Crisis at the White House on September 11, 2001                                           
                                            By Roger Papineau, Windsor Ontario, Canada

It was a clear sunny morning. The bus was stopped on the expressway directly beside the Pentagon due to the busy morning rush hour. It was approximately 9:15 a.m. I, Roger, was the escort for the group from Windsor, Jackie's Bridge Club, which had been coordinated and directed by my mom, Jackie Papineau. Every Wednesday afternoon about 100 members of this club play duplicate bridge at St. Theresa Roman Catholic Church. While the bus was standing idle, I decided to talk about an experience I had had in the Pentagon thirty years prior during my honeymoon in Washington D.C. During my reminiscence of the tour of the Pentagon I explained how the visible portion was but half of its full height since much of it was below ground level. The Pentagon had been constructed mostly below ground to protect it from total destruction from enemies in case of war. Ironically, my words would prove to be true upon our safe return to our hotel in Virginia.

 
Fifteen minutes later we arrived at our destination directly in front of the White House, only separated by a beautiful floral park containing many historical statues of great American heroes. We all got off the bus, all fifty-six of us who were mostly seniors. We walked through the park and crossed Pennsylvania Avenue to the black wrought iron fence separating the White House from the public sidewalk. At that moment, some of the seniors in the group heard a loud noise. I was so preoccupied organizing the group to enter the White House that I was quite oblivious to anything unrelated to my goal, visiting the White House. I spoke to the guard at the exit gate who directed me to the entrance. I ran ahead to find the entrance gate to avoid making many of the seniors walk too far in the event we stopped at the wrong gate. Upon arriving at the entrance, I noticed dozens of White House employees running in a frenzy, talking frantically on their cell phones while running from the White House across Pennsylvania Avenue. I watched with curiosity and knew something was wrong but calmly turned toward the guard at the gate and said, "Is the White House still open, sir?" In a stern, abrupt tone he replied, "The White House is now closed, sir!" He said “No more tours today” as he closed the gate.

At that very moment, security people, or at least I thought they were security people because they were dressed in civilian clothes but spoke with authority and ran along the sidewalk yelling at all tourists and public to evacuate the area and to go to the park across the street. We together with the hundreds of other people started running across Pennsylvania Avenue into the park. No one had any idea what was happening. Once everyone had cleared the sidewalk adjacent to the White House, these same security people came into the park and yelled at the crowd to evacuate the park. We then evacuated to the other side of the park, our group staying very tightly together. Because of the pandemonium and the incessant wailing of sirens from the ambulances, fire trucks, paramedics and police, we realized the situation was escalating to a very frightening point. Our group began clinging ever so more closely together. We made our way across the street to the corner where the Hay-Adams Hotel is located. There we stood, completely unaware of the tragedy that had transpired in New York and the tragedy that had just struck Washington D.C., the explosion at the Pentagon. In the midst of all this chaos and the sirens that wailed endlessly, the group began curiously questioning the reasons for all this pandemonium.

Then suddenly, security people began yelling to everyone on the street to evacuate Washington D.C. altogether. They kept yelling, “The city of Washington is being evacuated. Everyone must evacuate the city.” My mom, Jackie, and I went into the Hay-Adams Hotel and asked for help. We spoke to the hotel manager, Michael Sicheri, and explained to him our dilemma. We explained that we were a Canadian group of seniors visiting Washington D.C. and that our bus had dropped us off a half hour before and would not return until 11:30 a.m. to which the manager replied, " I'm sorry Jackie but your bus will not be returning to pick you up." "But where will we go? How will we get back to our hotel in Virginia?” my mother asked. He calmed us down and assured us that we would be safe and that he would do everything possible to keep us comfortable until he could get us out of Washington. He had fifty-six chairs set up for us in a large ballroom with a large T.V. for us to see what was developing around the country. When the big screen was turned on, we stood in awe and shock. It was at that very moment that we all realized what danger we were in. The loud noise some of the seniors had heard while standing in front bf the White House had been the explosion from the plane crashing into the Pentagon. Because we could not be evacuated, we were kept for safety reasons at the hotel and were treated with the utmost service. After two or three hours, Michael requested his hotel staff to prepare an elaborate luncheon with sandwiches, and desserts served on beautiful china followed by coffee and tea dispensed from the most ornate silver tea and coffee service set. Michael assured us that there was no problem for us to stay indefinitely if that were necessary. He explained that no one was allowed onto the streets of Washington and that if we should have to stay into the night that he would see what arrangements could be made if the situation escalated to that point.

Cell phones and regular phone lines in and out of Washington were overloaded. It became almost impossible to make contact outside of the hotel. We had no way of contacting our bus driver. So, it became more evident that the situation, though safe, was making the group feel more anxious. They wanted to contact their families to assure them that we were safe. Michael was able to get a line through to Windsor where they were able to contact Chatham Coach Lines to get the cell phone number of our driver, Steve, and to let him know where we were and how to get us out. Of course, we knew that he would not be allowed into the core of Washington D.C. The only other alternative was for us to get permission to walk to him. But, that was a mile away. With fifty-six seniors, many of them quite elderly, we knew that to be very dangerous due to health reasons for many. Michael was calm and assured everyone that he was in contact with the city's security staff and that he was doing everything possible to get us back to our hotel safely. We learned later why Michael was so calm and knew how to relieve our fears. He explained privately, to Jackie and me that his basic training was military intelligence. We then had a better understanding of his ability to resolve our dilemma.

