JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – Today marks 25 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of thousands of people. Charlotte Rodriguez, now a Jacksonville resident, was inside the Pentagon when the plane hit the building and is sharing her story with WITN.
“It’s been 25 years…it’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years,” Rodriguez told WITN.
Rodriguez did program analysis for the Department of the Army inside the Pentagon. She says September 11, 2001 began like any other day.
“It was a bright, sunny, shiny day; the weather was wonderful and…it was just a great day. Nothing unusual,” Rodriguez said.
Things soon changed as the world watched the two planes crash into the World Trade Center, a harrowing moment Rodriguez says she initially thought was an accident.
“We thought it was just a small plane that just, you know, it was an accident cause you know, those are pretty tall buildings, but then when the second one hit, then we realized something isn’t right with this,” Rodriguez said.
She said business continued as usual at the Pentagon despite the eerie feeling. Rodriguez was in a bathroom in Corridor Six, preparing for a briefing, when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon’s west side.
“We felt the blast; it shook the building,” Rodriguez said.
The plane crashed into the section where Rodriguez’s office was scheduled to move in three weeks. Some of her team members had already relocated to that area and died in the attack.
“Some of us were spared. We don’t know why,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez and other workers secured items in the building before evacuating and seeing the chaos.
“We saw the smoke. We could see it; we could smell it; it was devastating,” Rodriguez said.
Packed tightly in the Metro as she left the Pentagon that day, leaving the devastation, she says a sense of unity shone through the darkness.
“Everybody was just…we just wanted to love each other, we wanted to take care of each other, and protect each other,” Rodriguez said.
She returned to work a week later, with the smell still lingering and the lives lost and spared on her mind. She also remembered the overflowing support from the community, including posters, uplifting messages, and flowers for employees.
Rodriguez is now with the American Red Cross, helping save lives around the country, as she continues to remember when those harrowing attacks took so many back in 2001.
“Nobody hits the Pentagon, but that day they did hit the Pentagon,” Rodriguez said.
In total, 184 people died at the Pentagon: 59 passengers aboard American Airlines Flight 77 and 125 workers and civilians inside the Pentagon.
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