# Remembering 9/11: DLA Distribution operations director recalls morning at Pentagon

/ Published Sept. 11, 2023
FORT BELVOIR, Va., 
The morning of Sept. 11, 2001, was sunny and clear at the nation’s capital. Paul Abel, then an Army lieutenant colonel working in Army logistics at the Pentagon, put the top down on his convertible for the short commute to work. He even called his father, who worked in the same building in the 1960s, to brag that he would enjoy the late summer day through a window in his recently relocated office.

Soon, everything would change.

Later that morning, a coworker announced to Abel’s office that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. Initial thoughts were that it was possibly a sight-seeing pilot who made a mistake, and everyone went back to work, said Abel, who is now the operations director with Defense Logistics Agency Distribution in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania.

“It wasn’t long afterwards that he stood up and said, ‘A second plane hit the World Trade Center.’ And I thought OK, something is up. This doesn’t seem right,” Abel said.

In a world before social media and live streaming news, Abel said coworkers gathered around a computer to watch what news coverage they could on the World Wide Web.

“Most folks were concerned but still working,” he said.

Then at 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the west side of the Pentagon.

“It felt like a cabin cruiser or something hit the pier a little too heavy,” he said. “We felt a good thump, not enough to knock you over.”

His office was located one Ring in, about 200 feet from where the plane entered the building, but it angled in the opposite direction, he said.

Within minutes, a cloud of black smoke covered the windows Abel bragged about to his father. He instructed people to evacuate the area and left last with another coworker after making sure classified information was put away and fire doors were shut. They also checked on a general officer whose office was on the E-Ring to make sure he was able to evacuate.

Abel and his coworker went down a stairwell to the ground floor, where the air got increasingly smoky. Abel said he heard pounding on the other side of a wooden door. As he tried to open it, he saw axes trying to break through. Firefighters on the other side told them to leave.

First responders grabbed Abel’s wrist to lead him through the black, thick smoke. After getting outside to the parking lot, police on the scene told everyone to leave because “there’s another plane coming,” Abel said, referring to Flight 93, which eventually crashed at 10:03 a.m. in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all 33 passengers and seven crew members.

The Pentagon E Ring collapsed at 10:15 a.m. That day, 125 people at the Pentagon and 64 people on American Airlines Flight 77 died in addition to those lost in Shanksville. A memorial at the Pentagon opened in 2008.

Hundreds of Pentagon workers left on foot for the next government building soon after the collapse but were turned away at the gate. Many of them hadn’t had time to grab their ID, phones, keys, wallets or purses, so those fortunate enough to be able to go home that day experienced great difficulties, Abel said.

A group of between 50-100 people went back through the Pentagon parking lot, under Route 395 to a nearby Macy’s where people were unofficially gathering. It took about four days to get accountability of his team, Abel said.

He and his wife, Begzada Orljak Abel, were new to Alexandria. She was at a dental appointment at Fort Myer, now Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, in Arlington when she was told to leave because the base was closing.

“She goes out, looks down the hill, and she sees that the Pentagon is on fire and knows I’m in there. She tries to call but her phone’s not working. The cell network went down,” Abel said. Begzada figured out how to get home despite road closures. She didn’t have GPS and was still learning her way around.

Abel walked to Crystal City to get a Metro train to Alexandria, then walked the rest of the way home, arriving mid-afternoon, he said.

After only a few hours, Abel was called back to work at the Pentagon. The side of the building he entered was not impacted, but in the corridors of the lower levels he walked, the smell of jet fuel and other residue in the air was overwhelming, he said. He worked for the next three days in the Army Operations Center.

Most of his coworkers were eventually relocated to the former Army Materiel Command headquarters building in Alexandria or to other nearby facilities. Additional space for the Army’s logistics team opened in the Pentagon around the holidays.

Several people from his department, some with over 30 years of experience working at the Pentagon, applied for retirement after the attacks and never returned, Abel said.

                Lights begin to illuminate the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial as the sun sets in Arlington, Va., Sept. 10, 2014. The Pentagon Memorial was created to remember and honor those lost at the Pentagon Sept. 11, 2001.                            Sunset Glow                            Lights begin to illuminate the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial as the sun sets in Arlington, Va., Sept. 10, 2014. The Pentagon Memorial was created to remember and honor those lost at the Pentagon Sept. 11, 2001.            SHARE IMAGE:Download ImageImage DetailsPhoto By: Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Patrick KelleyVIRIN: 140910-G-ZX620-004“It profoundly affected them that the very secure place they’d been for three decades had been shaken like that,” Abel said.

Abel left his job at the Pentagon in 2003 to attend the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., and then became the DLA regional commander in Europe in 2004. He retired from the Army after four years in that role but stayed in Germany with the Army and then DLA while he and his wife completed the adoption of their daughter from China. He joined DLA Distribution in 2013.

The events of 9/11 still have an effect on him 22 years later, he said.

“Of course it has,” he said. He makes sure employees in his directorate know where their designated assembly area is for emergencies and that their contact information is on file.

“This was not the case on 9-11 at the Pentagon,” he said, adding that it’s reassuring that fire drills and shelter in place drills are done often at DLA Distribution’s headquarters in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania.

Recalling commuters from throughout northern Virginia and Maryland being stranded without communications or money in the Pentagon’s surrounding area on 9-11, Abel said, “Where we are in New Cumberland, it’s a very tight-knit community. Everybody knows each other. There are no strangers who are not going to be taken care of and be taken home.”

On the anniversary of the attacks, Abel practices gratitude.

“I normally say a prayer to God for my good blessings and touch the fragment of the Pentagon I was presented, marveling at what a strong structure it is,” he said.