In the first of five stories by AP journalists recounting Sept. 11, 2001, military writer ROBERT BURNS explains what it was like to be working at a 9/11 target that day.
(AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin)
The scariest moment for me, inside the Pentagon on 9/11, was not when the hijacked plane hit the building. I did not feel the impact or even hear it.
What scared me most happened a short time later, after we evacuated.
I had made my way to a road along the southern perimeter of the Pentagon when suddenly a police car raced by. Through a bullhorn a voice boomed with spine-tingling urgency: "Get away. Another hijacked plane is 10 minutes out. Run! Run!"
I ran, as did the rest of the crowd. It was not panic. It was more a mixture of fear and bewilderment.
After running a short distance I came to a halt with the thought: What am I doing? There really was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. I turned around and began walking back toward the Pentagon, a tower of black smoke rising into a blue sky. I recall thinking that if another attack was coming, I should be in position to witness it. I was, after all, a reporter.
Police had blocked the area where the plane struck, so I worked my way to the nearest vantage point -- a Citgo gas station west of the building, where others had gathered to watch the rescue effort.
By this time cell phone service had resumed (it had been paralyzed in the moments immediately after the attack), and I got through to my parents in Washington state to tell them I had survived, and to get word to my wife and two children, who were fearing the worst.
Many hours later I looked at a message my news editor had sent to my pager that morning alerting me to the attacks in New York. The time of the message was 9:11 a.m.
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MORE ON SEPT. 11
For more stories related to the fifth anniversary of the attacks, look at asap's special report Living with 9/11.
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Robert Burns is an AP military writer based in Washington, D.C.
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