Updated 9/14/2026

Christopher Franklin

U.S. Air Force officer assigned to the Pentagon

Twenty-five years ago today, I was serving as a U.S. Air Force officer assigned to the Pentagon when American Airlines Flight 77 struck our building.

In the days that followed, I served in the relief and recovery effort at Camp Unity, the support base established at the Pentagon for the thousands of first responders, recovery workers, military personnel and others working around the clock.

What stays with me all these years later is the extraordinary generosity of the people who came to help.

The American Red Cross, Salvation Army, North Carolina Baptist Men’s Disaster Relief, chaplains, counselors, medical personnel, businesses and countless volunteers provided food, clothing, supplies, comfort and care. North Carolina Baptist volunteers alone prepared nearly 70,000 meals, while the broader Pentagon feeding effort distributed more than 500,000 meals in 13 days.

On September 11, I witnessed some of the worst of humanity. In the days that followed, I witnessed the very best of the human spirit.

People came from everywhere. They asked for nothing. They simply wanted to serve.

I remain profoundly grateful to every person who showed up for us - and for one another.

Neal Gorman

Media Relations, American Red Cross in Rochester; responded to DC and NYC

I was a full-time media relations employee at the American Red Cross in Rochester. We were in the middle of a media meeting and had to cut it short. My pager and cell rang continuously it seemed - calls from family, reporters, friends, and my worried mother. 

The community response was heartwarming. I did nonstop interviews with media outside the Red Cross for hours. They trusted me, and I somehow knew how to speak without causing more panic. 

I deployed to D.C., where I saw the Pentagon devastation and worked at the national call center we set up, then to the Brooklyn Red Cross headquarters, where I was onboarded, then to a family resource center on Canal Street, and to the GNY Chapter. It was an overwhelming, nonstop fire hose of raw input and experiences: the wall of teddy bears at the Pier 94 Family Assistance Center, the items and missing persons notes all over Manhattan, the grieving families we worked with, the incredible resilience, the amazing New Yorkers who lined the West Side Highway to support workers, the smell of the burning pile, rinsing your shoes when you left. 9/11 shaped who I am. 

I stayed nearly 20 years, met my wife, we created a family in Brooklyn, and I try to teach my kids compassion—and that no matter how dark things get to stay strong and kind, and everything will be OK.

Vicki Thomas 

NHQ Biomedical Services 

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was working at home while caring for my husband following some serious medical issues. My older son was en route to the airport to fly home to Virginia and take over the caregiver role so I could get back to the office. 

At about 9:00 a.m., my younger son called and told me that a plane had struck one of the Twin Towers. Over the next hour or so, we learned what else had happened and that no commercial planes would be flying within the United States for some time. Our son wasn’t going to get back to DC, and I’d be working from home for a while. 

I was assigned to help organize and execute what would turn out to be some of the largest blood drives the Red Cross had conducted, with collections reaching into the hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of donations. For context, the average blood drive collected fewer than 40 units of blood in one day. 

I was involved in planning blood drives following many disasters, including the Air Florida crash in DC in 1982; the Chase, Maryland, train crash in 1987, and the Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing in 1995. But this was different. It was a historic national disaster, and everyone wanted to help in any way they could. We needed to move quickly to respond. 

The local blood region needed additional resources, especially many more trained staff, to help make these new and much-bigger blood drives happen, so I got to work to figure out how we could get them here with all planes grounded and where they would stay. 

By September 12 the FAA had granted permission for Angel Flight and similar non-profits to fly disaster relief workers, Red Cross personnel and others to DC and NYC to assist in the recovery efforts. Collections staff were brought in from other areas to supplement the existing resources. I contacted the general manager of a major hotel chain’s flagship DC property, and he graciously offered to house and feed our staff at no charge for as long as we needed. A local sedan service offered to take the staff members to and from local blood drives at no charge. The willingness of the community to help was essential and deeply appreciated. 

Amid the logistical challenges of organizing the blood drives, there were constant reminders of why we were doing this work. The scale of the response was enormous, but behind the numbers were thousands of individual stories of loss, courage, and service. One of those stories became especially meaningful to me. 

In the aftermath of 9/11, I learned that the person who facilitated the weekly Red Cross blood drives at the Pentagon had died in the attack. Meta Waller, a special programs manager for the administrative assistant to the Secretary of the Army, was at her desk in the E Ring of the Pentagon that day. I’ve commemorated her both at the Pentagon Memorial and at the 9/11 Memorial in New York. Seeing her name in both places was—and remains—a humbling experience.

Susan Bowman Smith

Director Volunteer Resources, Greensboro Red Cross – Served at the Red Cross Respite Center serving Ground Zero; Service Center; and AA Flight 587 Crash in Queens

I served at St. John's University Manhattan Campus American Red Cross's first-ever 24-hour respite center, about three blocks north of the World Trade Center. I will never forget the police officers, firefighters, construction workers, and National Guard personnel coming in for a shower, sleep, and to eat during exhausting recovery shifts at Ground Zero. Estimated 9,000 to over 13,000 per day for three months. 

