Thank God For Unanswered Prayers

By H. David Pendleton

Lenexa, KS



It was September 2001 and I worked in the Office of the Chief of the Army Reserve (OCAR) that operated out of a ten-story building in Crystal City, Virginia. The skyscraper is located about three blocks from the Pentagon. Due to a reorganization, my OCAR section would become part of the Army staff’s G-1 (Personnel) section at the Pentagon.

Beginning in the fall of 2000, the Pentagon began a five-year renovation of the historic five-sided building quickly erected during World War II. The reconstruction plan called for the renovation of one-fifth of the structure while work continued in the other four-fifths of the building. The deadline for the first section, Wedge One, was Labor Day 2001.

Like most construction projects, there were delays. Instead of moving in after Labor Day, the move-in date was pushed to mid-September. My OCAR office would move into Wedge One with the rest of the Army G-1. When completed, there would be 4,500 people working in Wedge One. About 800 people had their areas completed and received permission to move in just after Labor Day.

My office was not finished and I could not move with the early group. On the morning of 11 September 2001, I remember completing my physical training and then going up to my Crystal City office. I also remember complaining to a co-worker that we had not move yet and how I wish we could already be in the Pentagon. Our office files were already in moving boxes waiting for the move. Sometimes to do my job, I would have to search through a box for a particular file.

Just before 0900 hours, one of my co-workers said a plane had crashed into one of the north tower at the World Trade Center in New York. We stopped what we were doing and turned on the television as we speculated on how it could happen. My co-workers and I watched the news and saw live the second hijacked plane crashed into the south tower.

As we continued to watch the news, one of my colleagues looked out our window and said that he saw smoke coming from the Pentagon. The time was about 0938 hours. Some officers standing around wanted to rush over to the Pentagon but our supervisor told us to hold tight. A few minutes later, we received word to evacuate our building at Crystal City and we gathered in a courtyard outside.

There were about 200 military personnel, mostly in Class B uniforms, standing about. My first thought was that if this were a terrorist attack, could there be secondary attackers with machine guns? There was no place for us to hide in the courtyard that was in the corner of the block flanked by two streets. Most people’s cell phones did not work for whatever reason. One of my fellow officers had a different plan and her phone worked. She allowed me to borrow it so I could call my wife and tell her I was okay.

Soon, the word went out that military personnel with true medical experience—doctors, nurses, medics—should immediately go to the Pentagon. Everyone else was to remain put. There were about twenty OCAR personnel that met the qualifications and they immediately started walking the three blocks to the Pentagon.

About 1100 hours, the senior OCAR officer gave us orders to go home. Most employes travel in DC  via the Metro system (subway). Many workers also had taken the light rail to reach the city. This included me as I lived at Fort Meade, Maryland and park at the Odenton train station where I caught the light rail to Union Station in DC before switching to the Metro. In the panic that ensued, now that it was a known terrorist attack, the DC police had shut down both the Metro and the Light Rail systems. There was no way for the majority of us to return to our homes the way we arrived.

A few workers had driven into work that day and they began shouting out where they lived and how many seats they had in their vehicle. The OCAR sergeant major shouted out, “Fort Meade. I live at Fort Meade. I can take three people with me.” I was not that far away and I was the first to reach him. Soon, we had two enlisted men join us to ride in the sergeant major’s truck.

I suggested that we all should go to the latrine before we left. Everyone did and it was a good thing. It took a long time for us to get home that day. Most commuters were fleeing the metropolitan DC area in response to the terrorist attack on the Pentagon. We chose to drive south through Alexandria and hit the beltway there instead of going east through DC itself. It took us one hour to travel one city block. It took us another hour to travel one mile—we had an almost fifty-mile trip to Fort Meade. It took us another hour to travel about ten miles.

By this time, about 1600 hours, we had reached the beltway. There were few cars on the beltway. Usually, it was a moving parking lot at this time but not today. We traveled at the speed limit the entire way to the Odenton train station where the sergeant major’s passengers had parked our cars.

I reached Fort Meade about 1800 hours. The line to enter the military base where the National Security Agency (NSA) is located was several blocks long. The military police were stopping each car and checking it for explosives. The MPs opened the hood and trunk of each car. The MPs opened all the doors and made everyone get out of the vehicle. The MPs even used a mirror on a six-foot-long handle to examine the underneath side of each vehicle. It was 2100 hours before I reached my house. It had taken me about ten hours to travel fifty miles.

I received word to not come to work the next day. When I returned to work, I worked a special detail for six months working the nightshift four nights in a row followed by 48 hours off. When I completed the special duty assignment, I returned to my regular OCAR duties.

There were 123 people killed in the terrorist attack on the Pentagon including the Army Chief of Staff G-1, LTG Timothy J. Maude. It could have been worse. The renovation of the Pentagon included the installation of a sprinkler system; a web of steel columns and bars; and blast-resistant windows. If the terrorists had crashed the plane into any other of the four wedges without the renovations, there would have been many more dead.

The workers began repairing the damage in Wedge One almost immediately. Their goal was to have the repairs completed in time for the first anniversary of 911. The workers met their goals and I moved into the Pentagon and my  new Army G-1 office in September 2002.

On the wall, not too far from my office, was a diagram of Wedge One with the image of the hijacked plane superimposed on it. The diagram stunned me the first time I saw it. The nose of the plane passed through where my desk was located. If my section of OCAR had moved into the Pentagon on time, I would not be alive.

In 1991, Garth Brooks released a song titled “Unanswered Prayers.” In it, he sings, “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” Whenever I hear the song now, it brings back memories of 911 and I think God for the workers not completing the initial Pentagon renovation on time.