Stories of sacrifice and grief engulfed a nation in the wake of Sept. 11, and the impact is still felt close to home. A quarter-century later, there are entire generations who were not alive yet. For those who were here and those who lost loved ones that day, the memories remain fresh, even all these years later.
There is a day before and a day after. And we’re living the day after.
Twenty-five years later, we are still living the day after.photographer Bob Pugh
News4’s Megan McGrath was at the Pentagon after it was hit by a plane in a terrorist attack 25 years ago. Now, she returns to report on how that day is being remembered.
Below, find some of News4’s stories on what people in the D.C. area experienced and how that horrific day has shaped the 25 years that followed.
‘The smell of jet fuel’: DC surgeon and nurse share memories of working on 9/11
It was 9:37 a.m. American Airlines Flight 77 had just hit the Pentagon.
A few miles away, the staff at MedStar Washington Hospital Center braced for a wave of patients.
“We waited and we waited. And then nobody came, and we all started having this sort of sense of doom that nobody was coming because they couldn’t get there,” nurse practitioner Christine Owen said.
For the chief surgeon at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, 9/11 was his first day on the job. News4’s Aimee Cho sat down with him and one of the nurses who worked that day.
They would later learn 184 people had been killed at the Pentagon. Some patients did make it to the hospital. Many had severe burns that took months to treat. Read more.
Smithsonian marks 25th anniversary of 9/11 with a display of rare artifacts
Seat belts and a flight attendant call button from the doomed United Airlines Flight 93. A purse filled with keys and a wallet recovered from the World Trade Center site. The telephone that sat on U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson’s desk when his wife, Barbara, called from a hijacked airplane.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is honoring the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks this week with displays of dozens of rarely seen objects that tell the story of that day in often searingly personal terms. See more.
L & C: Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History; R: Getty Images
L & C: Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History; R: Getty Images L & C: Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History; R: Getty Images
DC elementary school honors teacher and student lost on 9/11
As retired fifth grade teacher Estella Cleveland walks down the third floor of Leckie Education Campus in Southwest D.C., all the memories start to flood back to the day her life changed.
“I think about the airplanes. I hear the sounds,” she told News4. “[…] And I thought about those people on that plane that went into the Pentagon and lost their lives senselessly.”
A few of those losses on the plane were personal to Cleveland. Fellow teacher and longtime friend Hilda Taylor and Cleveland’s student Bernard Brown were aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. Read more.
As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 nears, members of the Leckie Elementary School community are remembering a student and teacher who were lost on the tragic day. News4’s Dominique Moody reports.
NBC Washington Rewind: Journalists recall the day Washington was attacked
News4 journalists reflect on covering 9/11, the Pentagon attack and how that day changed the region and the country.
“We were on 395 when all of a sudden, we heard a boom. Just this churning orange, red and black fireball that rose above the Pentagon. We did not see the plane come in, but we saw that fireball, and I knew immediately that the Pentagon had been hit,” News4 reporter Megan McGrath recalls.
“I distinctly remember driving in on Old Georgetown Pike in Northern Virginia, thinking, ‘Am I going the right direction? Because this is crazy,'” photographer Sean Casey said. “… It was the most frightening thing I’ve ever experienced.”
Watch below:
News4 journalists reflect on covering 9/11, the Pentagon attack and how that day changed the region and the country.
National Cathedral scrambled to put together an interfaith service just three days after the attacks
President George W. Bush gathered with rescue workers and military members for a prayer service at Washington National Cathedral. For the first time, we’re hearing from one of the reverends who made that service possible.
As it turned out, the cathedral’s Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope had worked in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush and served on the transition team for the younger Bush — and she still had the fax number for the Oval Office.
“It was incredibly poignant. It was by design interfaith,” she said. “He was doing everything he could, and we did everything we could, to try and push against Islamophobia or fear of difference.”
As one attendee said at the time: “Hopefully it starts the healing process for all of us.” Read more.
Three days after 9/11, President Bush gathered rescue workers and military members for a prayer service at the National Cathedral. For the first time, we’re hearing from one of the reverends who made that service possible. News4’s Aimee Cho reports.
Retired FBI special agent who responded on 9/11 visits Pentagon memorial for the first time
Retired Special Agent John Adams was one of the first on scene at the Pentagon that day 25 years ago, arriving just minutes after impact.
“We just immediately began to try to help people out of the building, and there was a lot of people that were down and needed first aid,” he said.
Adams spent three weeks leading the effort to search the debris, working with the fire department and urban search-and-rescue teams.
This week, he visited the memorial there for the first time. Standing in the shadow of the Pentagon, Adams recalled the painstaking task for his team of FBI agents. He noted two significant discoveries his team made, including finding the flight data recorders. Read more.
The FBI special agent who oversaw the investigation at the Pentagon in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks visited the memorial there for the first time Wednesday morning. He spoke with News4’s Mark Segraves.
Photographer who documented disaster at the Pentagon now tries to teach new generations
Freelance photographer Bob Pugh has spent much of his life looking through the lens of a camera. So when American Airlines flight 77 hit the Pentagon, Pugh grabbed his cameras and made his way to the scene within minutes. He captured powerful images, both video and still pictures, in the early stages of the response.
“I parked right in front of the burning building,” he recalls. “… I filled my pockets with film, and I just took off.” Watch below:
A photo famous in the NBC4 newsroom shows reporter Megan McGrath in the middle of a live report the morning of the 9/11 terrorist attacks with the Pentagon burning and smoking behind her. McGrath caught up with Bob Pugh, the photographer who took that picture and many more that day.
When he got home, he realized he struggled to explain to his young daughters what had happened that day. Just as Pugh had to teach his own children, he’s made a point to use his images to educate new generations of people either too young to remember or who were born after the attacks.
“It’s critical, I think, because it changed their lives and they didn’t even know what was happening to them,” Pugh said. “We are where we are because of that.”
