25 Years After 9/11: I Saw the Pentagon Smoke and Remember How America Came Together

Twenty-five years later, I can still remember what I saw on September 11, 2001.

For my parents’ generation, Pearl Harbor was the event that divided life into before and after.

For my generation, the Baby Boomers, that event was 9/11.

The World Trade Center towers were attacked in New York. Another plane struck the Pentagon. A fourth aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers resisted the hijackers.

I was in the Washington area that morning.

I was never personally in danger, but I saw the consequences unfolding around me in real time.

I had just left the Fairfax County Courthouse

I had attended an early morning lawyers’ meeting at the Fairfax County Courthouse and left at about 9:15.

As I got into my car, the radio suddenly filled with reports about the two crashes at the World Trade Center.

Then, only moments later, as I entered the Washington Beltway heading south, a terrifying black cloud rose into the sky to my left.

That was the Pentagon.

Everything changed almost instantly.

Washington emptied at once

Air traffic across the United States was grounded.

In Washington, people were told to go home because nobody knew whether more attacks were coming.

Washington traffic is difficult on a normal day. Releasing enormous numbers of government and private-sector workers at the same time created chaos.

A drive that normally would have taken me about 40 minutes took approximately four hours.

For much of that time, I could see the black plume of smoke rising from the Pentagon area.

I sat in traffic listening to radio broadcasters trying to understand the same confusing reports the rest of us were hearing.

My family could not reach me

Cellular networks were overwhelmed as millions of Americans tried to call their loved ones.

My own phone could not get a signal.

That created a special concern for my family and friends because I had taught a course inside the Pentagon only eight months earlier.

They knew there was at least a possibility I could have been there that morning.

I was safe.

Thousands of other families were not so fortunate.

The human cost continued long after September 11

About 3,000 people died in the attacks.

Among the most heartbreaking losses were the 343 FDNY firefighters who died while responding at the World Trade Center.

Many people exposed to the toxic aftermath later suffered serious illnesses, and the human toll continued for years.

Those numbers matter, but I do not want them to become ordinary statistics.

Each number represents a person, a family, a workplace, and a life permanently changed.

Michael Hingson’s survival story is one I have never forgotten

A few years ago, I interviewed Michael Hingson for Saving America.

Michael has been blind since birth and was working on the 78th floor of the North Tower when the attack occurred.

He escaped by making the long journey down the stairs with his guide dog, Roselle, and the people around him.

His story is one of courage, trust, calm under pressure, and survival against incredible odds.

For this 25th anniversary, I asked my production team to bring that interview back so a new audience can hear Michael’s story.

Some members of my own extended family narrowly avoided the Trade Center

I later learned that two members of my extended family could have been inside the World Trade Center that morning.

One did not go to work.

Another was running late and had not yet emerged from the subway system when the towers were hit.

He turned around with thousands of other people below ground.

Those stories remind us how narrow the line between ordinary life and catastrophe can be.

9/11 permanently changed American security

The attacks changed aviation and national-security procedures across the country.

Washington Reagan National Airport remained closed for an extended period after the attacks, and airports nationwide operated under extraordinary restrictions while the government evaluated the threat.

The investigation also raised painful questions about intelligence sharing among federal agencies.

One of the enduring lessons from 9/11 is that government agencies cannot afford to operate as isolated silos when pieces of a national-security threat are spread across multiple institutions.

For more DDSA discussion of national-security preparedness, see Trump’s White House Security Scare: How Close Did This Plot Get?.

I remember the way Americans came together afterward

One of my strongest memories of the aftermath of September 11 is how Americans came together.

We were frightened.

We were grieving.

We did not know what might happen next.

But for a period of time, many of the political and cultural divisions that usually separate Americans seemed much less important.

People helped each other.

Communities rallied around victims and first responders.

There was a shared understanding that we were Americans before we were members of competing political camps.

Twenty-five years later, that unity feels painfully distant

In my lifetime, I have rarely seen the country as divided as it is today.

That is one of the saddest parts of remembering September 11 in 2026.

I do not believe we should need another national tragedy to rediscover that we are neighbors.

We should be capable of disagreeing politically without treating fellow Americans as enemies.

We should be able to remember the victims of terrorism without turning every memorial into another reason to hate one another.

We have discussed September 11 before

DDSA has returned to 9/11 and its consequences over the years because the attacks shaped American foreign policy, national security, military policy, and political life for decades.

Readers who want to revisit earlier commentary can see Saving America #5: 9-11, Trump on the Military, and Foreign Relations.

The long aftermath of 9/11 also shaped America’s wars and the difficult questions of leadership and responsibility that followed. See Afghanistan Policy Failures and the Question of Responsibility.

My message on the 25th anniversary

Remember the people who went to work that morning and never came home.

Remember the passengers.

Remember the firefighters and other first responders who moved toward danger while everyone else was trying to escape.

Remember the survivors and the families who carried the consequences for decades.

Remember Michael Hingson and Roselle, and the extraordinary stories of courage that came from that day.

And remember something else:

America came together once.

We should not need another attack to do it again.

Let’s consciously get along with our neighbors.

Let’s reduce the violence and discord in this wonderful country.

And on this 25th anniversary, let us make sure September 11 is never reduced to another date on the calendar.

Never forget.

Watch my full 25th Anniversary of 9/11 Saving America Special

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