CityView Magazine

"You are the shining and visible example of what makes America great. It takes special people to do what you do. I get it and I thank you." — Val Applewhite Val Applewhite in the Pentagon The Fayetteville City Councilwoman witnessed the attack on the Pentagon | BY KELLY TWEDELL O Information Assurance Manager n September 11, 2001 Fayetteville City Council- woman Val Applewhite was in the Pentagon, where she was assigned to the Air Force Pentagon Com- munications Agency as the Headquarters USAF from May 2000 until July 2005. She started her day normally and was briefing her staff on the issues of the day and was preparing to leave the building for an off-site meeting when her husband called to ask if she'd heard about the plane hitting the World Trade Center in New York. "I had not," Val said. "I worked in a vault, an office designed specifically for classified operations, no radios or televisions were allowed." She went to another office that had a TV to watch the news, but then quickly returned to her office to get back to work. Her husband called again, this time asking her to leave the building and come home. "I told him not to worry and that I was very busy. I tried to calm his fears by saying 'Don't worry, I'm in the Pentagon, there is no safer place.' The rest is history," Val said. When Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, Val knew she had to act quickly and she immediately decided to get out of the building. "We had no central intercom system in the building at that time and didn't really know what was happening," Val said. "I didn't make the connection to what happened in New York, but I knew something was terribly wrong." She directed her staff to implement the evacuation procedures they had practiced many times. "It was precision," she said. "Everyone knew what to do, what to take, and where to go." It's fortunate that she and the others in her office were well- aware of evacuation procedures because with cell phone towers overloaded by the massive numbers of people trying to place calls, Val and her co-workers were not able to communicate with supervisors or family members. Being able to escape safely and follow protocol instilled a measure of calm in an otherwise cha- otic day. They set up an alternate office in Rosslyn, Va., where they worked for about two weeks before being able to move back into their offices in the Pentagon. Her office, located in the second ring, had only suffered minor smoke and water damage from the fire that burned in the building after the crash. Val continued to work in the Pentagon until 2005, when she decided to move back to Fayetteville. She says that because of her own military background and her experiences in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 she understands well the sacrifices military families in our community have made during the last decade. "Although your [military families] sacrifice sometimes seems too much to bear, please know that there is no greater gift to this country than your dedication and commitment," Val said. "You are the shining and visible example of what makes America great. It takes special people to do what you do. I get it and I thank you." CityViewNC.com | 51 PHOTOS BY AWAKENING PHOTOGRAPHY

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