Strength of the Pentagon

[Nino]

Heard a report today that was pretty amazing. ###The spot where the plane crashed is being renovated and reinforced. ###The building withstood the force of the crash for about 45 minutes before caving in. ###People were able to crawl around looking for survivors during this time in the floors above the crash. ###They showed a window only one floor above the impact that did not break! ###Next time you see a shot of the pentagon, notice how straight the left side of the opening is, that is part of the reinforced section.

[Passthru]

### I play games online with the man who posted this.


Some of you may remember Method man from MW4. He is my step son. He is with Old Guard in DC.

He is gifted and he is cronicling this (with permission) at

http://www.dcmatthew.com

Today was a hard day. I went to the Pentagon with D co, 1st Platoon, to assist with the recovery efforts. Charlie company was there, since noon yesterday, and were assigned to search and recover the dead and any survivors, however unlikely. They hadn't spent much time in the building when we got there, mostly just sitting outside being trained how to handle bodies and avoid disturbing evidence. The damage to the pentagon is fairly contained. The plane came in low, over a highway, knocking over a light pole on it's approach. I don't know if the media will ever get the tapes, but there are about three or four surveillance cameras, one of which is on a traffic sign on the highway, and may be a public camera, that would have had shots of the plane from as close as a few dozen yards from it when it came in. It hit the side of the pentagon almost at it's center, near the base of the wall. It skipped up into the air a little, and the nose landed inside the rings in the center of the pentagon. The outer ring is split open. On the left side, you can see where the building was neatly sheared away along the structural supports. There are desks and filing cabinets still sitting inches from the edge of the open crater created by the impact. Computer monitors are sitting on those desks, intact and undamaged. On the other side of the hole, the concrete and steel hangs ragged from the edge, at an angle into the hole. There are chunks of concrete blasted from the walls to the sides of the hole, as if shrapnel hit and blasted pieces away. windows are either shattered or melted all up and down the building, and there is a huge black scar from smoke and fire all along the side. There are literally probably thousands of rescue personnel from dozens of state, federal, and local agencies on the scene. Most communication seems to be by cellular phones. Nobody looks like they are doing much from the outside. The busiest agencies are the FBI evidence recovery team, the NTSB investigators, and the Collapse and Urban Rescue search teams, in addition to the various fire departments with their special apparatus teams and structural engineers. There are human finding dogs, light and air trucks, secret service, Army Corps of engineers, and teams from every branch of the military there. The most important agency there, in my opinion, is the Red Cross. Those people are AMAZING! They dont just supply blood and blankets. There was somebody coming around offering me water every 20-30 minutes. I wasn't allowed to stoop down and pick up a bottle of water all day. Someone with a red cross vest on was always there, dropping what they were doing to get it for me. They provided us with snacks, drinks, support, even dry socks. It was incredible. Home Depot was there, delivering rebar, large wooden support beams and lumber, gloves, shovels, dust masks, brand new generators in the box, flashlights, batteries, everything. Burger king, mcdonalds, pizza hut, all sorts of grocery stores, all provided massive quantities of food, beverages, ice, and utensils, so everyone had something to eat whenever they wanted. For lunch, I had two filet mingon, sauteed eggplant, duck pate, some tiny little gourmet grapes, crisp string beans, and a big chunk of Brie with a roll. The Navy has some amazing food, even if I was covered with mud, sitting on the ground, eating it off a paper plate with plastic silverware.

The first thing my platoon did was to fill and move tons of sand bags, to create drainage areas for all the water they were pumping into the building to soak the hot spots. The water has to be pumped out so the recovery teams can start working. There are search teams in there looking for survivors, and evidence, and bracing up the weakened building to make it safer to enter. Tonight, they should start cutting away the rubble. After that, the recovery teams should start pulling out most of the bodies. The plane caused fires that burned incredibly hot, supposedly as hot as 1200 degrees. One of the guys from Charlie company reported seeing the sillhouette of a person who had been running down the stairs when the fire ball blasted through, flash frying his image on the wall as he was vaporized. There are pieces of the plane all over the place. We also had to improve a drainage trench that had not been dug deep and wide enough to accomodate the water that had flown through the building. The stench was horrible. There was no doubt what that water had washed over on it's way out of the building. There are so many surreal things that I saw today. I was eating breakfast, which was a burger king croissant sandwich, and a fly briefly landed on my sandwich. I took another bite, and then I had a horrible thought. "I wonder what else that fly has landed on today."

When we were working on the sandbags, right at the base of the building, the fire trucks all started blaring their horns...a signal to the firemen inside to evacuate. People started telling us to move back from the building. We all started guessing what the cause might be. As we were pushed back farther and farther, someone was overheard saying, "There is an unidentified aircraft in the area." We were basically told to calmly run for our lives. Once we had reached a supposedly safe distance, (providing it wasn't an attack like the second plane in New York, that killed so many firefighters and police, and providing it didn't have a chemical, biological, or nuclear device on board,) we were told that it was a false alarm. A firefighter had seen an airplane in the area, and all flights were supposed to be grounded. It turned out to be a FEMA airplane. Everyone was terrified, including me.

Everyone there is working as hard as they can on what they are able to do at the moment. Everyone is helping everyone else deal with it. There is a small army of military chaplains there, providing counselling service in a large "grieving tent," and wandering around, talking one on one with rescue workers. Recovery squads from my unit are receiving training on how to lift and handle dead bodies. You can't lift them by the arms or legs, because they tear right off in your hands. Charlie company, the recovery group, will be relieved tomorrow morning, supposedly. I report back for duty at the pentagon at 6:00 am. I hope we aren't relieving them.

I met the President today. He shook my hand. I told him it was an honor to serve with him. He said, "The honor is mine." I guess it was on ABC news. The Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfield, also shook my hand. He said my name looked about as hard as his. They must have shook hundreds of hands this afternoon. We are lucky to have an incredible man leading this country.

The rest is already on the news. We will be going back every day, including weekends, until this whole thing is cleaned up. If you have time, you should contact the Red Cross and ask what they need. None of this work in DC or NY would be happening as efficiently as it is without them. Be safe, be very very careful, and do not let your lives be disrupted by this. As long as we continue living free as proud citizens of the United States of America, people like this cannot win.

[karstic]

My prayers go out to all the rescuers involved in the clean up and recovery operations. I think they have the most difficult job of all. God speed and stand fast in your resolve. You have the support of the nation behind you. God Bless.

[FarmHunter]

WOW!