Twenty years after a hijacked airplane crashed into the south side of the Pentagon, many people who lived through the horror of Sept. 11, 2001, are still coming into the building every day.
One of them is Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, who was working in the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the time. She recalled dropping her son at the childcare center on the north side before heading to her desk and getting to work, during an event for employees on Friday.
“From where I was, essentially on the other side of the building, the impact of that crash felt like a heavy object falling in the hallway, a series of loud noises, the ground shaking. We opened our suite door to try and understand what was happening, as anyone who was there day will remember our public address system did not work well,” she said. “So we didn’t know and we waited, wondered.”
With the Pentagon mostly teleworking, due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns, several hundred people gathered outside to commemorate the occasion.
The crash, which hit a section of the building housing mostly Army and Navy offices, killed 125 employees, including service members, civilians and contractors.
They “were taken in a moment, taken with almost 3,000 more in New York City and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in an unprovoked attack directed not just against the American people, but against our nation’s guiding ideals of freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” Air Force Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during the event Friday.
RELATED
Hundreds of current and former Defense Department employees who were in the building on Sept. 11, 2001, along with families of the 125 killed, gathered at the Pentagon’s 9/11 memorial Wednesday morning to pay their respects. In his remarks, Trump alluded to the current situation in Afghanistan, where troops have been stationed since October 2001.
Beyond the 20-year anniversary, Sept. 11, 2021, also represents a bookend to the first front in the Global War on Terror: Afghanistan.
On Aug. 30, the last troops on the ground left, after a herculean effort to evacuate more than 120,000 civilians, including American citizens and Afghan allies.
Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. She covers operations, policy, personnel, leadership and other issues affecting service members. Follow on Twitter @Meghann_MT
A group of international defense chiefs convened by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to coordinate military aid for Ukraine is likely to be larger when it meets for the second time on Monday.
The U.S. military commands responsible for North America misused at least $19 million in COVID-19 relief money on space-related data analytics connected to the Pentagon’s JADC2 endeavor, as well as office information technology upgrades, investigators said.
It is one of several critical technologies that Heidi Shyu, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, included in remarks at SOFIC.
The U.S. is sending Ukraine another $100 million in military assistance, including heavy artillery and counter-artillery radars, the Biden administration announced Thursday.
Currently the VA inspector general cannot force former employees to detail problems or crimes they saw during their tenure at the department.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that the claim reflects Moscow’s desire to find an alternative to missiles.
"We are way off the initial plan," subcommittee chairman Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., said in Thursday's hearing.
Prosecutors estimate the individual, who worked for the Directorate of Public Works at Fort Bragg, received $773,600 in illegal bribes.
Hundreds more fighters have emerged from the Mariupol stronghold where they made their last stand and surrendered.
A small, yet nimble and heavily used light-attack helicopter that carries small teams of special operators into battle has a problem.
A Florida congressman's take on MARSOC 3.
The U.S. Navy doesn’t want to over-commit to buying too many ships in the next five years, in case it can’t follow through due to fiscal or supply chain issues. That will cost the service millions of dollars.
The decision isn't yet final, but may come as soon as Friday.
Meet two soldier moms who discuss the sweeping changes benefiting new parents and others on this episode of The Spouse Angle podcast.
Despite no public proof that Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Russell Smith ever uttered such an edict, "lower your standards" has become an online rallying cry in recent weeks for those disillusioned with Navy life.
Load More