I was at my work place in the Washington DC area and saw the planes crash. I knew immediately who did it....and told colleagues we were at war. Here are a few observations:
First - we were incredibly unprepared....this after 45 years of being ready for 30 minute warning for Armageddon.
1) The "Washington Post" had revealed the Continuity of Government" bunkers maintained during the Cold War about 1996....there was no place to evacuate the government in the event of emergency. We had forgotten the Cold War.
2) The entire cell phone network in the DC area went down. The only commo was by those who had radio phones.
3) The senior levels of nearly every federal agency in the government evacuated their buildings leaving the employees sitting there for several hours with no guidance.
4) The F-16's launched to intercept the one high-jacked plane in the air were not armed.
5) Agencies closed in DC putting their employees on the streets with no way of getting out of DC. George Washington University turned its students out of their dorms.
6) All roads were blocked; it was impossible to go anywhere. They thought maybe truck bombs were headed into the city. The subway system shut down.
7) At my wife's agency by the White House...the senior officers fled the building leaving the employees sitting there with a message on the screen that "the director is evaluating the situation"; finally after a couple of hours the building was to be closed. The security guards received no guidance and were clustered at the front entrance. She got them up to the top floor to go office to office to turn those who refused to leave out of their offices, an individual act.
8) Even at the Pentagon Rumsfeld left his office for an hour or two to "survey the damage" when he should have been running the show.
The incredible reaction of Americans:
1) Americans began walking - women and children first. Strangers offered those on the street their addresses where they could bed for the night,. Shops put TV's out on the sidewalk and offered drinks.
2) Kindness and unity dominated. Flags appeared on every freeway overpass.
3) We recovered. Within 3 days President Bush convened a meeting at Camp David. CIA showed up with an assessment and a complete plan of action and to Rumsfeld's dismay was given OpCom for the Afghan operation. It had men on the ground in the most remote area of Asia in 10 days...and overthrew the Taliban in 75 days after the attack.
After that...in Afghanistan...we lost our way... I can explain this but will forgo that for the moment.
But it was a day that won't be forgotten. My heart turned to stone. Usually there's a busy fly-way down the Potomac going into Reagan-National. For days there was nothing except at night the sounds of fighters jets patrolling the skies.
And by the way there are pictures of rains of people jumping from the towers. They've never been published because they are just too disturbing.
Last edited by Argo44; 09/13/19 01:59 PM.