We would travel in by bus to work our shifts, briefing new volunteers as we traveled to the site. The walls inside lined with cards, letters, posters from school child, churches, businesses thanking all for their service and prayers for comfort. Next a Service Center on Canal Street assisting people displaced from their homes and then at HQ helping process over 30,000 volunteers seasoned and spontaneous. 

November 12th packed and ready to check out of my hotel for my return home, AA Flight 587 crashed in Queens shut the city down and air space down once again. A call from RC HQ requested I find a way to the hotel being set up by American Airlines as a Family Assistance Center for families of the 260 souls on board and 5 killed on the ground...I did and was one of the first Red Crossers there....I will NEVER forget.

Doug Erickson

Reposted from September 23, 2001

I returned from the Pentagon yesterday at around noon after spending 14 days there following 9-11, it is hard for me to express the feelings and emotions that ran through my head while there, so I penned this note. 

I knew I had a job to do so didn’t think about or reflect on the minutes or days as they passed. I felt honored and proud to serve in the capacity I did. I was a Government Liaison and interacted with ALL Governmental agencies involved in the relief operation, like the Dept. of Defense, Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, EPA, FBI, FEMA, several Fire Depts. Police Depts. And many Search & Rescue teams from as far away as California. Along with The Salvation Army, The North Carolina Southern Baptist Men, Christ in Action (multi-denominational organization), Burger King, McDonalds, and Outback Steak House. These guys all kept us fed.

This tragedy is unlike anything that I have ever experienced but I can also tell you that the overall response has been the smoothest run that I have ever been involved in. The interaction with the other organizations was outstanding, the togetherness, teamwork and love for this country is truly evident and I hope and pray that the relief operation in NY is going just as smooth. I will transition from DC to NYC in the next few days after returning home for some chores… Our thoughts and prayers go out to all relief workers and their families as well as all the victims and their families.

Lisa Crittenden

September 11 is a hard day for so many of my friends and family. So many lives were lost, and so many others were forever impacted. I was in Washington, DC, just a few blocks from the White House. I was sitting in my office when someone called me into another office because the first plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. As we stood there watching the television, we saw the second plane hit the other tower. Then came the news about the Pentagon. DC shut down.

I remember driving through nearly empty streets, just trying to get home to Virginia. There was so much uncertainty, fear, and disbelief. What I didn’t know at the time was that when I got home, I would begin hearing about friends whose lives had been lost. And then there was my brother.

He was on the train underneath the World Trade Center when the towers were hit. He was able to get out before the towers collapsed.

Every year, September 11 brings all of those memories back—the images, the fear, the uncertainty, the people we lost, and the realization of just how close my own family came to an unimaginable loss. It is simply a hard day.

Yolanda Elaine Patterson

I left my full-time job for a week to go help ARC in DC. Red Cross workers worked around the clock dedicating time, resources, food, shelter, love, sweat, prayers and tears. It was so sad, but God gave All of Us the energy to keep going, serving, fighting and helping our Nation through a very difficult time and SAD time!!! 

America came together as ONE NATION UNDER GOD INDEVISABLE

Renita Hosler

Communications with the Red Cross of Greater Boston and Red Cross National Aviation Response Team – Public Affairs

This morning (9/11/2026), I started writing this post around the time I received a text on my pager (!!) from a local television station 25 years ago. I was on the bus going to work at Red Cross in Boston. When I called from my cell phone, the station rep says, "We are checking in to see if the Red Cross will be helping in New York with the plane crash?" This is how I found out. I politely said give me about 30 minutes to call you back once I'm at the office. 

About five minutes later a friend called and asks, "Aren't you on call for aviation responses this month for Red Cross? I'm listening to Howard Stern's Show, and he is interrupting his show talking about the plane crash at the World Trade Center." I sat in stunned silence and looked around me. I realized that crowded bus of people had no instant news or was aware of what was happening and unfolding. I was on the bus with a neighbor, and I leaned over to answer her question, "What's going on?" As I whispered, "I'm pretty sure terrorism has come to America."

On that beautiful, sunny Tuesday, within 35 minutes of the first plane crash and before my bus arrived at Back Bay Station, Red Cross headquarters had deployed me. I had my assignment before the Pentagon and Shanksville crashes were even known. By 4 pm, I entered Manhattan from the north. It was eerily quiet, still and the streets are completely empty in the place that never sleeps. 

A Red Cross volunteer -- and the friend that called me a few hours earlier-- drove me to New York. I worked during that drive to get information and answer media calls. The biggest part of this unfolding response was people wanting to donate blood. Most vehicles passing us were ambulances and other responders. All traffic was headed toward lower Manhattan. 

My first glimpse of the Red Cross chapter on Amsterdam Avenue gave me pause. As we turned a corner of empty streets, suddenly the street is filled with thousands of people wanting information, wanting to help, Red Cross volunteers that had been at various points helping people walk to other destinations from their offices to home across bridges and long avenues. These volunteers offered comfort and compassion to thousands who were leaving the city on foot… The human spirit of coming together and lifting each other during this response. 

