Family Members, Survivors Remember at Pentagon's 9/11 Memorial
(September 1, 2008) | 
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| WASHINGTON, Aug. 29, 2008 – A group of
family members, survivors and first responders shared their
thoughts about 9/11 while visiting the nearly completed
Pentagon Memorial here yesterday.
Tom Heidenberger, 62, lost his wife, Michele, when American
Airlines Flight 77 plunged into the Pentagon's west wall on
Sept. 11, 2001. Michele was the senior flight attendant
aboard Flight 77, said Heidenberger, a former commercial
airline pilot who lives in Chevy Chase, Md.
Heidenberger recalled that his wife had called him at home
in the morning from Dulles International Airport here before
her flight departed for the West Coast.
“My last words to her were ‘Have a safe trip and I'll talk
to you when you get to Los Angeles,'” Heidenberger said.
Heidenberger said he and his 21-year-old son, Thomas, had
visited the memorial together two weeks ago. The memorial
“gives us all a sense of closure,” he added.
Located just outside the Pentagon, the memorial park
features 184 granite-topped, stainless-steel “sculptural
elements” that represent the 125 lives lost in the Pentagon
and the 59 deaths aboard American Airlines Flight 77. Each
element has a reflecting pool of water at its base, which is
flood-lit in the evening. The families of the attack victims
had a hand in the memorial's design.
Pentagon civilian employees Cathy Abell, 53, and Holly
Russell, 50, visited the bench-like structure that featured
the name of their friend, Marian Serva, who was among those
in the Pentagon who perished in the attack.
“It is peaceful, and it brings a piece of the person back to
me,” Abell said of the memorial. “It gives me a place where
I can come and visit with my friend whom I lost.”
The memorial, Russell said, is “a nice place to come and
reflect and kind of put life in perspective.”
Army civilian employee John Yates recalled when the hijacked
airliner struck the Pentagon nearly seven years ago.
“My offices were located about 100 feet inside the building,
right near where the dividing line was where the collapse
was,” Yates said. “It was a typical day. Who would have
thought anything was going to happen?”
On the morning of the attack, Yates was a civilian security
manager for the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel
Office, which sustained a near-direct hit from the plunging
airliner.
Yates was among a group of people, including Marian Serva,
who worked as a congressional liaison officer in his office,
who'd gathered around a television set watching news
coverage from New York City after two terrorist-hijacked
commercial aircraft had struck the World Trade Center's twin
towers.
Yates, now age 57, vaguely recalls that the television then
exploded.
“I remember seeing a ball of fire just coming over the top
of my head from my left,” he said. “It was an inferno.”
Yates said he somehow managed to crawl below the acrid smoke
to safety outside. He later discovered that four other
companions standing by the television with him were killed
in the blast.
The attack left Yates badly burned. Numerous skin grafts
have repaired his hands, but a therapist still treats
psychological scars left from the experience. Yates has
since transferred to another Army agency in Arlington, Va.
The memorial, he said, is “beautiful” and “very, very
tastefully done.”
Yates said 24 people in his Pentagon office, including his
supervisor, Army Lt. Col. Dennis Johnson, died during the
9/11 attack.
“I still have e-mails from some of them,” Yates said, as his
voice cracked and tears welled up in his eyes. “I can't get
rid of those. ... I'll just keep them.”
Arlington County Fire Department paramedic Claude Conde, 40,
recalled being called to the Pentagon in response to the
attack.
“We were the lead agency, so pretty much our whole
department was here that day,” Conde said. “We were
transporting patients most of the day.” Conde called 9/11 “a
big surprise.” He conceded he was initially scared as he
approached the fiery, blasted Pentagon.
“But we're trained to put those feelings aside and [to] try
to help out the best way that we can,” he said.
The Pentagon Memorial, Conde observed, “is very peaceful” in
contrast to the hellish scene he witnessed at the Pentagon
nearly seven years ago. “I think the memorial is very
important to the victims and their families; I think they
did a good job on it,” the paramedic said.
Pentagon Force Protection Agency Sgt. Isaac Hoopii recalled
pulling security sweeps at the stricken building with his
German shepherd bomb-detection dog, Vito, for six months
after the attack. Vito, he noted, retired from duty some
time ago.
Hoopii recalled that he and his coworkers worked 48
consecutive hours to assist people who'd been injured in the
attack. Later, he said, they combed the crash site area,
“just making sure” that no terrorist-planted devices –-
meaning explosives -- were about that could injure or kill
more people.
“They did a wonderful job” on the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial,
Hoopii said, noting it is a fitting tribute “to the people
who lost their lives.” |
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Photo by Gerry J.
Gilmore |
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Pentagon Memorial Fund manager
Jim Laychak (photo left) lost his younger
brother, David, an Army civilian employee,
during the attack on the Pentagon. The $22
million memorial, Laychak said, is a culmination
of years of effort and hard work. “It is a great
feeling of pride and accomplishment. Everybody
has worked together on this over the past five
and a half years,” he said.
The Pentagon Memorial “is a special place where
people can go” to remember loved ones who
perished in the attack, Laychak said, noting
he's grateful to friends who assisted him after
the loss of his brother.
“Anybody who knew me wanted to reach out and
comfort me, so I think part of it is remembering
how we comforted each other after that day,”
Laychak said. |
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The memorial will be officially dedicated
at a Sept. 11 ceremony hosted by Defense Secretary Robert M.
Gates. Thereafter, it will be open to the public 24 hours a
day. | |
By Gerry J.
Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2008
Reprinted
from American
Forces Press Service / DoD
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