The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff;

Author:Garrett M. Graff;
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2019-09-10T16:00:00+00:00

“Can you get air support?”

* * *

Midmorning at the Pentagon

By late morning, officials realized few survivors would still be found inside the Pentagon. They labored to grasp the extent of the damage to the massive building, contain the still-spreading fires, and gather evidence of the attack. Meanwhile, evacuated Pentagon workers spread out across Arlington, beginning an anguished journey home as the initial shock of the attacks wore off. The morning’s collective nervous anxiety that more attacks might be afoot wouldn’t lift until the military arrived at the scene overhead.

Chris Combs, special agent, FBI, at the Pentagon: I grabbed a DPS guy—their SWAT team was there—and said I wanted the SWAT team. We had learned from studying with the Israelis that oftentimes after an attack the terrorists knew there would be a command post, and they would run a suicide bomber into the middle of it.

Stephen Holl, deputy chief, Arlington County Police Department: We put up a couple of our countersnipers on the Drug Enforcement Administration building on the other side of [Interstate] 395. That way they could overlook the entire south parking lot, where a lot of the relief efforts were set up.

Chris Combs: The other thing I requested right away was for the FBI to send our surveillance teams. If there was a truck bomb sitting somewhere else in Arlington or if there were four guys in a minivan with automatic weapons, we needed to find that before they hit us. We took our surveillance teams and had them drive around the Pentagon on the outskirts, looking for any other type of attack.

Scott Kocher, contractor, SAIC, Pentagon: This woman pulled up her car, turned on the radio. The announcer mentioned one of the Trade Centers had collapsed. Nobody could make much sense of that, because it seemed impossible. It wasn’t till later that we fully understood what that had meant.

Stephen Holl: One of the detectives brought a small television set to the command post, set it up on the back of one of the SUV tailgates. I looked occasionally, but I couldn’t watch it. What we had at the Pentagon was mind-numbing enough. I couldn’t even imagine what was happening in New York City.

Mike Walter, senior correspondent, USA Today Live : There was a guy from the Wall Street Journal . I remember him coming up to me later in the day, and he said, “Both the towers have collapsed.” I was like, “What?” He’s like, “There’s nothing left.” He pointed to the Pentagon and said, “Look at that—this is the biggest story we’ll ever cover in our lives.” He said, “I’m not even sure it’s going to end up on the front page tomorrow.” That was pretty amazing. Obviously the Pentagon did end up on the front page, but I think it’s always been a secondary story to what happened in New York.

Thomas O’Connor, special agent, FBI, at the Pentagon: We really didn’t know that the other buildings in New York fell until late that first night. We were so engulfed in what we were doing.

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