across a nearby highway.

By noon, FBI agents in blue parkas, gloves and baseball caps were carrying brown paper bags while scouring open spaces for telltale fragments more than half a mile from the crash site. The Pentagon's huge south parking lot was secured as a crime scene.

'A huge ball of flame'

Diane Armstrong saw the nightmare unfold. The civilian Defense Department employee was driving to work along the south side of the Pentagon when she noticed a low-flying plane where it shouldn't have been. Among those on the plane was lawyer and conservative commentator Barbara Olson. She calledher husband _ Solicitor General Theodore Olson _ twice by cell phone during the hijacking.

"The way it was approaching, it didn't look like it was making an effort to pull up," Armstrong said. "When it went into the building, there was a huge ball of flame."

At that moment, 34-year-old civilian mechanic Troy Breeden was chatting with friends in the Pentagon's inner courtyard. The sun was shining, and the sky was blue save for scattered clouds.

"I was just talking and the next thing I know this huge flame came over the building," Breeden said. "I didn't pay attention to what other people were doing then, I just took off."

Breeden thought at first that some fuel tanks outside the building might have exploded, but he said he didn't stop to figure out the details until he had raced through a tunnel to the outside. Inside the building, Pentagon workers were moving as quickly as they could.

Air Force Lt. Col. Ken O'Reilly, a KC-135 tanker pilot, said that the minute he felt the building shake, "we started figuring it was time to get out."

Overall, workers said, the Pentagon's evacuation appeared to be carried out in an orderly fashion. "It's the military," said one Army major, a specialist in Russian policies who declined to be named.

Some confusion still clouded the corridors along with the smoke and rattled nerves. Eric Orsini, the Army's deputy secretary for logistics and a wounded veteran from the Vietnam War, said afterward that "I do think we probably could build a better evacuation plan to smooth out some of the problems that resulted.

Civilian mechanic Leonard Donaldson said he didn't hear any explosion because he was busy banging on sheet metal in a workshop. But after leaving, he helped carry fire extinguishers back into the devastated building.

"You couldn't see your hands in front of your face," said Donaldson, 34. "There were ceiling tiles down, trash cans were blown everywhere, and plaster was falling down. It was just a mess."

Donaldson said that he "saw a lot of people brought out on stretchers." On the Potomac River side of the Pentagon, makeshift medical crews hauled casualties and laid them out on the grass before ambulances arrived.

Rumors ran quickly through the hundreds of uniformed and civilian Pentagon workers who milled about outside, beneath the constant chop of circling helicopters and fighter planes flying protective cover high overhead. At one point, hearing unconfirmed reports that another hijacked airplane was heading straight for Washington, a nervous woman and an Army officer declared, "One of the planes got through and we've got to get away." That started a rush away from the building.

The military professionals who were targeted by the attack said that in some ways they expected it or something like it.

"We were making some comments about if they attacked the Trade Center, why not the Pentagon, too," said Orsini, who was wearing a Purple Heart ribbon in his lapel. "It's what you would expect."

_ Staff Writer Terry Collins contributed to this report.

_ Michael Doyle is at mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com.

 

Copyright 2001 Star Tribune

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