Park benches at the Pentagon

The Pentagon is a military installation, but it wasn’t prepared for what happened on September 11, 2001.

A hijacked airplane hit the building at 800 kilometers an hour – blowing a hole in the Pentagon’s wall. Several people were working in one of the offices near the impact site. Only John Yates survived.

“I was blown through the air. To breathe even a little bit just burned. I could see strings of my skin just hanging down off all my fingers on both hands,” he said.

“I remember thinking, I was gonna die.”

Ten years later, first responders still remember the horror and chaos they encountered. “The heat was just – it became at points unbearable,” said Michael Regan of Fairfax County Fire and Rescue.

Sergeant Isaac Hoopii was the first policeman on the scene. What he remembers: “Trying to help people, hearing people screaming, calling out for help.”

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184 people were killed in the attack: 59 on the plane, 125 in the Pentagon, including Commander William Donovan.

“As soon as the kids went to bed and it was dark, I kind of felt it was going to be dark for a really long time,” said his wife, Elaine Donovan.

It didn’t take long to repair the physical damage. The wrecked portion of the Pentagon was rebuilt within a year. With the building finished, people’s attention turned to formal remembrance.

Victims’ families helped to spearhead a new memorial chapel at the point of impact inside the building. And outside the Pentagon, a symbol of military might, a place of serenity was built: water running under 189 stylized benches, the name of a victim on every one.

Each bench facing outward represents a person in the Pentagon who died. Those facing the Pentagon represent individuals who were on the aircraft.
Ten years on, it is a bittersweet anniversary for people like survivor John Yates.

“For a long time, I asked why me,” he said. “I think I survived so that people won’t forget.”

Those who lost family in the attack are not able to forget either. “It’s still shock and horror, it really is,” said Elaine Donovan, Commander William Donovan’s wife. “At least for my family, 9/11 is every day.”