Reflections on the 10th Anniversary of 9-11

By Major General Walter M. Golden, Jr.

Ten years have passed since September 11, 2001.  Today I pause to honor the memories of the fallen and reflect on the tragic events of that day from my current posting at Kabul, Afghanistan. 

I was assigned to the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 as the Chief of the Leadership Division, Human Resources Directorate, Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel.  I had been recruited for this job by Maj. Gen. Timothy Maude while I was serving as an Army War College fellow at Harvard University.  Maj. Gen. Maude expressed profound interest in my studies, requesting that I include him on my monthly reports and offering sage advice and counsel on my studies and military career.  Maj. Gen. Maude was subsequently promoted to Lieutenant General and moved into the top position as the DCSPER shortly after I arrived at the Pentagon for my new assignment.

On 9-11, I had spent 15 months assigned to the DCSPER.   I had had almost daily contact with Lt. Gen. Maude; briefing, discussing and collaborating on different DCSPER initiatives such as the Army’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, gender issues and policy, equal opportunity, leadership programs, officer professional development and others.

Later in the day, I received calls from some of my personnel that had been able to navigate the confusion and chaos that enveloped the Pentagon and Washington, D.C. and found their way home.  I also received calls from my boss, Brig. Gen. Jim Coggin, who had traveled that morning to a temporary duty assignment at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan. as well as the spouse of my former boss, Brig. Gen. Bill Heilman.  By the end of the evening we had accounted for all personnel assigned to our Human Resources Directorate.  All personnel from the DCSPER at large had not been accounted for however.  In fact, a large number had received injuries; some minor, several major including severe burns.  One notable absence that was noticed by all was the lack of accountability for Lt. Gen. Maude, his aide-de-camp and speechwriter Maj. Kip Taylor and his senior enlisted advisor, Sgt. Maj. Larry Strickland. 

All DCSPER personnel were directed to report for work the next morning at the Hoffman Building, home of Army Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Va., as recovery efforts were underway at the Pentagon.  A somber crowd gathered at the Hoffman Building and we quickly learned that the office space of the DCSPER had sustained a direct hit.  The speculation (later confirmed) was that Lt. Gen. Maude, Man. Taylor and Sgt. Maj. Strickland were all killed instantly as the airliner’s point of impact at the Pentagon was their office.  Lt. Gen. Maude’s secretary, who was married and the mother of two small children, was also killed.  Our directorate’s executive officer, Maj. Regina Grant was emotionally drained, telling a harrowing account of how she had narrowly missed almost certain death.  She and a group of other executive officers had been in a meeting on the “E” ring where the impact had occurred.  During the course of the meeting, she had felt the jarring impact which had knocked her from her chair to the floor.  The impact was followed by immediate darkness in the windowless office as power was lost and smoke from fires in the building enveloped the room.  The group of 12 or so in the meeting, overcoming their shock and disorientation, dropped to the floor to escape the smoke and crawled on their hands and knees, one behind the other on the floor towards the door, opening it and exiting into the hallway – also dark and full of smoke.  Continuing their crawl on hands and knees, struggling to breathe in the thick smoke, they searched in vain for a way out.  They eventually made their way to a window as the only viable way to exit the building, securing a printer from a nearby office and using it to break through the window and allowing all to escape outside.  Once outside, they quickly took accountability, heartbroken to find that a couple of their fellow meeting members were not with them.  They frantically looked in vain for their lost colleagues.  Later, it was determined that their colleagues, missing since the impact,  had also perished, lost in the darkness and probably overcome by smoke inhalation or consumed by the intense fires. 

It took weeks for recovery crews, using DNA analysis, to identify all the victims.  In the meantime, DCSPER continued their mission, albeit while still in shock and mourning over the large loss of life, in the Hoffman Building in Alexandria, rather than in the Pentagon.  Within days, all of the DCSPER team was directed to gather in one of the commercial movie theaters of the Hoffman complex.  There, Mrs. Terry Maude, the newly widowed wife of Lt. Gen. Tim Maude spoke to the assembled survivors.  She encouraged us to continue our work and redouble our commitment; that Lt. Gen. Tim Maude would want our continued service and commitment to the mission to be his lasting legacy.  Within days, with my boss and a small cell of officers, I moved back into the Pentagon.  It was a sobering experience as recovery crews continued to retrieve the bodies of our friends.   The smell left behind by everything consumed by the fire, was almost overpowering.

The subsequent investigation of the 9-11 tragedy revealed that Osama bin Laden and the hijackers had plotted and trained for their mission in Afghanistan, supported and endorsed by the Taliban government.  The United States demanded the surrender and extradition of Osama bin Laden and his Al Queda henchmen from the Taliban government.  This request was repeatedly denied.  As a result, the U.S. Special Forces, conventional forces and our NATO and coalition partners deployed to Afghanistan and defeated the Taliban government, installing a democratic government and began rebuilding Afghan government institutions. 

Ten years later, and now in my 34th year of service, I serve in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.  My team’s mission is to develop the Ministry of Interior and National Police.  The task is complex and challenging.  Much progress has been made, but instilling civil order, defeating an insurgency and improving the lives of an Afghan people who have known nothing but war for over 33 years is a journey, not a destination.  As I reflect on the past 10 years since that tragic event, I find solace in knowing that my efforts are not in vain.  I remain convinced that our efforts in Afghanistan and in the War on Terror for these last ten years and into the future will prevent the catastrophe that wounded our national psyche and pride.   And, I remain committed to the preserving the memory and legacy of my old boss and friend, LTG Tim Maude. 

MG Golden is a graduate of Salida High School (Salida, CO) and the United States Military Academy.  He was assigned to the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 and is currently deployed to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

 

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