Pentagon Survivors Share Their Pain
MATT KELLEY
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Luticia Hook, her left hand still in a pressure bandage, her fingers gone, returned Wednesday to a rebuilt Pentagon to remember her friends who couldn't be there.
Hook, 54, said she was glad she changed her mind and decided to attend the Sept. 11 memorial service. She met a young military captain who helped carry her on a stretcher from the Pentagon's courtyard to a waiting ambulance.
``After coming here and meeting him, now I am closed,'' said Hook, a civilian Pentagon worker who was burned on both arms, both legs and her abdomen. ``I know what happened to me after the fireman rescued me.''
Hundreds of grieving victims, relatives and friends were among more than 13,000 people gathered to hear President Bush and other leaders commemorate the Pentagon attack.
They cheered the army of workers - ``hardhat patriots,'' Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers called them - who tore down and rebuilt the damaged section of the building in less than a year.
They shared their pain with the only people who could truly know what they were going through.
``It's good to be here among friends,'' said Christine Patterson, whose sister, Ada M. Davis, was among the 184 killed.
The horror of that day a year ago was still fresh for many who were in the Pentagon _ many flinched or wiped away tears as passenger jets took off into the clear blue sky from nearby Ronald Reagan National Airport. Thirteen planes soared into the air behind the Pentagon during the ceremony, including three during Bush's speech.
American Airlines Flight 77, which slammed into the Pentagon, had taken off from another airport in the area, Washington Dulles International.
``It still makes me nervous,'' said civilian Pentagon worker Mark Felipe, whose eyes darted to the sky when a jet roared overhead shortly before the ceremony began.
For Hook, whose former office was in the outer ring of the Pentagon near where the airliner struck, the rebuilt building is no longer a workplace.
``I cannot come back. I lost so many friends,'' said Hook, whose four office mates died in the attack.
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