My name is Danielle Faul I'm a rising fourth year here at the University of Virginia. I'm an air
force cadet so i'll be commissioning in about 10 months from now. My dad was an E5 in the navy at
the time and it was just a typical day he worked in the West Wing of the Pentagon which before 9/11
was this another part of the pentagon. Right at nine o'clock he was told that he was going to have
a meeting with a new potential one-star admiral that had just started working there. He is known
in our family for getting his cups of coffees at around 9:00 a.m. He knew he had to go get
his 9 a.m coffee so he walks down the hall then he goes back to his office grabs his portfolio
that he was going to go show his one-star admiral that he was about to start working for.
He said that he got in the office right at about 9:30 and right at 9:37 that's when he fell to the
ground and blacked out for a couple of minutes and gasoline was all he could smell in the air.
There's people screaming and he lost part of his hearing, no one knew that an airplane had hit,
but he knew he smelled gasoline. So, super confused and dazed he tried to go down the hall to
go see where his men were, he goes down the hall and people are literally burning to death, and his
admiral grabs him and they can't do anything about it because at that point it's more fallen people.
It took him about 10 minutes to actually exit the West Wing because there were so many people just
panicking a lot of people froze and couldn't even move. They ran out of the building and media was
already there and police were there, he did suffer some burns, but he got out alive thankfully.
It definitely changed me in a way knowing that my father almost died that day and it motivated and
me more of that thought, oh am I actually willing to serve my country against people like this,
and it definitely sparked a flame in me that I never had before. It's important to take time 20
years later this because even though you might not know someone that died that day whether it was the
pentagon or world trade center we have to remember all the thousands of family members that are being
affected it's remembering those, that really all those people that were brave that day on all three
of those flights and all the people that had their lives lost that day. We're really just giving back
a moment to remember them and everyone that was affected whether they survived or didn't survive
is just a way of the saying thank you for your bravery and thank you for all you do.