Pentagon survivor, prez, personal account from my sister

[J.J.]

this is an email from my sister, she sent it along from one of her former colleagues at the pentagon, her former office there was in part of the building that was destroyed... I thought you should see it as well.
J.J.
Thought you might like to read this. It is from a friend of mine at the
Pentagon who lived through the terrorist attack. 6 other of my friends
and
colleges who worked in the DCSPER (my old headquarters) referred to in
this
letter, were killed.
Perhaps we should focus more on current events than waste time on
sending
around an e-mail that is almost 2 years old on Jane Fonda, a person who
isn't worth the time it takes to read the verbiage written about her and
oh
by the way, is a liberal democrat and was a huge Clinton supporter.
Joss-

> Subject: Fwd:FW: An Email from a Pentagon Officer
>
>
>
> This is a summary of the Pentagon situation from MAJ xxx
> . DA BRAC Ofc. The latter part is a touching account of
> our President visiting a burn victim.
>
> All,
>
> We are finally back up on email this morning. Those of us here
> at the Pentagon greatly appreciate all of the thoughts and prayers
from
> the
> many people that are, and have been, in our lives. Please continue
to
> pray. Thank you very much.
>
> All in the BRAC office are physically okay, and I believe are
> coping with this fairly well, emotionally and mentally. Our office
is
> about
> half of a "side" of the building to the left (as you look from the
> outside)
> away from the site. The direct impact site was apparently the Army's
> Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel (DCSPER), LTG Maude's,
> office/conference
> room. The DCSPER office lost 20 people (to include LTG Maude), 3
> contractors from Booz-Allen Hamilton, 2 individuals from Manpower and
> Reserve Affairs
> and 3 personnel from Personnel Command (PERSCOM) in Alexandria, all
the
> latter of whom were meeting with the LTG at the time. The people
who
> handled
> many of the day-to-day pay and travel accounts for the Army in the
> building, I have been told, are all gone. That section lost 35
> personnel, mainly
> civilians.
>
> The executive office of our higher up organization, the Assistant
> Chief of Staff for Installation Management (ACSIM) was very near
> DCSPER. Our ACSIM family lost MG Van Antwerp's personal secretary,
> Ms. Cheryle Sincock, and the Tasking Secretary, Ms. Sandra (Sandy)
> Taylor.
> (The loss of LTG Maude was an additional blow to the ACSIM family,
> because his wife Teri
> works in the US Army Community and Family Support Center, a part of
> ACSIM.)
>
> LTC Brian Birdwell, the Executive Officer to Ms. Menig, the Deputy
> ACSIM, was returning from the men's latrine when the fireball hit him.
> He is still at Washington Burn Center with 2nd and 3rd degree burns
> over 50-60% of his body. Please pray for him. He has had three or
> four skin
> graft operations already, is apparently doing very well, but as anyone
> knows
> regarding burn victims, things can change for the worse quickly. He
> was a former Program Manager like myself here in BRACO before being
> tapped
> to be Ms. Menig's XO.
>
> In the last two days I have also learned that two other people
> that I used to see on a daily basis in Center Court and got to know
> fairly well over the last 18 months, are missing from the Navy side.
A
> great
> number of Navy personnel were lost in that area.
>
> The mood here is very upbeat in regard to the future. Many
> people here believe the country's leadership will do what needs to be
> done, the
> right way. Please pray for them as well because they need every
prayer
> they can get. Regardless of politics, many of us here, and many
others
> that I
> have spoken to, are very grateful that we have the President and First
> Lady
> we have at this time. He and she seem to be very much the right
people
> that we need now, and up to the tasks at hand and ahead.
>
> At the risk of moving away from my belief, as an officer serving
> in the United States Army, that it is an inherent duty of mine to
> ensure that my opinions in this general arena are not put out for
> public consumption, good or bad, regardless of who is in the White
> House,
> let me leave you with a small, but true story to give you an idea of
the
> kind of
> man and the kind of woman we have in the White House right now.
> (I have condensed this story, so many of the details will hopefully be
> filled
> in sometime in the future by those who were actually there.)
>
> As you may know, the President and Mrs. Bush visited the
> Washington Burn Center on Friday 14 September. Among those
> they visited was LTC Brian Birdwell, the XO to Ms. Menig, who was
> badly burned. Mrs. Bush went into Brian's room, spoke to him for
> about a minute, all the time as if they had been life-long
> acquaintances.
> She then turned to Brian's wife Mel, who at
> this time had been at the hospital for probably 2 1/2 days, and
> apparently according to Mel herself, was dirty, grimy and had blood on
> her shirt. Mrs. Bush hugged Mel for what Mel said seemed like an
> eternity, just as if Mel were one of her closest family members.
> Mrs. Bush then told Brian and Mel that there was "someone" there
> to see him. The President then walked
> in, stood by Brian's bedside, asked Brian how he was doing, told him
> that he was very proud of them both and that they were his heroes.
> The President then saluted Brian.
>
> Now, at this point in time, Brian is bandaged up pretty well.
> His hands are burned very badly as well as the back of him from the
head
> down. His movements were very restricted. Upon seeing the President
> saluting him, Brian began to slowly return the salute, taking, from
the
> accounts so far, about 15-20 seconds to get his hand up to his head.
> During all
> of this, 15-20 seconds, President Bush never moved, never dropped his
> salute. The President dropped his salute only when Brian was finished
> with his, and then gave Mel a huge hug for what also probably seemed
> like an eternity.
>
> No further comments. Pray for our leadership. Thank God for
> what we are, have, and will be.
>
> And, again, all of you, thank you. See you in October.




------------------
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Official Pin-Up Girl Massager of the O.L.D. C.O.O.T.S. Clan
To Err is Human To Forgive Divine, However Neither is U.S. Marine Corps Policy.