A Tragic Day That Changed Everything

Never Forget

The following is my actual personal after action report to my bosses leading Joint Staff J-38 Nuclear Operations, written seven days after the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. I was in the National Military Command Center at my post when the airliner struck the building. The severely wounded Army officer name Brian I mention is Army LTCOL Brian Birdwell, who I met face to face again in 2016 and we have become fast friends. I have removed only a phone number and x’d out the names of those who aren’t publicly known, otherwise this AAR is as I wrote it, in the midst of the aftermath and efforts to find out who attacked our country and developing a response. We were right to respond and defeat that enemy but as happens often, the warmongers in our government took over and we stayed for over 20 years wasting lives in our arrogance and incompetence to the very end. We accepted the Patriot Act in order to address the intelligence failures that enabled Islamic terrorism’s successful attack even though it is a law that destroys liberty. Sadly, the law has now been turned against all American citizens and is being used in a domestic war on terrorism that is being fought against a fabricated extremism threat that only exists in the minds of our greatest threat, the agents of a rogue federal government. May God forgive us our mistakes, and bless the dead, wounded, and their families.

Maness, Robert L., Maj, NMCC

From:                     Maness, Robert L., Maj, NMCC

Sent:                      18 September 2001 12:47 PM

To:                         OSD-C3I

Subject:                 SEP 11 After Action Report

Importance:           High

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

 I thought I would write down my recollections and observations of the events of 11 Sep.  Maybe there are some lessons someone can learn from them.

11 Sep at approximately 8;30 am. 

I heard about the first WTC first tower while on the phone with a colleague in Europe.  I got off the phone and went to find a television.

Watched second aircraft crash into second WTC tower a few minutes later.

Heard reports of another crash on Interstate 395 south of the Pentagon.

I immediately called my wife (she works in the Army Times building in Springfield) and told her to go home and stay off the interstate)

0945 - Pentagon under attack...first evacuation call....I went over to front office to see if I could help CDR XXXX who is standing in as EA for Grif…he asked me to help him make sure the Division’s offices were empty…after checking all the offices I went back to check in with him.

1000 - Col XXXXX (the Admiral’s Deputy) ordered me out and I proceeded to the River Entrance exit on the second floor right next to the Chairman of the Joint Chief’s Office (General Hugh Shelton)

Exited at River Entrance…all was calm (no one’s around the area except the Chairman’s security detail) until I reached the end of the grass area (field in front of River Entrance that extends almost to Boundary Channel Drive…100 yards or so… proceeded down the North steps toward Boundary Channel Drive...as I walked away from the building I looked back at the building to check the damage and wind direction I observed dense black smoke billowing above me and toward the southeast…this against a backdrop of crystal-clear blue skies.

Continued down the steps on the North side of the grassy area toward the North Parking area.  At the bottom of the hill I looked back up toward the Pentagon Officer’s Athletic Club (POAC) entrance and spotted an old friend of mine (Maj XXX XXXX, USAF) directing people down the hill...I noticed that most of the people who evacuated the building were gathered across Boundary Channel by the water away from the building (huge crowd of several thousand people).

Decided to go up toward the building where Soren was and see if I could help.  When I got to him we started seeing the first casualties come out so he moved further up on the POAC bridge to Corridor 8 entrance while I took up his position and started directing casualties down to the bottom of the hill where I now noticed the medics from the clinic were trying to set up a triage area

At first the casualties were walking wounded (about 5 or 6 of them) but then folks started coming out being carried and on stretchers in pretty bad shape (burns, both legs broken, trouble breathing types of injuries).  I had to leave my post to help assist a Navy Petty Officer (PO) down to the medics area (I lost track of XXXX at this time)

After getting the PO to the medics I started back up the hill to my position for directing casualties.  As I reached my old position I met a couple of guys transporting a severely injured Army Officer out of the building on a gurney. We had to get medics up the hill to take a look at this guy and call for an ambulance, so one of the transporters asked me to hold the IV bag for him while he ran down to get a medic or doctor while we continued slowly down the hill toward the triage area. (I soon realized there were no ambulances or medevac helicopters to be seen even though all hell was breaking loose and the medics appeared to be getting overwhelmed)

The Army Officer's IV line was broken so as we continued getting him down the hill I closed off the line and held it until we could get a medic to replace it at the bottom of the hill.  We began to ask about transporting this guy (his name was Brian and he had burns, lacerations, fractures in the legs (I think) and was in Shock.  No one was coming to get a new IV in this guy so when an AF Chaplain came up I had him hold the line closed I went to the medic's triage area (about 20 yards away) to find a new IV line and get someone to put it in (as I said this guy was in shock and for some reason I was worried contamination or air would get into his bloodstream if we didn't get the IV taken care of), also needed to get the only Doctor (right now an Army Capt) in sight over to check him out and get transport secured using his communications gear.

Just as I was walking over to find a Dr and IV line we started getting warnings of another air attack.  The large crowd of evacuees split in two and headed for the overpasses (at each end of Boundary) while we were still working the casualties.  Things really got confusing right about now...I successfully got the Doc to go over to this badly injured guy with the busted IV line then went in search of the line and a tech to fix it. 

About the time I succeeded in medic with a new IV line we began to move patients across Boundary Channel and under the trees so they couldn't be seen from the air.  I also remember going back up the hill toward the building to warn Maj XXXX (I thought he was at the Corridor 8 entrance) but instead I ran into another group of volunteers bringing a gurney out with a critical patient on it.  They asked me where to go fro a medevac helicopter so I warned them of the impending attack and directed them to go to the far end of the area we had selected for a landing area (the grass area in between the Pentagon Flags along Boundary Channel Drive) which also would provide them some cover with its 6 foot high concrete wall.  I went back to helping move patients across the road and ran into my old navigator training flight commander when I helped him move a casualty across the street (Col XXXX, USAF retired).  All the while several more medics and more volunteer help was arriving and we (myself and a couple of others continued to press medics with radios for medevac helicopters and ambulances.

