Pentagon lowers number
of missing workers to 124
By Sandra Jontz, Washington
bureau
WASHINGTON — The number of missing Pentagon personnel from Tuesdays’
terrorist attack dropped by two this weekend, but not because the victims have been found
alive.
A Defense Department spokesman said the DOD inadvertently counted among its missing two
defense agency employees who had been aboard the flights that plowed into the Pentagon and
World Trade Center on Tuesday.
The number of unaccounted-for Pentagon employees lost in the debris dropped to 124, a
number that does not include the 64 passengers aboard the American Airlines 757 that
thundered into the northwest wedge of the military fortress.
In all, 188 people are lost in the fallen concrete and twisted metal of the Pentagon.
By Sunday afternoon, firefighters had managed to remove the remains of 86 from the
Pentagon. Of those, 77 have been taken to Dover Air Force Base, Del., where forensic
pathologists have begun the arduous task of identification.
One of the missing has been positively identified as Petty Officer 1st Class Edward
Thomas Earhart, a 26-year-old Navy aerographer’s mate.
Pentagon officials originally thought defense agency contractors Bryan Jack, of
Alexandria, Va., and Herbert Homer, of Milford, Mass., were inside the building at 9:37
a.m. Tuesday, when the American Airlines plane hit.
They later learned that Jack had been aboard that plane, and that Homer was aboard one
of the two airliners that crashed into the Twin Towers in New York about a half-hour
earlier, said Army spokesman Maj. James Cassella.
During the past five days, intense heat from fires, coupled with the debris and dangers
of a collapsed building, slowed rescuers from getting to the victims, officials have said.
But day by day, the specially trained firefighters from Urban Search and Rescue teams
from Virginia, Maryland and Tennessee erected support beams and air-bag devices to
stabilize the structure.
Inch by inch, they are combing the structure, having debris hoisted out of the way to
search pockets for survivors.
They’ve come across none.
When the firefighters find a body, they call in FBI agents, who photograph the remains
before they are moved, Cassella said.
Rescuers then remove the bodies and take them to a tented makeshift morgue set up on
the Pentagon grounds. There, the bodies are again photographed and then processed for
eventual transport to Dover, either by helicopter or van, Cassella said.
Every casualty found in the Pentagon, whether active duty or civilian, a Pentagon
employee or passenger on the airliner, is taken to Dover.
At Dover, about 250 people work to identify the remains, said Mark Blair, chief of
Mortuary Affairs. There are 50 military medical examiners, and the FBI sent 50 members of
its "disaster team" to try to identify the victims via fingerprints, he said.
Identification through fingerprints is the first choice, Blair said. If that is not
possible, scientists will use DNA to make identifications, a much more time-consuming
process.
Three reserve squadrons from Travis Air Force Base, Calif., Andrews Air Force Base,
Md., and McGuire Air Force Base, N.J., also are helping out.
Blair said there is no time frame as yet on when remains will be released to families.
"It could be several days or even weeks," he said.
Washington bureau chief Patrick Dickson contributed to this report.
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