I'm so grateful to many people who are [part of my community] and part of the Red Cross. As I think about you, I have memories coming back about conversations we had in my two-week deployment and the response for many weeks and months after. Thanks for letting me share.

Colin Chaperon

Arlington County Chapter – newly onboarded as a Local Disaster Volunteer (LDV) working the nightshift with Red Cross personnel at the Pentagon site

This day will forever be etched in my mind & heart; and my condolences are forever extended to all the families who lost loved ones on that day. I was a new resident in the northern Virginia; having previously volunteered with a local chapter of the America Red Cross in Gainesville, Florida. My life was in a positive transition personally and professionally and on that day, I had just returned home from dropping off our daughter at daycare on Ft. Myers and my wife at the Pentagon metro to get to her place of employment in D.C. 

After learning of this news on television and realizing the proximity to the area of our daycare, I tried multiple times to reach my wife with no luck. The phone towers were down. The saving grace was that I was able to place and receive calls from out-of-state, and she finally was able to contact family in FL who was able to relay messages to me. This experience reinforced in my mind the importance of having an out-of-town family phone tree to use in emergencies! 

I’m also reminded that having access to a relay system for emergency messaging is crucial. My task was to go and pick up our daughter. I drove as close to the area, had to park a couple miles away and walk towards the base. I managed to get to her and back home after a number of hours. From the next day onwards, I made contact with the local Arlington County Chapter of the American Red Cross – where I was onboarded as a Local Disaster Volunteer (LDV) working the nightshift with Red Cross personnel at the Pentagon site – providing logistics/relief support to the first responder community.

It was during this time that I met our late friend, George Saunders, a WW2 veteran who was our Chapter’s HAM radio operator. His call sign was: “KR4MU”. He was the communications link between our RC chapter HQs and our emergency response vehicles. He also supported the AARL – the Arlington Amateur Radio League (AARL) – serving to support another communications bridge transmitting messages across the radio waves. 

I’m constantly reminded for the need to always have Plan B, for when your Plan A fails. Like many Red Crosses, we worked for days and weeks supporting the community that makes countless sacrifices to save and comfort the lives of people impacted by disasters; man-made or otherwise. It was this event, and the call to duty that awakened my calling to the humanitarian sphere; focused on the immediate response. 

A few months later, I become Chapter staff overseeing aspects of local community preparedness, readiness, response, & recovery - supported by over 1000 Local Disaster Volunteers (LDVs) who were heeding the call of duty and wanted to support their community. Some of these humanitarians, former bosses, peers, acquaintances, have since become ‘Red Cross family’. We hold a shared duty to bring out the best in humanity. 

Since 2001, I have since built on the many experiences that I have lived through at the grass-roots level; managed regional response over a handful of years; before transitioning to support, manage, and lead response operations within our Red Cross network at the international level – across continents. Days became weeks, weeks became months, and months became years of service! 

I think back often and am reminded about the importance of the principles that guide the Incident Command System (ICS); how response mechanisms and structures are so important as we jointly manage through chaotic situations – where life, death, and recovery are the possibilities. 

The outpouring of unconditional offers of help, the culture of volunteerism, the lengthy hours, days, weeks and months of support, and the generosity of our fellow community neighbors is always remembered. I remain indebted to the thousands of people who impacted my life with their generosity of time, money, and supplies! 

Today, like every day, I stand in solidarity with everyone impacted by this unforgettable day; and with all who carry visible and invisible scars from this traumatic period. Lastly, Thank You to all fellow Red Cross personnel who served across the events in NY, VA, & PA; and who continue to serve day-in & day-out across the country and across the world. Together, we are stronger!

Earl Johnson’s prayer to conclude the Red Cross Remembrance Gathering – Sept 10, 2026

As we bring this time together to a close, we remember that September 11th is not only a date in history. It is a day carried in the lives of thousands of families. A day remembered by firefighters, police officers, paramedics, nurses, physicians, chaplains, volunteers, and ordinary people who suddenly found themselves doing extraordinary things.

We remember those who went to work that morning and never came home.  Their names will be read tomorrow. We remember those who ran toward danger when every instinct might have told them to run away. We remember those who searched, rescued, treated, comforted, prayed, listened, and simply stayed beside another human being when there were no words adequate for what had happened. And we remember something else. In the worst moments, people reached for one another. Strangers became neighbors. Neighbors became rescuers. Communities became families. 

Perhaps that is one of the lasting lessons of September 11th:  We cannot always prevent tragedy.

May our remembrance become more than memory. May it become compassion. May it make us kinder to the frightened, more patient with the grieving, more generous toward the stranger, and more courageous in the face of suffering. May we honor those who died not only by remembering how they left this world, but by remembering how precious it is that we are still here.

Still able to love. Still able to serve. Still able to comfort. Still able to build peace where there is division. Still able to choose hope.

Twenty-five years later, the most fitting memorial may be the lives we choose to live. Lives of courage rather than fear. Lives of compassion rather than indifference. Lives in which, when another person is hurting, we do not turn away. 

We move closer. 

We remember. 

And we take care of one another.

See a Special submission by American Red Cross of Greater New York