This is a little-known story from the Pentagon on 09/11/2001
During a visit with a fellow chaplain, who happened to be assigned to the Pentagon, I had a chance to hear a first-hand account of an incident that happened right after Flight 77 hit the Pentagon.
The chaplain told me what happened at a daycare center near where the impact occurred. This daycare had many children, including infants who were in heavy cribs.
The daycare supervisor, looking at all the children they needed to evacuate, was in a panic over what they could do. There were many children, mostly toddlers, as well as the infants that would need to be taken out with the cribs. There was no time to try to bundle them into carriers and strollers.
Just then a young Marine came running into the center and asked what they needed. After hearing what the center director was trying to do, he ran back out into the hallway and disappeared. The director thought, 'well, there we are on our own.'
About 2 minutes later, that Marine returned with 40 other Marines in tow. Each of them grabbed a crib with a child, and the rest started gathering up toddlers. The director and her staff then helped them take all the children out of the center and down toward the park near the Potomac and the Pentagon.
About 2 minutes later, that Marine returned with 40 other Marines in tow. Each of them grabbed a crib with a child, and the rest started gathering up toddlers. The director and her staff then helped them take all the children out of the center and down toward the park near the Potomac and the Pentagon.
Once they got about 3/4 of a mile outside the building, the Marines stopped in the park, and then did a fabulous thing - they formed a circle with the cribs, which were quite sturdy and heavy, like the covered wagons in the Old West. Inside this circle of cribs, they put the toddlers, to keep them from wandering off.
Outside this circle were the 40 Marines, forming a perimeter around the children and waiting for instructions. There they remained until the parents could be notified and come get their children.
The chaplain then said, "I don't think any of us saw nor heard of this on any of the news stories of the day. It was an incredible story of our men there. There wasn't a dry eye in the room.
The chaplain then said, "I don't think any of us saw nor heard of this on any of the news stories of the day. It was an incredible story of our men there. There wasn't a dry eye in the room.
The thought of those Marines and what they did and how fast they reacted, could we expect any less from them? It was one of the most touching stories from the Pentagon.
Remember Ronald Reagan's great compliment: "Most of us wonder if our lives made any difference. Marines don't have that problem."
Semper Fi
Remember Ronald Reagan's great compliment: "Most of us wonder if our lives made any difference. Marines don't have that problem."
Semper Fi
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11 comments:
Thought process:
"Reality has too much of a liberal bias, so let's just make up shit."
WTF?? circle the wagons boys, de injunz is a-comin, and I'm a-skeeeeered!!
Semper Fi
Ah, I love the smell of fresh treacle-y bull hockey in the morning. Cue the Ride of the Valkyries!
I'm a little disappointed. I thought at the end the daycare people would ask the Marines which division they were with. Maybe the Marines would say "The 11th." Then later they find out that the very last 11th Marines division had been killed in WW2 trying to save a bunch of babies from the Nazis...it could have been so much better. agh
I do not get this at all.
These are the Marines that enlisted under Clinton. Shhhhhh.
So the US is under attack, and FORTY marines guarded a few kids in a park?
If this were true - and frankly, I have more respect for the armed forces than to think it is - it would represent one colossal lack of judgment and waste of resources.
First off, after an evacuation, you get kids inside another building, not into a park.
Two, domestic evacuations are handled by firefighters, police, and maybe national guard personnel, not by marines.
Three, assuming you did want or need some sort of security for civilians, that sort of duty would default to local law enforcement or national guardsmen, not specially-trained combat forces like marines.
Four, 40 marines guarding children is a terrible idea, particuarly in an open space. It draws attention to them, and makes the kids a military - as opposed to a merely civilian - target, thereby putting them in far greater danger. (Think about it: if a hostile force were attacking another country, who are they going to engage first - random unarmed civilians in a building, or a bunch of armed military personnel standing in plain sight?)
For people who "support our troops" so much, you'd think they'd have a little bit more of a clue about stuff like this.
Oh yeah, almost forgot - toddlers can crawl under and over cribs. For people who are so in favor of "family values", they don't know much about toddlers either.
(And those kids were probably larval liberals anyway. Good Republican kids would have been with their stay-at-home moms, not in some sort of commie feminist anti-family daycare, right?)
"Remember Ronald Reagan's great compliment: 'Most of us wonder if our lives made any difference. Marines don't have that problem.'"
I wonder if he said that before or after pulling up anchor and fleeing Lebanon in 1983 when the Marine barracks were bombed.
Unlike, say, the French Legion paratroopers who hunted down and assassinated the guys responsible.
Assume it is true. So what? A nice enough act, but who else would be helping a day care center inside a heavily gaurded military depot? The group of liberal protestors outside would have helped but they weren't allowed in.
I live in DC. I've heard all sorts of goofy stories about 9/11 (and I was here that day). The best was from a co-worker who commuted by the Pentagon. She was stuck in traffic by it and when the plane hit a bunch of people, including a fair number in uniform jumped out of their cars and ran away. She drove on the shoulder and calmly got away. The moral of the story is don't commute near terrorist targets, or something.
When a rightwing forward begins with the line "a little known story from...." you can rely on it being "little known" because it never happened! And that it was just made up by some rightwinger.
In this case, it is very unclear what the actual "point" IS of the fictional short story about manly marines guarding helpless infants on 9/11.
Is this somehow "supporting the troops"? Should I feel extra "patriotic-y"?? Should I feel guilty because I didn't stand guard over a bunch of helpless toddlers on 9/11?? Or...??? Unknown, but as usual, pretty dull.
Even if it did happen, why on earth would it have been reported on the news? They were busy covering, you know, the terrorist attacks. I'm sure there were plenty of feel-good stories to be gathered from the rubble to end the news day with, as there always are after major disasters.
hmmm... maybe these rightwing keyboard warriors should pay attention to sainted zombie reagan after all, who perhaps said (who knows if he did or not): "most of us wonder if our lives made any difference."
Maybe if these keyboard warriers actually went out and DID something useful, then they wouldn't have to wonder about that. Sending out saccharine stories like this doesn't count.
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