Talk:Pentagon Building

Some personal experience

I'm not sure how personal experience is best handled, but, while I never worked full-time in the Pentagon, I certainly was there frequently since 1966. At the time of the largest Vietnam demonstration, I ran the Washington Area Student News Pool from the regional universities, which was accredited both by the Defense Department and New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. Having passes from both sides gave the rare privilege of standing between the small fraction of violent demonstrators and the military security force.

Before the demonstration proper, I had been up for about 48 hours straight, getting our dedicated telephone lines (yes, that's what we used for radio broadcast) installed. Exhausted, I suddenly felt as if I was in the headquarters of the Galactic Emperor in a low-budget science fiction movie, and was reassured when I realized I was merely in the basement (as opposed to Sub-Basement, Mezzanine, and various odd projections) of the Pentagon.

On 9/11, living about 4 miles away, I heard a loud noise, which puzzled me; it sounded much like the loud fireworks at the end of the annual Independence Day concert on the National Mall. The noise continued, and my windows rattled, which they never did after fireworks. My first definite realization that something had happened came when I heard fighters overhead, at full military power. Then, the sirens rose and rose. Howard C. Berkowitz 01:31, 29 October 2008 (UTC)