At the Pentagon, employees gain
strength from schoolchildren's letters
By Sandra Jontz, Washington
bureau
A banner reading
"You are in our thoughts and prayers," and decorated with children's handprints,
hangs in one of the Pentagon corridors. |
WASHINGTON — Even soldiers cry.
"This really chokes you up," said Army Col. David Phillips, security director
for the Army’s headquarters, as he walked by a fence in the Pentagon’s center
courtyard peppered with cards and letters from schoolchildren around the nation.
He watched soldiers get weepy when Red Cross volunteers handed letters and cards from
schoolchildren thanking the servicemembers for their valiant efforts as they worked to
pull from the Pentagon’s rubble the remains of people killed in an attack on America.
Pentagon staffers began receiving the accolades in droves following the Sept. 11
terrorist attack, in which American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into one of the five wedges,
killing 189 people.
A fence in the Pentagon's
center courtyard that bars access to the damaged sections of the building has been
decorated by numerous cards, letters and posters from children around the nation. |
Some of the letters hang throughout the Pentagon’s miles and miles of corridors.
Others, the servicemembers or rescue workers kept.
Phillips has a poem written by a middle school student in North Carolina. He’s
keeping that one. "I’ll put that in my scrapbook for life," he said.
Letters thank rescue workers who aided those injured in the attack. Cards bestow
prayers for those who perished. Banners scream of patriotism.
"It’s a heck of a tribute, isn’t it?" asked David Newman, 52, a
cable television system engineer working at the Pentagon. "This is a tribute to our
nation’s youth. While most people wear their patriotism on their shirt sleeve, most
kids don’t. Not until now."
Air Force Master Sgt. William Thompson, assigned to the Pentagon’s civilian police
force, took time Saturday from patrolling duties to read some of the notes.
Air Force Master Sgt.
William Thompson, 36, assigned to the civilian Defense Protection Service, reads some of
the children's letters that hang on a fence in the Pentagon's center courtyard. |
"They’re quite impressive," he said of the children’s words.
"It’s impressive that they know what’s going on and that teachers took time
to let them write these letters that show support.
"Although some come from North Carolina, I guess they still feel connected to
what’s going on in the Pentagon," Thompson, 36, said.
It’s the cards from the little ones that weaken the knees, he said.
"When you see them from elementary students, that’s what I find the most
moving," Thompson said.
A chain made of construction-paper links hangs across the wall of the main cafeteria.
On each link, a message is written.
"If you need someone to cheer you up, just give me a call," writes a young
student named Ashley. She leaves no phone number.
An elementary school
student thanks rescue workers for their efforts in a card that hangs on a fence in the
center courtyard of the Pentagon. |
Money raised from the sale of each link has been donated to relief efforts, a Pentagon
spokesman said. He did not have particulars, like how much each link costs, how much money
was raised or to which charity the donation went.
Some students write of being saddened. Others of feeling proud to be an American. One
student begs for answers as to why a terrorist would kill.
"But thir is still one question in my mind? What did he gain by doing this? Was it
money or was is pleasuring to see so meany people diyening?" writes Ben Dosner from
South Port, S.C.
"This is a question that only he & his crew can answer."
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