9/11/01 - K. Scott McMahon
MEMORANDUM: A PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF THE 9/11 ATTACKS Dear Jake, I want you to know that no one outside the United States Government has asked me about the detailed questions that you have posed below. I will do my best for you, young man. And I appreciate your interest in my personal experience during and after the 9/11 attacks. Please also know that you are safe from terrorist attacks in our powerful country.
• Where were you when the plane hit the Twin Towers? I was in the Arlington Virginia office of the RAND Corporation, the U.S. Government's national security brain trust. I was with some of our senior analysts discussing the terrorist threat to U.S. territory. I was a staff member on the national commission tasked to assess the threat that the Al-Qaeda organization and other terrorist groups posed to the United States. My assistant entered the conference room after the first attack on the World Trade Center. She notified us that all staff were assembling in the main conference room on our 4th floor. So we made our way from the 8th floor to the 4th floor. Shortly thereafter the second plane hit the Trade Center in New York City. We watched the attack unfold on the giant TV screen in the conference room. At this point people knew it was a major attack on the United States. At approximately 9:30 AM American Airlines flight 77 smashed into the Pentagon. The impact shook our building and we saw a ball of fire across the street. Panic ensued. Our security officer shouted that it was time to evacuate. But there was no evacuation plan. So everyone just ran in all directions. Women were in tears. Men were holding those that could not walk. When we got to the street we found thousands more that had been evacuated from office buildings. People that were horribly injured at the Pentagon were running toward us. Everyone did what they could to help, but we had no emergency medical capability. Then people with the primitive cell phones of the time started getting text messages from news sources such as CNN. They started screaming that another plane was on its way. At this point I realized that it was time to step up to the plate and offer leadership to my traumatized junior colleagues. I remember yelling 'follow me'. And they did. No one was injured yet so we could move quickly. Because of things your grandfather had told me many years before, I knew that we could likely survive the blast and next attack if we hurried to the lowest floor of the Metro Rail station closest to us. So I made sure my young people formed up and followed. We went to the most protective, deep area of the tunnel that I could find. We got down on our hands and knees. And I prayed. At some point someone in our little group got a message from a news service that said the next attacking aircraft had crashed in Pennsylvania. (We now know that American heroes attacked the terrorists on United Airlines Flight 93 and defeated the next strike on Washington D.C.) Our next decision was to leave the shelter of the Metro tunnel. We decided to make a run for it. We came out and there was no place to run. There were so many people in the streets. We just started moving and made it across the city to the Metro Rail's Crystal City station. When the train arrived the crowd on the platform yelled "get us out of here" !! And we did get out of there. We got away and got back to our children, who were locked down in their schools. And then I waited for the President's decision on our country's response to the attacks.
• What were your worries before this happened? I served on a national commission on terrorism – The Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction (i.e., the "Gilmore Commission"). As the Commission's title suggests, we focused on identifying the future WMD threat from terrorists and other sub-national groups. We made recommendations for improving America's counterterrorism defenses. Dozens of the recommendations were implemented and the United States is safer today as a result.
• What were your worries after this happened? I had the same worries after the 9/11 attack that I had before the attack. • What were your worries when the plane hit the Pentagon? I worried that I and my colleagues would be killed. See detailed answer above. • What were your thoughts and/or feelings when you heard that terrorists might of been responsible for 9/11? Because of the work we were doing, my expert colleagues determined almost immediately that the Al-Qaeda terrorist network was responsible for the attack on 9/11. We were directed to evacuate the RAND Corporation's Arlington Virginia office. I have described above what happened next in the streets near the Pentagon.
• Do you believe something like this could happen again? Why or Why not? Our country has dramatically improved its counterterrorism defenses since 9/11. However, recent history (e.g., the 2015 San Bernardino attack and the 2013 bombings at the Boston marathon) indicates that we will never be one hundred percent safe.
• How did 9/11 chance your view of the world? I came to realize that there is a war within the Islamic faith. This conflict generates terrorism and civil war all over the world. I deployed to Iraq after President George Bush decided to attempt to change the course of history in the Middle East. The mission failed, in my opinion, when President Barak Obama decided to remove our military forces and advisors from Iraq before we could help the Iraqis firmly establish modern governance. And there is no end in sight for the conflict within the Islamic faith. But ! also firmly believe that boys like you, fortunate enough to have been born in America, are safe from the terrorist threat. Our country's counterterrorism defenses have improved dramatically since 9/11. And I hope my account helps you understand what happened on 11 September 2001, Jake.
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