beltman713
05-17-2006, 09:02 PM
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_8649.shtml
To know what really happened on 9/11, you had to be there
By DOUG THOMPSON
May 17, 2006, 08:28
It took about, oh, two nanoseconds after the Pentagon released the full surveillance video of American Airlines Flight 77 slamming into the Pentagon for the conspiracy theorists to denounce it as a fake and declare their belief that a missile, not a plane, blew a hole in the side of the massive building in Arlington, Virginia, on September 11, 2001.
Of course, none of these people who flood bulletin boards with their skepticism or fill my email box with threats and obscenities were at the Pentagon on that fateful day. I was and that is why I know such conspiracy theories are wrong.
I arrived at the Pentagon not long after the plane hit, gaining access to the site through Department of Defense media credentials I used to cover all events related to the building.
After getting through the phalanx of security surrounding the building, I walked along Columbia Pike and found a cab with a light pole lying across its hood. The driver sat on the ground nearby, crying, telling police officers he saw the plane scream overhead just a few feet off the ground before it slammed into the building at more than 500 miles per hour.
He had trouble hearing. Close proximity to jet engines and explosions will do that but he described how the plane struck the light pole on the opposite side of Columbia Pike and sent it hurling into the cab.
Allen Etherton had just dropped his wife off at work in Crystal City in Arlington County, Virginia, and turned on the radio to catch the traffic reports when he heard about a jet that hit the twin World Trade Center in New York.
"What the hell is going on?" He wondered aloud as he turned on Columbia Pike, a multi-lane street that runs south of the Pentagon. Then he noticed the jet.
"It was coming low right down over Columbia Pike. I thought 'wait a minute, that's not right.'"
Etherton thought for a moment the plane was going to crash into traffic on the crowded street. Then it banked sharply, sheared off a street light that fell on a cab and rammed into the Southwest side of the Pentagon near the building's heliport.
"It went nose first into the building and disappeared. There was about a second of silence. Then there was a loud explosion and a fireball erupted. I could feel the heat inside the car (the heat had, in fact, bubbled the paint on his car)."
Etherton and other motorists stopped and stared. Some got out of their cars. He couldn't. He just looked.
"I couldn't believe it. I had just watched an airplane crash into the Pentagon! I remember saying 'Jesus fucking Christ! This can't be happening.' But it was. I was seeing it, but I couldn't believe it."
He sat in his car for more than an hour, too numbed by what he saw to move, too stunned to react. He just stared at the inferno. Firemen and rescue workers rushed past. No one asked him to move. Most seemed to not even realize he was there. They had more pressing matters to occupy their attention.
Etherton finally got out of his car, walked over to an embankment on the side of the road, and sat down.
"I was numb. I couldn't talk. I couldn't think. I was just numb."
As a photographer, I went into automatic pilot, shooting photos of the inferno, of rescue operations, of first responders. A messenger from my office showed up with fresh batteries and compact flash cards for my Nikon D1s. He took the full CF cards back so the photos could be selected and put out on the wire.
I worked into the night, alongside other photographers. At one point, Larry Dowling, a Reuters photographer, retched from the smell.
"What," he asked, "is that odor?"
"Something I hoped I never smell again," I replied. "It's the smell of burning jet fuel and human flesh."
I last smelled it in the 70s, covering another American Airlines disaster, a fully-loaded DC-10 that crashed after an engine sheared off during takeoff from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. The plane veered sharply to the left and nosed down into an industrial park near the airport, exploding on impact. I remember that horrible smell to this day, along with the burnt, scarred earth. Not one identifiable piece of aircraft wreckage existed at that crash site. The explosion and fire consumed everything.
Later in the evening, another photographer relieved me and I packed up my gear to head home for some sleep. As I walked along Columbia Pike, I found Etherton still sitting beside his scorched car.
"My wife's home. I finally got through to her on my cell phone," he said. "I should go to the hospital and give blood. I need to do something."
Twelve hours after he saw terrorists kill 184 people, the horror of what he saw finally sank in.
His body convulsed. The sobs came. Tears flowed freely down his face.
Some watched the crying man on the hillside. Others turned away. But they were crying too.
When I got home, the shock wore off and I cried. A few weeks later, I attended an off-the-record briefing at the Pentagon and watched the surveillance video that was released to the public Tuesday only after a Freedom of Information Act forced the issue.
I watched it again on Tuesday. It confirms what Etherton, a cab driver and dozens of other eyewitnesses said happened on that terrible day - eyewitnesses with no apparent connections with each other, no connections with the government and, certainly, no possible way to be part of a pre-arranged conspiracy. They witnessed an act of terrorism by Islamic extremists.
Allen Etherton died of a heart attack in 2003. His wife believes the stress of what he saw that day contributed to that death. She says he had nightmares about the plane right up until he died.
He became yet another victim of September 11, 2001. He, and so many others, knew the truth because they saw it happen.
They were there. Those who dishonor them, and everyone who died on that horrible day with wild-eyed conspiracy theories, were not.
