Thread by @ashishkjha

Late night of September 10, 2001, I landed at Dulles airport. Had flown in from San Francisco

I had a 9 am meeting the next day

A joint VA / DOD meeting about improving preventive care for veterans and members of the military

The meeting was to be held at the Pentagon

Thread

Had booked a hotel next to the Pentagon in Crystal City

Getting off the plane, I realized meeting had been moved

Construction at the Pentagon so meeting was moved to VA headquarters, near the White House

Next morning at 9:10, meeting began and beepers started going off

2/5

All the DOD personnel left

By 9:30, meeting was adjourned and we evacuated the building

I walked out and strolled towards the White House, was stopped by police

Standing around, heard that WTC had been attacked

My mom, brother were in lower Manhattan near WTC that day

3/5

Couldn't get cell service, Metro station was packed

So walked for a bit, got on at a different Metro stop, took train which went by Pentagon but didn't stop there

We could smell the smoke

Made it back to my hotel by noon

My mailbox was full

My mom and brother were fine

4/6

My family thought I had been at the Pentagon

VM messages from them, every 10 minutes, each more desperate than the last

I called them and could hear the huge relief in their voices

Over the next 5 days, sat in the hotel room, trying to get back to SF

And had a few reflections

I thought about all the families who also had left desperate messages but never heard back

Watching the news and President Bush's response,

I felt deeply American

And committed to doing what I could to love this country that had given me so much

5/6

One small commitment I made that week was to dedicate my life to caring for veterans

It was a very small way to give back

So many painful reflections of loss on this anniversary

For a while, 9/11 also created a shared sense of purpose

I hope we can capture that again

End