As terror unfolded, 'a sense of helplessness'

Army Brig. Gen. Clyde Vaughn was attending a meeting in northern Virginia Tuesday morning when he was interrupted by an urgent call from his boss on his cell phone. The message: Return to the Pentagon immediately. Terrorists have attacked the World Trade Center. Vaughn is the Pentagon's director of support to civil authorities in times of emergency, and as he raced back to the Pentagon, he thought of the enormity of the task that awaited him in lower Manhattan. Vaughn immediately drove north on Interstate 395. He was exiting the ramp to the Pentagon when he realized something was terribly wrong. He noticed a commercial airliner near the Georgetown skyline that was clearly not where it was supposed to be. Before his mind could register what was happening, he watched the plane make a sharp turn and plow into the Pentagon, flying so low to the ground it clipped off light poles in the parking lot as it neared the building. He pulled his car over and sprinted toward the gaping, flaming hole on the Pentagon's west side. "It took me four to five minutes to get there," Vaughn said. "What I saw as I neared there was an unknown number of acts of heroism and courage." Dozens of wounded employees were carrying and assisting co-workers too badly burned or injured to walk without help. Workers were acting despite the tremendous danger posed by the collapsing building and exploding jet fuel, he said. "I really don't know how to describe it," Vaughn said. "You have several emotions. One is a tremendous amount of anger. Your second reaction is emotional. Then third, you feel this overwhelming sense of helplessness."