9/11

I sat in a dreary conference room on the 10th floor in one of the dozens of office buildings in Crystal City. There were no windows with views to distract us. The presenter talked from plastic slides rather than the overhead projectors we use today. The lights were out; the viewgraph machine alone provided illumination. The meeting began at 8:30.

By 9:00, I was already bored.

Crystal City is a place totally and utterly devoid of charm. It exists because the Pentagon exists. Tall glass and stone structures line either side of Route 1 in a north-south arc from the Pentagon through Arlington to Alexandria. Thousands of workers - military and civilian - come there each day to do the business of this nation's war fighting.

By chance I happened to be sitting in the northernmost building of Crystal City. Crystal Gateway 4 the developers called it. The Pentagon was about a half mile away. I decided I would venture into one of the outer offices during our first meeting break to catch a glimpse of it as well as the Potomac River and the Capitol. It was a nice day; the view would be good.

Just before nine, an office worker came into our conference room to tell us that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. He had no details. My initial thought was "How on Earth could a plane run into the World Trade Center?" Our meeting kept going though everyone was unnerved by the news.

Not too long after, that same office worker came into our room to tell us the second tower in New York City had been hit. The meeting quickly came unglued. But there were no TV sets we could watch. No one nearby had streaming video on his computer. We weren't sure what was happening in New York but for now, our work in Washington was set aside. Milling around was all we could do, all we could focus on.

Finally, about 9:30 we decided to resume work. The meeting had just gotten underway when that same office worker came in a third time to tell us we had to evacuate the building. The Pentagon had just been attacked.

I ran across the hall into a vacant office. From my 10th-floor vantage point, I could see the south side of the Pentagon. Thick, black smoke billowed up into the sky from the building's far side. But that was all I could see; the Pentagon itself obscured my view of the crash site. I wrote one final entry in my notebook before leaving: At this point (approx. 9:45 AM), Crystal Gateway 4 had to evacuate because of the terrorist attack on the Pentagon.

That day, the usual 50-minute trip back to my office took seven hours. I was anxious, frightened almost. I heard sonic booms that I initially thought were more explosions. The radio provided no solace, no answers. Only horror and sadness. I returned to hear that one of my co-workers - one I didn't know - was working at the Pentagon that morning and had been killed in the attack.

Five years later, the Pentagon is completely rebuilt, just the way it was on September 10, 2001. From the outside, you can't even tell the place had been hit. It looks the same as it always did.

Five years later, a big, yawning hole exists where the World Trade Center used to be. Ground Zero we call it. We wrangle still on how the site should be rebuilt. We can't decide what to put there, how it should look.

Five years later, we're told we're safer. I don't believe it, the longer lines at airports notwithstanding. Today the President will tell us he's spent the last five years fighting terrorism.

Five years later, I tell him the perpetrators are still at large.
K-