© Copyright 2006 by Capitol Hill Blue
To know what really happened on 9/11, you had to be there
By DOUG THOMPSON
May 17, 2006, 08:28
It took about, oh, two nanoseconds after the Pentagon released the full surveillance video of American Airlines Flight 77 slamming into the Pentagon for the conspiracy theorists to denounce it as a fake and declare their belief that a missile, not a plane, blew a hole in the side of the massive building in Arlington, Virginia, on September 11, 2001.
Of course, none of these people who flood bulletin boards with their skepticism or fill my email box with threats and obscenities were at the Pentagon on that fateful day. I was and that is why I know such conspiracy theories are wrong.
I arrived at the Pentagon not long after the plane hit, gaining access to the site through Department of Defense media credentials I used to cover all events related to the building.
After getting through the phalanx of security surrounding the building, I walked along Columbia Pike and found a cab with a light pole lying across its hood. The driver sat on the ground nearby, crying, telling police officers he saw the plane scream overhead just a few feet off the ground before it slammed into the building at more than 500 miles per hour.
He had trouble hearing. Close proximity to jet engines and explosions will do that but he described how the plane struck the light pole on the opposite side of Columbia Pike and sent it hurling into the cab.
Allen Etherton had just dropped his wife off at work in Crystal City in Arlington County, Virginia, and turned on the radio to catch the traffic reports when he heard about a jet that hit the twin World Trade Center in New York.
"What the hell is going on?" He wondered aloud as he turned on Columbia Pike, a multi-lane street that runs south of the Pentagon. Then he noticed the jet.
"It was coming low right down over Columbia Pike. I thought 'wait a minute, that's not right.'"
Etherton thought for a moment the plane was going to crash into traffic on the crowded street. Then it banked sharply, sheared off a street light that fell on a cab and rammed into the Southwest side of the Pentagon near the building's heliport.
"It went nose first into the building and disappeared. There was about a second of silence. Then there was a loud explosion and a fireball erupted. I could feel the heat inside the car (the heat had, in fact, bubbled the paint on his car)."
Etherton and other motorists stopped and stared. Some got out of their cars. He couldn't. He just looked.
"I couldn't believe it. I had just watched an airplane crash into the Pentagon! I remember saying 'Jesus fucking Christ! This can't be happening.' But it was. I was seeing it, but I couldn't believe it."
He sat in his car for more than an hour, too numbed by what he saw to move, too stunned to react. He just stared at the inferno. Firemen and rescue workers rushed past. No one asked him to move. Most seemed to not even realize he was there. They had more pressing matters to occupy their attention.
Etherton finally got out of his car, walked over to an embankment on the side of the road, and sat down.
"I was numb. I couldn't talk. I couldn't think. I was just numb."
As a photographer, I went into automatic pilot, shooting photos of the inferno, of rescue operations, of first responders. A messenger from my office showed up with fresh batteries and compact flash cards for my Nikon D1s. He took the full CF cards back so the photos could be selected and put out on the wire.
I worked into the night, alongside other photographers. At one point, Larry Dowling, a Reuters photographer, retched from the smell.
"What," he asked, "is that odor?"
"Something I hoped I never smell again," I replied. "It's the smell of burning jet fuel and human flesh."
I last smelled it in the 70s, covering another American Airlines disaster, a fully-loaded DC-10 that crashed after an engine sheared off during takeoff from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. The plane veered sharply to the left and nosed down into an industrial park near the airport, exploding on impact. I remember that horrible smell to this day, along with the burnt, scarred earth. Not one identifiable piece of aircraft wreckage existed at that crash site. The explosion and fire consumed everything.
Later in the evening, another photographer relieved me and I packed up my gear to head home for some sleep. As I walked along Columbia Pike, I found Etherton still sitting beside his scorched car.
"My wife's home. I finally got through to her on my cell phone," he said. "I should go to the hospital and give blood. I need to do something."
Twelve hours after he saw terrorists kill 184 people, the horror of what he saw finally sank in.
His body convulsed. The sobs came. Tears flowed freely down his face.
Some watched the crying man on the hillside. Others turned away. But they were crying too.
When I got home, the shock wore off and I cried. A few weeks later, I attended an off-the-record briefing at the Pentagon and watched the surveillance video that was released to the public Tuesday only after a Freedom of Information Act forced the issue.
I watched it again on Tuesday. It confirms what Etherton, a cab driver and dozens of other eyewitnesses said happened on that terrible day - eyewitnesses with no apparent connections with each other, no connections with the government and, certainly, no possible way to be part of a pre-arranged conspiracy. They witnessed an act of terrorism by Islamic extremists.
Allen Etherton died of a heart attack in 2003. His wife believes the stress of what he saw that day contributed to that death. She says he had nightmares about the plane right up until he died.
He became yet another victim of September 11, 2001. He, and so many others, knew the truth because they saw it happen.
They were there. Those who dishonor them, and everyone who died on that horrible day with wild-eyed conspiracy theories, were not.
© Copyright 2006 by Capitol Hill Blue