"September 11, 2001: A View from the River."

Image credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/…/co…/3/37/Pentagon_on_9.11.jpg

September 11, 2001: A View from the River
by Marie Rundquist

Many remember the 911 terrorist attack on the Twin Towers as it happened in New York City on September 11, 2001 or the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. My recollection of the 911 terrorist attack on our country centers on the moment a plane, that had been commandeered by terrorists, plowed into the Pentagon in Washington, DC that same day. We lost friends, co-workers and loved ones in that attack.

I was in downtown Washington D.C., across the river from the Pentagon — at work. Our security officer interrupted a meeting I was in to let us know there had been an incident. I’ll never forget as we watched the news as it unfolded, gathered together in one of the conference rooms — reacting in horror as the Twin Towers were taken out by the first and then later the second of two planes and then we received news that another plane had crashed into the Pentagon.

The phone rang in one of the cubicles near where I was standing and I was asked to answer it. On the other end of the line was my concerned husband who had been trying to locate me after he heard the news. He told me to “Get out of Dodge.” I left the building immediately after hanging up and hurried to the nearest Metro Station. There was black smoke in the sky and the sound of sirens filled the air. Terrified, I stepped onto what would be the last Metro out of town that day — as there were several terror-related incidents that forced the closure of the system soon after I had made it on board the train I took out of the city.

No one spoke during that quiet and somber commute from Washington D.C. into the Maryland suburbs. We were too frightened to speak. I arrived home and received word from my son’s school that parents had been asked to pick up their children as soon as possible. I left my home and found my son among the students gathered in the main office where the school principal was serving cookies to anxious parents and students. After my son and I returned home, we turned on the news, staring in disbelief as the images of the horrific take down of the Twin Towers and the crash into the Pentagon repeated over and again — an endless cycle of smoke, fire, twisted metal, ashes, and human death that I will never forget.

My mother was alive back then; she called me on the phone shortly after we arrived home and told me that we were at war and this would be a day that none would ever forget. She was right. I wore a little silver locket that I had engraved with the words, “In God We Trust” in the shape of a cross for several years after 911 in honor of those who died on that day. I still have that locket. I forever mourn their loss. I learned later that a family friend had been the pilot whose life was lost in the Pentagon crash and we’d not see him again. I watched his sister many times on television petitioning for the 911 memorial that today stands in the place of the gaping hole that was left in the wake of the 911 tragedy in New York.

We are a Nation united, we stand behind our flag and honor those whose lives were lost that day and the first responders who risked their lives to save others. We cannot and will not forget 911.

-- Marie Rundquist
September 11, 2024