Where were you on September 11, 2001?

Where were you on September 11, 2001?

… People say I'm the life of the party

'Cause I tell a joke or two

Although I might be laughing loud and hearty

Deep inside, I'm blue

… So take a good look at my face

You'll see my smile looks out of place

If you look closer, it's easy to trace

The tracks of my tears

Editor’s Note: On Wednesday Lynn Gardner sent me his remembrance of September 11. Turns out we were both in the Pentagon Containment Area during and after the attack, though we didn’t realize that until this week. Here’s Lynn’s story of being at the Pentagon during the attack, followed by my story of watching the attack from a nearby window. The story I told you was coming today, The 2024 Election is Irrelevant, will run September 22nd.

The Sunday Reader, Sept 15, 2024

Lynn Gardner’s story:

Today is September 11th and as the events of over two decades ago I hope my friends will take a moment today to remember that this day back in 2001. I know I will not forget as I was there at the Pentagon.

In 2001, I was a Contracting Specialist with the Navy Engineering Logistics Office, a front organization for the Office of Special Projects, a black budget organization buried deep within the Department of the Navy.

Previously there had been a massive contract awarded to renovate the Pentagon as in the late 1990's the Pentagon was still as it was when it was built in the 1940's (no fire suppression system, windows that opened, no central air conditioning, and such). To accomplish the remodeling it was determined that the work would be done one wedge at a time to minimize disruption.

For those that do not know, if you look down from overhead you see that the Pentagon is divided into 5 rings and 5 wedges (sort of like slices of pizza). So the remodel was done one wedge at a time. In August of 2001, the contractor had completed the first wedge, that is installed a modern HVAC system, retrofitted blast walls, installed bulletproof glass on all the windows that no longer opened, removed all the asbestos and lead paint and such, and staff were going to move back into the renovated offices beginning in September.

I had been tasked with ordering new office furniture for the organization's sponsor (the person that delegated the black budget funding to all the skunk works projects). This furniture was custom-built at considerable cost and I was sent to the Pentagon on September 10th to make sure everything had been built and delivered according to the contract.

I visited the D Ring where the office was located and all the furniture was as ordered and I looked out the the window through the bullet proof glass to the parking lot outside and thought this is a pretty nice location.

The next morning, I was having a smoke outside of my office across from the Pentagon and all of a sudden there was this loud explosion and smoke rising from the building. I did not know until later in the day but the terrorist had flown? the plane into the D Ring near where I had been the day before. So I will not forget 9/11 and those who attacked us. So I hope everyone will take a minute to remember where you were today so many years ago and remember those that are not with us anymore.?

Buy Me a Cup of Coffee

Feola’s story:

September 11, 2001: I'd moved from Leesburg, Virginia to Texas in 1999, but was back in Northern Virginia in Tyson's Corner for a Newspaper Association of America conference.

My habit before that - and never after - was to turn on CNN while getting organized in the mornings when I was on the road. So I had CNN on while I got ready for the last day of the conference before flying back to Dallas that afternoon. While I was packing they cut away from some morning chat thing or other to show smoke coming from one of the Twin Towers.

While they were speculating as to the cause - a small plane accident? - the second plane came into view, clearly steering for the other tower. I remember thinking "Dear God, that's no accident."

A little while later the last plane hit the Pentagon, which was about 7 miles from my hotel, and a tower of smoke rose outside my window while my hometown burned on the television.

The hotel was inside the containment zone for the Pentagon attack - total shutdown, no airline flights, no vehicles on the roads. Family and friends were frantically trying to reach me. We had lived 15 miles west in Leesburg before Texas, and so they knew how close I was to the attack. But the phones were down; it was six hours before I could let them know I was physically fine, but would not be home that night... I ended up stranded there for a week.

Eventually I went down to the conference, which of course was cancelled. We all sat around watching the news on television: the crash in Pennsylvania. The horror as the towers collapsed. I remembered watching them being built when I was a child. Now they were gone.

The conference attendees were high-level new media newspaper executives, so eventually they started moving and shaking. Someone somehow rented a panel van and came up with a plan: they were going to somehow sneak out of the containment zone, then head south and drop people back at their respective newsrooms. First stop Atlanta; then Jacksonville, Florida; Houston; and, eventually, Los Angeles. Did I want to go with and get dropped off in Dallas in two or three days?

Now in those days I was VP/Technology at Belo Interactive, so I was carrying the high-powered IT laptop I worked on at my desk, which had a docking station. And the hotel had high-speed wired Internet. So my choices were days in a van offline, or pitching in with my team on the laptop. So I chose to remain stranded.

Of course, Feola gonna Feola, so I was "stranded" in a Four Seasons Hotel with room service, high-speed wired Internet and an expense account...Some of the van riders checked in to say that it had turned into a sort of death race thing, with people driving in shifts while the passengers were trapped in the windowless rear of the vehicle, eating gas station food and trying to sleep.

Sounds just awful, I told them. By the by, have you tried the Four Seasons shrimp cocktail?

The van left Monday night, and made it to Houston late Wednesday. So it would have gotten me to Dallas Thursday.

Flights resumed by the end of the week, and I flew home that Friday. I still find it difficult to watch any old movie that shows the New York skyline with the twin towers.


Next on Perfecting Equilibrium

Tuesday September 17th?- The Perfecting Equilibrium Digest

Friday September 20?- Foto.Feola.Friday Vlog: More images from the Pentax 17

Sunday, September 22 — The 2024 Election is Irrelevant: Every election is pitched as The Most Important Decision of Our Lifetime…and then isn’t. But this election features 20th Century Candidates and 20th Century issues while the burgeoning Information Age changes the political geography.

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