AFGE
Dora Jones
When the United airliner on its way from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, computer specialist and AFGE Local 1092 member Dora Jones was in a meeting. The sound and reverberation of the impact didn’t worry Jones at first. “When you work at the Pentagon, with all the construction, there are always little booms and bangs, so you don’t pay attention,” she explains.
But when told to evacuate the building because of an attack, Jones started for the exits. Then she and a supervisor remembered a co-worker who has a disability—and might have been stuck in his office.
So they ran back in, only to find that their co-worker had gotten out safely. Jones and her co-workers are among 2,000 AFGE members at the Pentagon and 200 at the World Trade Center who survived the attacks.
Finally outside and taking cover under trees, Jones, who has worked 32 years as a civilian with the Air Force and has four grown children, spotted a U.S. Air Force fighter jet. She told an AFGE co-worker it was “the most beautiful thing” she had ever seen.
International Union of Police Associations
Dan Morris
After a hijacked plane smashed into the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., Sept. 11, Dan Morris raced to pack his gear—he knew he would be called to duty and likely wouldn’t return for days.
“It was one of the scariest days of my life,” says the 19-year veteran of the Alexandria, Va., police force. “You didn’t know what was going to happen next.”
While military police handled operations at the Pentagon, Morris and officers from throughout the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area worked 12-hour shifts securing communities near the site. As black flames plumed above the Pentagon and motorists got caught in gridlock while evacuating over Potomac River bridges, Morris, 42, says it was the faces of the drivers that touched him.
“Some of them were crying so hard I didn’t think they would be able to drive,” he says. “I found myself taking a little extra time to talk to people. It was important for them to see the police, to know things were under control. I think it comforted a lot of people.”
Later that week, Morris, a detective and single father of a 14-year-old daughter, helped set up security lines around the Pentagon. “When I saw the Pentagon for the first time after the attack, I was shocked. It didn’t appear to be real.”
Morris saw overwhelming pain in the aftermath of the attack. “I really felt for the people who were looking for family members and those involved in the rescue effort,” he says. “I saw grown men doubled over from grief and their spouses helping them to stand up. I just stood there and said a long prayer asking for comfort for those who were hurting.”
