Listen Here
By Pulse Staff with Logan Williams
williamsl10@findlay.edu
The anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks is a little different for Dr. Elizabeth Buchanan, associate professor of history at the University of Findlay, than most people. She was in the Pentagon when the third plane hit.
“It went in on the opposite side of the building than I was, but it still made a huge explosion,” Buchanan said.
She was working in the general counsel’s office for the Department of Defense and the day started out normal; a commute to work, beautiful blue skies, a morning meeting.
At 8:46 a.m. American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.
“It was on everybody’s television because there were televisions in all the main office blocks just to keep track of, you know, breaking news in the world,” Buchanan said. “Then we saw a second one coming in. You know the first one people were saying could have been an accident, maybe a pilot had his eyes dazzled by the sunlight going in. It didn’t look like that to me, but the second one is never an accident.”
At 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center and the realization set in.
“I remember my boss making some you know inquiries about if someone thought about the Pentagon as a target,” Buchanan said. “People basically said, ‘Oh, we think we’ve taken care of it.’ Not so long later, there was a huge explosion in the building.”
Just 34 minutes later at 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C.
The Pentagon was built for defense.
“That’s a huge building, and it’s got a lot of interior walls that are six foot of cement,” Buchanan said. “It was built during World War II to protect the War Department from possible attacks in the middle of a major war. So that is a big building, and it’s really pretty darn hard to damage.”
Within five minutes of the Pentagon attack, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all flights in U.S. airspace.
At 9:59 a.m., the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.
At 10:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Then, 25 minutes later, the North Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.
A confirmed 2,976 people were killed in the attacks with many more injured, according to the FBI.
The President of the United States at the time, George W. Bush, addressed a nation in disbelief and astonishment. The shock on his face reflected those emotions. “The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I’ve directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them,” announced the president.
The effects have been ever-present, with agencies like the Department of Homeland Security emerging to try to ensure another 9/11 would never happen again. Another major result of the attacks is the War on Terror, a military campaign to stop terrorist extremist groups.
President Bush’s address to the nation was not just to inspire hope and to give reassurance to a scared nation; it was to threaten the people who attacked the United States.
The effects of 9/11 are still experienced today in many ways, some you might not even realize. The Department of Homeland Security was established two years later with President Bush appointing the governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge, as the director. The department now has many branches: Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were created, and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was integrated into the department.
Buchanan explains a scene of chaos after the Pentagon attack. Some people became heroes.
“A number of people went to help the people that were trapped in the part of the Pentagon that were still in flames,” Buchanan said. “There was, I think, a great deal of bravery and a great deal of dedication to the people in the building and basically each other.”
Most of the thousands of workers in the building couldn’t reach their families on the phone to let them know they were safe because the phone lines were busy. Traffic had come to a halt in Washington, D.C.
“My boss and I basically hitchhiked home,” Buchanan said. “We walked out a couple miles, and then a couple of ladies that were trying to get home in their car gave us a ride, part of the way down until I could get close enough to the metro to get my car and get all the way home.
The next day we went back into work because the Secretary of Defense (Donald Rumsfeld) wanted the world to know that we were still open for business, and so called everybody into work, even though the building burned for three or four more days.”
Buchanan says the anniversary is a reminder that in the tragedy, there were heroes.
“One, we need to remember to honor those people, and two remember we’ve got to keep our guard up,” Buchanan said. “We’ve got to be careful. There are people that don’t like us, and we need to be aware of that.”
**Check out a special edition of Thoughts with Profs this week as several University of Findlay faculty reflect on the Sept. 11 attack.
