[StBernard] An untold story

[Westley Annis]

This is a story of a chaplain, who happened to be assigned to the Pentagon,
and told a first-hand account of an incident that happened right after
Flight 77 hit the Pentagon. The chaplain told what happened at a daycare
center near where the impact occurred. 

 

This daycare had many children, including infants who were in heavy cribs.
The daycare supervisor, looking at all the children they needed to evacuate,
was in a panic over what they could do. There were many children, mostly
toddlers, as well as the infants that would need to be taken out with the
cribs. There was no time to try to bundle them into carriers and strollers. 

 

Just then a young Marine came running into the center and asked what they
needed. After hearing what the center director was trying to do, he ran back
out into the hallway and disappeared. The director thought, 'well, here we
are - on our own.' 

 

But in about 2 minutes the Marine returned with 40 other Marines in tow.
Each of them grabbed a crib with a child, and the rest started gathering up
toddlers. The director and her staff then helped them take all the children
out of the center and down toward a park on the Potomac near the Pentagon.
Once they got about 3/4 of a mile outside the building, the Marines stopped
in the park, and then did a fabulous thing.  

 

They formed a circle with the cribs, which were quite sturdy and heavy, like
the covered wagons in the Old West. Inside this circle of cribs, they put
the toddlers, to keep them from wandering off. Outside this circle were the
40 Marines, forming a perimeter around the children and waiting for
instructions. There they remained until the parents could be notified and
come get their children." 


The chaplain then said, "I don't think any of us saw or heard of this on any
of the news stories of the day. It was just an incredible story of those
Marines responding willingly and quickly to a tactical problem that
presented itself. - But would we have expected any less of them?" 
 

Remember Ronald Reagan's great compliment: "Most of us wonder if our lives
can make any difference. Marines don't have that problem." 


Semper Fi