PENTAGON75YEARS
THE
PHOENIX PROJECT
“Let’s roll.” The slogan adopted for the Phoenix Project – the reconstruction of a massive section of the Pentagon destroyed on 9/11 – and displayed prominently during reconstruction were the last words spoken on his cellphone by United Airlines Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer as he and fellow passengers and crewmembers mounted an assault on their hijackers, eventually forcing the plane to crash into an open field in rural Pennsylvania rather than its presumed target: the White House.
By J.R. Wilson
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a field in rural Pennsylvania, killing all 44 crew and passengers, including four al Qaeda terrorists. The day before the terrorist attack, about 3,800 people had moved back into the newly renovated Wedge 1 – the first of five 1,000,000-gross-square-foot Pentagon “wedges” scheduled for extensive renovation under a plan begun in 1994. Had the attack come a week later, hundreds more would have been in their new offices. Fire, water, smoke, and mold damaged 1.6 million square feet of the building, with another 400,000 square feet – about half in
DOD PHOTO BY R. D. WARD
A
t 9:37 a.m. EDT on Sept. 11, 2001, a hijacked Boeing 757-223 jetliner – American Airlines Flight 77 – was deliberately crashed into the western side of the Pentagon at 530 mph. As it penetrated 310 feet into the three outermost of the building’s five rings, 10,000 gallons of jet fuel ignited, unleashing a 200-foot-high fireball and destroying a segment of the military complex that was just finishing its first renovation since the Pentagon was constructed during World War II. Inside the building, 125 men, women, and children died, along with 64 crew and passengers aboard the aircraft, including the five hijackers. Another 106 were injured on the ground. Flight 77 was hijacked less than 35 minutes after departing Washington Dulles International Airport for Los Angeles with only one-third of its seats occupied. The attack came just moments after two other hijacked airliners – American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 – crashed into the World Trade Center buildings in New York City, killing 157, including 10 terrorists, aboard the aircraft, 2,996 in the skyscrapers and on the ground, and injuring more than 6,000. A third hijacked aircraft – United Airlines Flight 93, believed heading for the White House – was forced by passengers to crash into