An AF Lt Col (female) took charge (myself and a couple of civilians assisted her with dispersal efforts) of getting hazardous material (6 large Oxygen tanks had been piled together within 5 feet of the medical aid area) and the patients were dispersed so we didn't all get killed by exploding tanks if the area was hit by this second attack while the rest of us were dealing with getting more casualties down the hill and treated by medics (also continuing to work to get transport).

A couple of ambulances finally showed up and the medics started loading patients.  The issue of medevac helicopters and the right location to land them came up again when a nurse asked me where the best place was.  I again indicated the grass area in between the flagpoles on the Pentagon side of the road would be the best place.  Unfortunately we still had no comms connectivity with airborne assets. (We got sight of the first combat air patrol jet about this time...I felt a lot more comfortable and so did a lot of others)

Right after the jet went over a medic from inside an ambulance yelled at me to help him pull a female patient out that wasn't able to travel by road and would need the dust off so we replaced her with another, more suitable patient.  At this time I noticed an AF 2-star medical officer (who had been inside the building getting casualties out) showed up and things began to be a little better organized from the medical perspective. 

We finally got all the patients settled and either on ground transport or awaiting the medevac helo arrival and the next thing we knew the general was asking for volunteers to  go inside to the courtyard and pull casualties from the impact area from that side.  We organized ourselves into 3 teams of about 15 or 20 people proceeded inside the building through Corridor 8).  We used our T-shirts (always wondered why we wore those now I know) soaked with water from the latrine just inside the Corridor 8 entrance for respiratory protection.  The smoke and heat in corridor 8 was building as we entered from the North side of the building so we did need it.  We marched single file through the smoke down Corridor 8 and into the courtyard.

Our team was in the lead as we arrived inside courtyard.  As we prepared to enter the Pentagon through the Corridor 3/4 entrance fire fighters emerged.  Smoke, heat, and flames emanated from the doors and it certainly didn't appear likely that we could get through that way.  The fire fighters pushed us back toward the courtyard area and briefed the team leader that we would have to try the corridor 5/6 entrance on the other side of the impact area or wait. The AF 2-star decided to keep our team out in the courtyard and organize it as a triage element. 

Observed another team approach the corridor 3/4 entrance and prepare to enter so moved to new team picked up back end of a stretcher, (AF/PA BG XXXX had the other end it turned out) but we were stopped by fire fighters again.

General XXXX and I moved over to the corridor 5/6 courtyard entrance when we noticed another team of volunteers was going inside.  Got inside up to the B and C ring alleyway between corridor 5 and 4.  The attack impact point was in between corridors 4 and 5.  We were now about 50 feet north of where the American Airlines jet's travel had stopped, just breaking through the inner wall of the C-ring and spilling burning debris into the alley way between B and C rings. We had not seen anyone but other volunteers and firemen to this point.

As I was checking out the aircraft debris and damage I observed through the smoke, flames and water spray the On-scene commander (a volunteer named, Lt Col XXXX, USMC, who’s office happened to be closed to the impact point) directing the effort to extinguish the fire emanating from the breach in the C ring wall.  A volunteer named CAPT XXXX US Army, and a volunteer AF Chief Master Sgt (CMSgt) briefed us in preparation to enter through corridor 5 and search for wounded. 

The fire flared up and forced us back out to courtyard. We did this drill a couple of times and finally we stayed in the courtyard in order to wait for the fire to ease up so we could get in the building safely.  The team leader, a physician, was called away when all medically trained personnel were summoned so I took over as the team leader. 

For the next few hours I coordinated between the On-scene-commander (inside the B and C ring alley way) and the search team members.  Security personnel and I established a classified material collection point at the entry to Corridor 5/6 (lots of classified was blowing around from where the aircraft had traveled through the E, D, and C Rings).  I also began debriefing fire fighting teams and reporting my findings to the National Military Command Center (Gen Shelton had sent someone down to get status earlier) from the hard-line phone at the Corridor 5/6 entrance.) 

As I was working to coordinate our efforts I also helped survey the damage by assisting the CMSgt working the inside with identifying aircraft parts, remains etc.  He eventually got FBI agents in to start collecting evidence.  There were several more attempts to get searchers inside but the fire and smoke were just too intense and the fire fighters couldn't get it under control so we backed volunteers out each time.

At about 3;30 pm The On Scene Commander outside (on the West side of the building) finally made a decision to begin the search from the outside in instead of from inside out so Lt Col XXXX led the team out to the staging area on HWY 27 (just West of the Helo pad) to prepare for that.  (I phoned in a situation report to CDR XXXX in the Deputy Director for Operations shack inside the national military commander center prior to leaving my post so he would know we no longer had volunteer search team manpower available in the courtyard)

Finally, after waiting with about 300 other volunteers I realized that nobody from our group was going to get in the impact area (and there were probably no survivors to pull out) until the fire was under control and that would definitely be the next day, decided to go to my vehicle (walked to North parking) and where I got on the cell phone to contact my family.  I also called and checked in with my boss who directed me to go home and stay there until called.

Unfortunately, from the time we helped the casualties out in the North area on Boundary Channel Drive, we didn't see any more survivors the rest of the day. 

V/R

Rob

Robert L. Maness, Maj, USAF

JCS J-38 NOD-NOB