Nice to Remember, but nicer to be in Encinitas

12 years ago today both my daughter and I were in the Pentagon when the Plane hit.  I was a Supervisory Budget Analyst managing a team of dedicated civilian and military officers. I had already accepted a new job with the Navy in San Diego and was just wrapping up the FY13 budget prep before I moved to San Diego in October.  My team and I were gathered around the only TV in our Pentagon office (4C460) where 30 of us watched the unreal situation unfold at the World Trade Center where a plane seemingly out of control struck the first tower and burst into flames.  What many do not understand is besides being 5 sided and the reported largest office building in the world, the Pentagon is not one complete building but actually is 5 separate and distinct 5 story buildings which are each nestled inside the other like Russian stacking dolls.  There is an air gap between each of these stacked 5 sided buildings which are all linked by corridors, like spokes of a wagon wheel.  The inner most and smallest building section is called "ring A" with each successive larger building being rings B, C, D, and finally E (the outer most ring).  As we watched the TV my co-workers speculated on how in the world this could even happen and then second plane hit and immediately one of my friends simply stated in a very calm voice "this is not an accident it is an attack". Those of us who heard him could not believe it, and even though we could not explain what was unfolding irrationally in front of us, none of us were willing to accept that someone was attacking the World Trade Center, New York City and certainly not the United States.  I went to my office to call my wife to let her know it would be a long day and ask that she come over to the Pentagon to pick up our 3 year old daughter from the day care.  She was just tuning in to the events of that morning and agreed to pick her up after she finished her coffee and showered.  I went back to watch the spectacle being broadcast feeling a little at ease in that I had one less daddy chore to worry about now.  A few moments later an ear splitting noise roared through the office, all power went out and all we could see was flames outside our office windows.  Being almost 1/2 way between the 4th and 5 corridors I moved with my staff towards the center stairwell that could deliver us directly and quickly down stairs to the ground floor where we could escape.  However, when we opened the stairwell door we were overwhelmed by the smell of jet fuel and intense heat, so we slammed it shut and headed out the longer path to an exit along the main 4th corridor.  (We later learned that the plane struck the Pentagon right at the heliport pad nearly directly below us between the 4 and 5th corridors.  The noises we heard were the initial impact and the winning jet engines as they disintegrated themselves and the smell was the 1,000 gallons of unspent jet fuel which had not yet burned off in the initial explosion. We also learned later that the nose of the plane actually penetrated all the way through the outer E ring, through the D ring and came to rest at the C ring right below us. At this point on the ground floor is also where the Navy Command Center was located and where most of the non-plane deaths occurred). As my staff and I made our way out to the main 4th corridor to get out there was mass confusion, some folks running towards the A ring and the center courtyard while other were heading the opposite direction towards the E ring and the "Mall" exit near corridor 7.  My destination was the Pentagon day care center located on the hill just outside the Pentagon out the "North parking" exit.  While the Pentagon tour and references like Wikipedia highlight that due to the unique ring and corridor lay out you can get anywhere in Pentagon in 10 minutes or less, I made the distance in a dead run in 2 minutes flat.  When I busted through the front doors the day care director asked me, "what's going on?", as I ran past her I replied back "the Pentagon has been bombed"...I did not realize then it was another plane, like the World Trade Centers.  As I got to my daughter's room I pulled open the door and no one was there! I yelled back at the Director, "where is everyone!" and she screamed back, "they are all out back".  I quickly rushed outside to the "playground" which was a sloped yard with swings and slides that ended at the Pentagon.  The Pentagon day care was a HUGE daycare.  Run by Children's World there were so many kids that they had to take "turns" on the swings.  The 50 or so kids and 15 adult teachers and parents on the playground were all wide eyed and open mouthed looking at the Pentagon and the huge Fireball mushroom cloud over it, but my daughter, on the swings, had a big smile on her face completely unaware of the chaos around her.  She was just tickled pink that no one was asking her to get off the swings as her turn was up.  As I approached her she said, "daddy, why are you here?".  As I picked her up to my shoulder and turned around to leave, she noticed for the first time the chaos around her and asked, "daddy, why is the Pentagon on fire?".  I just said, "bad people did it and we are going home now".  As I left I grabbed a friends child in the same class under a free arm and headed to the exit.  At that point I realized my friend also had a 6 month old baby and upon entering the "baby room" and being surrounded by a dozen babies I could not tell which one she was and the two three year olds I had in tow could not help.  I promptly handed my friend's 3 year old to the director, told her the child's name and pointing generally to the baby room for his sister and said his mother and father where on their way down immediately to pick them up, so do not separate them. I left the day care a buckled my daughter into my Jeep parked nearby. However, as I attempted to leave large, black SUVs with Pentagon security personnel (picture SWAT like police) were pulling up and blocking traffic in and out of the parking lot.  Now that I had my daughter my only thought was getting home, so without really thinking it through I shifted my Jeep into 4WD and drove through a series of large plant hedges up the grassy slope of the Pentagon and back down through more hedges and grass to get to the Boundary Channel Drive that runs directly behind the Pentagon.  As I drove past the emergency vehicles on Rt 110 towards Rt 66 and home I tried to call my wife and let her know I had our daughter and all was well.  Unfortunately the cell grid was completely down no calls in or out.  I made the drive home to East Falls Church in record time and as I pulled up the drive way my wife bolted from the house with tears of joy in her eyes.  After lots of hugs and kisses we retreated in inside, we were home, safe and together.  I spent the next 8 hours using my land line to contact my staff and others in our office to ensure they made it home and everyone was safe.  I later learned that 3 children's parents did not ever show up to pick up their kids at the Daycare center, they worked in the Navy Command Center.  With my office no longer accessible, I was home for the rest of the week mostly trying to piece together what exactly happened with the plane and responding  to calls and e-mails from relatives, friends and coworkers.  With nowhere to actually go to work, I moved up my job transitions plans and headed across country just a few weeks after 9/11.  While our household goods were all packed up and being trucked across the country, the commercial airlines were still not flying so we decided to drive our station wagon across the country.  That was an amazing experience to not only see and share the country with our kids but also each night as we stopped at a hotel and they saw my military travel orders almost no one allowed us to pay for the room.  In many cases we were their only customers as no one was traveling and they all were interested to hear our story.  In one case at the very beautiful and amazing Lorretta Inn in Santa Fe, New Mexico the owners were so gracious that they set us up in their very best suite, consisting of multiple extravagant rooms all interconnected in a huge family room with a huge rock fireplace.  This was normally a $700 a night set up which they completely comped us (for two nights no less)!  Upon arriving in San Diego we quickly settled into North County and became part of the fabric of Encinitas.  My kids have grown, that 3 year old is now a sophomore at SDA, my son is now in 7th grade at Diegueño Middle School, they only remember the stories of 9/11 not the chaos and emotion it generated.  What they do remember well is the first time they swam to buoy at Moonlight beach, camping in the tent trailer at San Elijo and the what the worlds best apple fritter taste like at Leucadia Donuts.  So while its nice to remember 9/11 its nicer to be living in Encinitas, just ask my kids!