I was teaching a Fire Officer II class at the Reagan Washington National Airport fire station. The class ran from 8 am to 11 am on Tuesday, and we used the combined kitchen/dayroom as the classroom. The acting battalion chief interrupted the class and turned on the big screen TV to a national news show reporting the first plane crash into the World Trade Center. While watching the burning high-rise, the airport firefighters discussed strategy & tactics and shared their military aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) experiences. I was getting ready to restart the class when we watched the second airliner crash into the towers. Class dismissed!
At that moment, no formal mobilization orders had been issued. Every metropolitan Washington, D.C., fire department had plans in place to respond to a major emergency. The second plane crash mobilized hundreds of responders before orders were issued. Members of Fairfax County’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Team began mobilizing in anticipation of deployment to New York City.
I was about a mile away from the airport when I heard WTOP News Radio reporting smoke coming from the Pentagon. I have posted a link to Dave Statter’s (STATer911) description of reporting on the Pentagon attack. https://statter911.com/2025/09/11/september-11-2001-7/
Setting Up The Fire and Rescue Academy for a USAR Deployment
For an 80-person Heavy USAR team deployment, Virginia Task Force 1 needed to head to Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George’s County, Maryland, within four hours of a State Department notification. That required an equal number of folks to support USAR team deployments for both international and national missions. In 2001, the Fire and Rescue Academy served as the team’s staging area and assembly point.
This picture shows a recent USAR deployment from the facility that replaced the academy as a staging and assembly point.
When I was assigned to the academy as a uniformed officer, my “… and related duties” included setting the facility up for USAR deployments on evenings, holidays, or weekends. That meant driving the academy rigs out of the high-bay building, converting the four multi-purpose classrooms into a single room, and opening the USAR communications cache. I retired 14 months before 9/11 and, for the only time, regretted that decision.
I still worked at the academy as a part-time civilian instructor. I listened to the chaos on news radio while driving to the academy. Responding to a major USAR event in our front yard disrupted normal protocols, as some of the on-duty USAR team leaders were heading to the Pentagon or into Arlington County as first responders.
When I got to the academy, the uniformed staff was deployed. The recently hired civilian specialist who remained at the academy had not been trained to set up the facility for USAR staging. While explaining what I was going to do, we watched the first tower collapse on live television. I set the academy up for USAR staging and assembly. It was neither heroic nor lifesaving, but it left me with a small feeling of accomplishment on a terrible day.
Telling The First Responder’s Story
Picture of Fort Myers Fire and Rescue Foam 161 at the heliport fire station.
Northern Virginia uses a multiple-jurisdiction automatic aid system using a single radio system. The initial response to the Pentagon included Fort Myers Fire and Rescue, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority at Reagan National Airport, and the Arlington County Fire Department. Technically, Fort Myers Foam 161 was the first unit on the scene, but the rig, the heliport fire station, and the civilian firefighters were impacted by the crash.
For the tenth anniversary of the attack, Journal of Emergency Medical Services editor A. J. Heightman interviewed the fire-rescue leaders who responded to the Pentagon and described the planning Arlington County Fire Chief Ed Plaugher did before the attack. Part III of Out Of Darkness covers the Pentagon. https://www.jems.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/911-0911.pdf
A Six-Part Video Record of Pentagon Operations
A three-person team from the Fire Emergency Training Network (FETN)1 was filming at the Baltimore Fire Department. They got to the Pentagon around noon. This 25th anniversary remembrance includes their recordings.
https://youtu.be/1JiJg06Yh6kThe Family Left Behind
Sally Jenkins wrote a moving feature article about Rescue 4 Lieutenant Kevin Dowdell, what happened on 9/11, and what has happened to his wife and two sons since 2001. It is worth your time to read the Atlantic article. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/09/fallen-september-11-firefighter-family/687964/
James holds his father’s Halligan bar. Haruka Sakaguchi for The Atlantic.
John Feal (2026) I Will Follow You Anywhere: The True Story of the 9/11 Responders Who Took On Congress
Published this month, it describes the 15-year effort by 9/11 responders to fully fund the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, a federal 9/11 victim compensation fund. It provides a rogue approach to the ground game of representative government, empowering readers in all walks of life to take on the system and win.
I hope this book gives the reader some insight and nuance into the man who has taken me on an invaluable fifteen-year odyssey of frustration, tenacity, resilience, camaraderie, and into the lessons in selflessness and compassion he has graciously bestowed. I would follow him anywhere … although as I mentioned earlier, it is sometimes not easy given how short he is. (Forward by Jon Stewart, 2025.)
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1Fire Emergency Training Network (FETN) closed in 2008.
Feal, J., & Daly, C. (2026). I Will Follow You Anywhere. BenBella Books, Inc. ISBN 9781637748756. https://benbellabooks.com/shop/i-will-follow-you-anywhere/
Heightman, A. J. (2011, September). Out of Darkness, Volume III: Strike on the Pentagon. Journal of Emergency Medical Services. https://www.jems.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/911-0911.pdf
Jenkins, S. (2026, September). The Man Who Refused To Sit On The Sidelines: Kevin Dowdell, a lieutenant in an elite FDNY rescue unit, taught his sons to take action. When he disappeared on 9/11, they went to Ground Zero to search for him. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/09/fallen-september-11-firefighter-family/687964/
Statter, D. (2025, September 11). September 11, 2001: The Attack at the Pentagon, STATer911. https://statter911.com/2025/09/11/september-11-2001-7/
The 9/11 Legacy Foundation (2001/2026) The Pentagon Response: A Series of Rememberance [YouTube] https://youtu.be/1JiJg06Yh6k
Ward. M. J. (2002, April). Attack on the Pentagon: the initial fire & EMS response. Journal of Emergency Services 27(4). 22-30,
Featured Image: Gralund, D. (2016, September 7). 9/11 Fading. Portsmouth Herald. https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/opinion/cartoons/2016/09/07/granlund-cartoon-9-11-fading/25498344007/
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