Decades from now, when museum-going Americans visit a display on the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon, they might gaze upon artifacts salvaged from the wreckage by Mark Wertheimer and his fellow military history curators.
Objects like a scorched ship’s bell, found in the rubble of the Navy Command Center, were scarred when the hijacked airliner slammed into the massive office building.
Given years ago as a gift to the Navy by Adm. Arleigh Burke, the 8-inch-diameter bronze bell once rested in a display case at the command center. All of the 42 people lost by the Navy in the attack worked in the space.
Now discolored, scorched and chipped by exploding jet fuel and collapsed debris, it will be reinstalled in the new Navy Operations Center Sept. 10.
“This is a tough thing for me to see. It is a memory of those who were lost,” Wertheimer said in his office at the Naval Historical Center in the Washington Navy Yard.
Wertheimer and his colleagues focused on everyday objects used in office life to help tell the story of the attack that killed 184 people and five hijackers at the Pentagon that morning, letting the evidence give silent witness to the horror.
To do that, searchers recovered items like a telephone with the handset fused to its cradle by intense heat, a melted “in” tray for paperwork, and a scorched and blackened holder for a ceiling-mounted television set.
Wearing protective suits, helmets and respirators, Wertheimer and a handful of team members first ventured into the ruined spaces of the D and E rings on Sept. 27.
Comprised of specialists from the Navy, Marine Corps and Army history offices, the group was called the Joint Historical Property Recovery Team.
The curators worked according to strict guidelines. The impact area was a crime scene, and nothing could be removed that might prove useful as evidence in a criminal trial, such as the airplane seat-belt buckle they found while searching one of the floors.
Eventually, Wertheimer hopes to collect some artifacts from the airliner, once criminal proceedings are finished.
More than 500 artifacts were salvaged from the building. Depending on where they were found, the items were divided up among the services to whom they belonged.
The group found evidence of bravery, too — a spent pile of hand-held fire extinguishers in a burned-out space, where Navy people tried to beat down the flames and rescue colleagues.
The team did not collect personal items owned by people who worked in the building. But they have collected mementos left behind by family members and friends of the dead — more than 1,000 items — at a private viewing area set up on a nearby highway in the weeks following the attack.
Oral histories collected
Collecting artifacts was just one part of a larger ongoing effort to record the events of that day for posterity.
Wertheimer said the history project concentrated on gathering material in four areas — artifacts, oral interviews, images and documents.
Teams of Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Air Force historians interviewed more than 1,200 people as part of an oral-history project. All of the interviews were recorded on audiotape. Some also were videotaped, and a smaller selection will be transcribed.
The interviews include accounts of people who experienced every aspect of the attack, such as military and civilian survivors, rescuers, police and firefighters, said Bill Dudley, head of the Naval Historical Center.
Dudley was named executive agent for the history project last fall by Alfred Goldberg, senior historian for the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
“Most events are 360-degree events, and that’s why any event needs to be looked at from multiple perspectives,” Dudley said.
The aftermath of the attack is not ignored, since oral interviews included personnel from the Family Assistance Center who helped families of the dead and injured, mortuary personnel who helped identify remains and people who participated in the rebuilding effort.
Wertheimer wants the artifacts to be matched up with the oral histories, such as the accounts given by three Army civilian firefighters stationed near the building’s heliport who saw the jet, American Airlines Flight 77, descending toward the building.
They survived because they dove for cover behind their fire engine just before impact. Two of the firefighters immediately started trying to pull survivors out of the building, while the third called for help.
The team collected a “turnout coat” worn by one of the firefighters that morning.
Randy Papadopoulos, a historian with the NHC’s Contemporary History branch, has been assigned the task of writing the history of the attack. Papadopoulos has a huge amount of information to absorb for the book.
So far, the record includes the oral interviews, more than 3,000 photographs and between 300 and 500 documents, Papadopoulos said.
The book, tentatively titled “One Long and Tragic Day: The Attack on the Pentagon 11 Sept. 2001,” should be published next year in time for the attack’s second anniversary.
Papadopoulos said readers will learn that Pentagon employees responded bravely to the disaster, despite the confusion and shock.
