"I just looked up and I saw the big nose and the wings of the aircraft coming right at us and I just watched it hit the building," Air Traffic Controller and Pentagon tower chief Sean Boger said. "It exploded. I fell to the ground and covered my head. I could actually hear the metal going through the building."
Sept. 11 started out as a normal day in the Pentagon control towers. The crew, Boger and Spc. Jacqueline Kidd, air traffic controller and training supervisor, prepared for President George W. Bush to arrive from Florida around 12:30 p.m.
"We were watching television and saw where the World Trade Centers were hit," Boger, a former Military District of Washington and Fort Belvoir NCO of the year, said. Kidd knew that the Pentagon would immediately heighten security after the attack in New York, so she decided to get her lunch out of her car while she still could.
Before she left, Boger said to Kidd, "I'm surprised no one has ever flown into the Pentagon," Boger said to Kidd before she left, referring to the fact that so many planes fly around the Pentagon daily. He was talking about an accident, not a terrorist attack. "Keep your eyes on the planes," Kidd said jokingly leaving the office "There was no time to think," the tower chief said. "There wasn't time to be scared."
Kidd was on her way out to her car when the plane hit. Luckily, Kidd stopped by the restroom before going to her car. "They got us," Kidd said her first thought was. "The lights went out and the ceiling fell in on me," she said. Kidd returned to the bottom of the tower and tried to get to Boger. The stairs were covered with debris and the ceiling had fallen in around him. "I don't know how I got out, but I got out," Boger said. Boger got to the bottom of the tower and was still not sure what was going on. "I grabbed [Kidd] and we both fell to the ground," he said. "We looked back." "What happened?" Kidd asked. "A plane just flew into the Pentagon," Boger responded.