Navy Rear Admiral Douglas Perry visited Milwaukee during Navy Week and sat down with WTMJ Conversations to discuss living on a submarine, the troubles of being a military spouse, being in the Pentagon on 9/11, and more on this week’s WTMJ Conversations. Listen in the player above.
A partial transcript is provided below, courtesy of eCourt Reporters.
NAVY REAR ADMIRAL DOUGLAS PERRY: I hadn’t heard any planes flying over the Pentagon.
Now, the Pentagon is situated right at National Airport, it’s between National Airport and Rosslyn, across the Potomac River from the Washington Monument. But at that time, that was the commuter flight path to National Airport.
We were on the fifth deck of the Pentagon. And the windows were always open, because it was too cold in the summer, and it was too hot in the winter. But the planes would fly over like about 50 feet above the building every day.
We’re not hearing any planes. And I looked at the pilot, I said, “We’re next. If someone is attacking the United States, this is a regular flight path, they’re gonna fly right here.”
Within two seconds, I heard a big heavy rumble, sounded like a train running into a concrete building, and it was the flight hitting the west corridor of the Pentagon.