“They hear an explosion down the hall, and the first impulse is to run towards it. They were trying to help, trying to take care of one another. People really wanted to help,” he said.
Objects like a scorched ship’s bell, found in the rubble of the Navy Command Center, were scarred when the hijacked airliner slammed into the massive office building.
Given years ago as a gift to the Navy by Adm. Arleigh Burke, the 8-inch-diameter bronze bell once rested in a display case at the command center. All of the 42 people lost by the Navy in the attack worked in the space.
Now discolored, scorched and chipped by exploding jet fuel and collapsed debris, it will be reinstalled in the new Navy Operations Center Sept. 10.
“This is a tough thing for me to see. It is a memory of those who were lost,” Wertheimer said in his office at the Naval Historical Center in the Washington Navy Yard.
Wertheimer and his colleagues focused on everyday objects used in office life to help tell the story of the attack that killed 184 people and five hijackers at the Pentagon that morning, letting the evidence give silent witness to the horror.
To do that, searchers recovered items like a telephone with the handset fused to its cradle by intense heat, a melted “in” tray for paperwork, and a scorched and blackened holder for a ceiling-mounted television set.
Wearing protective suits, helmets and respirators, Wertheimer and a handful of team members first ventured into the ruined spaces of the D and E rings on Sept. 27.
Comprised of specialists from the Navy, Marine Corps and Army history offices, the group was called the Joint Historical Property Recovery Team.
The curators worked according to strict guidelines. The impact area was a crime scene, and nothing could be removed that might prove useful as evidence in a criminal trial, such as the airplane seat-belt buckle they found while searching one of the floors.
Eventually, Wertheimer hopes to collect some artifacts from the airliner, once criminal proceedings are finished.
More than 500 artifacts were salvaged from the building. Depending on where they were found, the items were divided up among the services to whom they belonged.
The group found evidence of bravery, too — a spent pile of hand-held fire extinguishers in a burned-out space, where Navy people tried to beat down the flames and rescue colleagues.
The team did not collect personal items owned by people who worked in the building. But they have collected mementos left behind by family members and friends of the dead — more than 1,000 items — at a private viewing area set up on a nearby highway in the weeks following the attack.
Oral histories collected
Collecting artifacts was just one part of a larger ongoing effort to record the events of that day for posterity.
Wertheimer said the history project concentrated on gathering material in four areas — artifacts, oral interviews, images and documents.
Teams of Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Air Force historians interviewed more than 1,200 people as part of an oral-history project. All of the interviews were recorded on audiotape. Some also were videotaped, and a smaller selection will be transcribed.
The interviews include accounts of people who experienced every aspect of the attack, such as military and civilian survivors, rescuers, police and firefighters, said Bill Dudley, head of the Naval Historical Center.
Dudley was named executive agent for the history project last fall by Alfred Goldberg, senior historian for the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
“Most events are 360-degree events, and that’s why any event needs to be looked at from multiple perspectives,” Dudley said.
The aftermath of the attack is not ignored, since oral interviews included personnel from the Family Assistance Center who helped families of the dead and injured, mortuary personnel who helped identify remains and people who participated in the rebuilding effort.
Wertheimer wants the artifacts to be matched up with the oral histories, such as the accounts given by three Army civilian firefighters stationed near the building’s heliport who saw the jet, American Airlines Flight 77, descending toward the building.
They survived because they dove for cover behind their fire engine just before impact. Two of the firefighters immediately started trying to pull survivors out of the building, while the third called for help.
The team collected a “turnout coat” worn by one of the firefighters that morning.
Randy Papadopoulos, a historian with the NHC’s Contemporary History branch, has been assigned the task of writing the history of the attack. Papadopoulos has a huge amount of information to absorb for the book.
So far, the record includes the oral interviews, more than 3,000 photographs and between 300 and 500 documents, Papadopoulos said.
The book, tentatively titled “One Long and Tragic Day: The Attack on the Pentagon 11 Sept. 2001,” should be published next year in time for the attack’s second anniversary.
Papadopoulos said readers will learn that Pentagon employees responded bravely to the disaster, despite the confusion and shock.
“They hear an explosion down the hall, and the first impulse is to run towards it. They were trying to help, trying to take care of one another. People really wanted to help,” he said.
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