At the time, I was working as a computer tech in the pentagon supporting the Headquarters Department of the Army (HQDA). My desk was in room 1D639 and I had no idea that the planes had already hit the world trade centers. my supervisor assigned me a trouble ticket to go fix a computer. Just before 0900 that morning I walked into John Chadda's office and had a pleasant conversation with him. While there, our Government Director Mike Selves, came in. I said a pleasant good morning to him and commented about the beautiful view he had out of his thick green windows ( a joke of course), he could even see the helicopter pad. Little did I know, that would be the last time I would see or speak to either one of them.
When I got pack to my desk it was around 0915 there was an e-mail from Scott Powel telling me that he had a computer that he wanted me to test. I responded to him "bring it on" , he never left his office. If I had only been maybe 5 or 10 minutes earlier. I remember several things about that moment as I sat at my desk when the plane hit, the heat, the dust, the thunderous noise that made it feel like the ceiling would cave in. Initially I thought that a boiler room had exploded above my head and the ceiling would cave in. My supervisor at the time still talks about sending me down to fix Johns computer and how he specifically assigned that ticket to me because he knew I could fix it quickly.
There are so many more things about that day but those are the ones that stick in my mind the most. Not a day goes by that I don't think about that day and the friends, fellow Americans, fellow people that we all lost that day.