Thread by @vermontgmg

9/12 THREAD: For the past few days, I've been sharing quotes, stories, and memories about the 9/11 attacks—in real time—all pulled from my book THE ONLY PLANE IN THE SKY: An Oral History of 9/11, following Americans as they experience that time.... amazon.com/Only-Plane-Sky…

As September 12th began, the nation tried to make sense of the attacks and the tragic losses. At the Pentagon, the fires were burning stronger than before. All told, thousands of workers had been displaced and more than two million square feet of office space damaged....

Lt. Col. Ted Anderson, U.S. Army: "I slept for a couple of hours, woke up, and thought it was all a bad dream.... I decided to get up and go to work.... Ten thousand people showed up to work at the Pentagon that morning. It made me extremely proud."

Lt. Comm. David Tarantino, physician, U.S. Navy: "We all went back to work the next day in a building that was still burning to start planning our nation’s response."

Mike Walter, senior correspondent, USA Today Live: "Washington, D.C., is such a beautiful, magnificent city, and here were all these people with weapons—the National Guard’s out there in their vehicles. It seemed like you were in a Banana Republic."

Robert Hunor, contractor, Pentagon: "They were towing cars away from South Parking. There wasn’t a lot—maybe 60 of them. None had moved since the previous day. It dawned on me that this guy was parking next to me yesterday, and he was never going to get in that car again."

Lyzbeth Glick, wife of Jeremy Glick, passenger, United Airlines Flight 93: "The morning after Jeremy had died, I remember looking down at our daughter Emerson—she was sleeping—and just crying because she would never know her father. I thought she would only know a sad Mom....

... We had dreams for our family. Then something just kind of clicked in my head, and I said, 'You know, I have a choice. I’m not going to ruin her life. I’m not going to ruin my own life.'"

... We had dreams for our family. Then something just kind of clicked in my head, and I said, 'You know, I have a choice. I’m not going to ruin her life. I’m not going to ruin my own life.'"

Constance LaBetti, Aon Corporation, South Tower: "I had assumed that my boss Ron Fazio had gone down ahead of me. By 8 o’clock in the morning, the phone started ringing. It was my boss Ron’s son, and I immediately started to tell him how much of a hero I thought his dad was...

... and he was amazing, and he got us all to the staircase. And he said, 'Connie, Connie. Where did you see my dad last?' I said, 'He didn’t come home?' His son said, 'No, Dad hasn’t come home.' I felt doom at that moment."

Sen. @TomDaschle: "I look back on September 12th as, in some ways, the best and the worst of our country. The best was how resilient our country can be in the tragedies of this magnitude. The worse had to do with the vulnerability and loss of so many lives."

Capitol Hill staffer Brian Gunderson: "As we came back to work to the Capitol on the 12th, there were a lot of changes—new security barriers, military Humvees with .50-caliber machine guns on top, with soldiers manning them. At a glance, it looked like there’d been a coup."