By 4:00 p.m. telecommunication with the secret service had given us the first opportunity to leave the Hay-Adams Hotel. Everyone in our group felt instant relief not realizing what dangers lie outside. Another high-ranking official from the hotel personnel came privately to me to tell me how to take our group safely back to the bus waiting for us one mile away. He explained how and where to reach our destination. He said the bus was waiting at the corner of 20th Street and E Street and that we had to stay together and there was to be no straggling. It seemed quite simple to do, I thought. We gathered the group in the ballroom and explained our plan to reach our hotel in Virginia. However, I warned them beforehand that the scene they would see upon exiting the hotel would appear strange and eerie. I knew because the manager who had given me the details of our escape in the direction of our bus had taken me outside to visibly show me where to go and how to accomplish this.

When I first saw daylight, I was in awe. It was a beautiful, warm sunny afternoon. The first thing I noticed were the tall trees glistening in the bright sunlight and the vivid red and pink impatiens lining the streets. Why they were so obvious and in the front of my vision was that there was nothing else to distract my attention from this warm and beautiful sense of peace and calm of nature. There was not a soul to be seen.  There were no vehicles of any kind. Living and breathing animals were as silent as the absence of humans. It was surreal. My mind, at that moment, was not in touch with my emotions. I felt numb and lonely. The adrenaline was rushing. Then, I calmly said to the manager with a questioning tone, "There isn't anyone here?" "No, sir.” he replied. "The city of Washington has been evacuated." I had never in my life been in such a situation. Having been born as a post second-world war baby, I had never felt the silence of war in the aftermath of a bombing. I don't know if this is what it is like but the first thing that came to my mind when my mind and body reconnected was "Was this what life would be like if mankind experienced a global catastrophe of such a magnitude that all mankind was obliterated from the planet?" All kinds of science fiction images began flashing before my eyes. I could hardly hear the manager giving his instructions about our escape back to the bus. His voice seemed dim and distant. However, I heard them and recorded them in my brain. My mind kept following my eyes as I glanced around at the empty city. The only thing I really noticed was nature with its dead silence and finally the White House directly in front of me, totally silent, totally alone, but majestically powerful. It was pure white with nothing to obscure my view except the beautiful carpet of red flowers leading up to the balcony.

The manager then put his hand over my shoulder and said, "Let's go in!" About a half hour later, we organized the group, gave them specific instructions on what to do. I forewarned them of the silence outside because I did not want them to freeze in their steps upon seeing the scene I had experienced, although I do suspect they did anyway. After all, they had been confined to this dimly lit ballroom for several hours with high anxiety observing all the chaos on the T.V. screen from within and then outside they were going to be exposed to the elements of nature in its natural setting of complete tranquility in the middle of Washington.

We began walking away from the hotel, away from the White House. Approximately two blocks further we reached a cordoned off area. The White House had been cordoned off with yellow police tape similar to that used during a homicide investigation. It seemed strange to see blocks and blocks of city streets completely roped off with this yellow tape. As we approached the yellow tape, cameramen started filming us and news media personnel started questioning us about being inside the evacuated area. They wanted to know who we were, where we had been and why we were allowed to leave the area. A secret service person just stood there observing and listening to my explanation. I briefed her about our dilemma and the security person just nodded giving us permission to leave the evacuated area. From there we walked another six or seven blocks and boarded our bus that had been waiting for us for six hours. What a relief to be back safe on familiar territory.

                                The Pentagon after the terrorist plane attack
 

The journey ended with a final shocking view of the Pentagon which was the route security allowed us to use to get back onto the expressway to Virginia. It was evening rush hour but there were few vehicles to be seen. The roads and expressways were desolate. The impenetrable fortress seen in the morning still stood firmly with a large black hole in one of its sides, burning and badly scorched from the inferno, still out of control, created by the deadly explosion. However, the plane that had crashed into the Pentagon had penetrated so deeply inside that it could not be seen. We only learned upon our return to the hotel that it had completely melted from the intense heat created by the fuel from the plane.

Upon our return to Windsor, it was not until we reached Canadian soil that we truly felt safe and relieved. I slept until late morning and was still exhausted from the release of the tension. I was happy to be home with my family.

At this time, I would like to say a prayer of thanks in recognition of the heroes on the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania, for saving our lives and the lives of hundreds of others by sacrificing their own. News releases have indicated that that flight was destined for the White House and had they not intervened and succeeded, our group would not be safe at home, here, in Windsor, today.

I would also like to say a special thank you to all the emergency personnel of Washington D.C. for securing the city so steadfastly and protecting all its citizens and visitors. Finally, a special thanks to Michael Sicheri and his staff at the Hay-Adams Hotel for protecting us and caring for us until our departure from the city on that horrifying day. Thank you all, again.
 
Roger Papineau