Remembering 9/11 – Federal News Network https://federalnewsnetwork.com Helping feds meet their mission. Fri, 10 Sep 2021 10:52:02 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/cropped-icon-512x512-1-60x60.png Remembering 9/11 – Federal News Network https://federalnewsnetwork.com 32 32 A Tuesday like no other: Did it really change everything? https://federalnewsnetwork.com/mike-causey-federal-report/2021/09/that-tuesday-like-no-other-did-it-really-change-everything/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/mike-causey-federal-report/2021/09/that-tuesday-like-no-other-did-it-really-change-everything/#respond Fri, 10 Sep 2021 05:00:27 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=3653953 We trusted one another back then. Before the airline attacks. The ones in January 1969, that is. The ones that forced — at gunpoint — eight flights to Cuba. People sometimes forget that hijackings had become regular occurrences in the late 1960s and into the mid-1970s.

One time before that, when I was a child, my grandfather took me and my first cousin to National Airport. I was flying home to Pittsburgh, and the families decided my cousin would fly with me for a visit. In those days fares were regulated, but airlines — it was Mohawk, if I recall correctly — had what they called youth fares. My cousin was clearly a youth. We hadn’t even reached the age of 11. But the ticket agent said she needed to see some form of proof.

So my grandfather, something of a wise guy, pulled a school portrait of my cousin out of his wallet. On the back he proceeded to write, in ballpoint pen, my cousin’s name and date of birth. Grandpop handed the small print over to the agent, with the ID now on the back. That’ll do it, she said with a wink, and issued the youth fare ticket.

In those days, before the 1970 advent of magnetometers, you just walked into a plane and sat down. Soon the stewardess, as flight attendants were then called, brought ’round a tray of individually wrapped Chiclets to help your ears decompress.

So if you ask me what’s the biggest change from 9/11, it’s that we took a big step further away from trusting one another. But the nation had already been heading in that direction.

Millions of hours of airtime (including those of my own Federal Drive) and millions of pages of retrospective have been expended on commemorating 9/11 ahead of tomorrow’s 20th anniversary. It’s the Pearl Harbor Day of a newer generation. To me, what 9/11 triggered seems more like the vagaries of Vietnam than the decisiveness of World War II.

Compare Japan and Germany, West Germany anyhow, of 1965 and Iraq and Afghanistan of 2021. In 1965, Japan had already hosted a summer Olympics. Boys’ Life magazine featured swimmer Don Schollander on the cover. Germany’s economic miracle included selling more than 325,000 Volkswagens in the United States. Literally everyone over a certain age drove a Bug at one point or another.

Iraq and Afghanistan — where are their miracles? Why here we are feverishly trying to gain cooperation from the very people deemed a major factor in 9/11 in the first place!

It’s popular to go on about how profoundly 9/11 changed the government. In some sense that’s true. Yes, there’s the Department of Homeland Security — and the word “homeland” becoming part of the U.S. vernacular. But DHS was more a conglomerating of existing departments than the establishment of anything new. The Transportation Security Administration’s work certainly changed air travel, and to some extent cruise travel. But the whole screening mechanism is an extension of what had already been an ever-tightening regime.

Faith and trust in government spiked after 9/11. Many people left the farms and factories, so to speak, to join public service or the military. But that soon faded to the historical downward curve. Nor, obviously, did the toxic partisanship among the people and the politicians improve. 9/11 temporarily halted it, but it started up again within a few months.

Back to the idea of trust.

The perimeter of security around federal facilities and the people who work in them has been moving steadily outward. Unfortunately, for good reason. The attempted assassination of Harry Truman in 1950 ended the idea of a president walking across the street. The Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 gave us bollards and more robust perimeter and entrance security generally, and expanded the idea of what terrorists are actually capable of.

And what is perimeter security and entrance screening but the manifestation of what you can’t trust?

9/11 was cataclysmic in several ways. But it nailed shut the idea of trust on many fronts. It sparked a widening and deepening of the surveillance culture. It made people doubt the loyalties and motivations of others.

The new One World Trade Center rose like a middle finger to the terrorists. But not, in true American fashion, after a solid five years of litigation. Nevertheless, it symbolizes the ultimate resiliency of the nation. So there’s a skyscraper in New York, and a Taliban government in Afghanistan.

If 9/11 changed anything, it is in the psyches of the individuals directly involved. This is true of disasters generally. But did it change everything? I’d say the jury is out.

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Help us commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2021/08/help-us-commemorate-the-20th-anniversary-of-the-sept-11-attacks/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2021/08/help-us-commemorate-the-20th-anniversary-of-the-sept-11-attacks/#respond Wed, 25 Aug 2021 18:41:20 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=3632579 Federal News Network wants to commemorate the anniversary of the attacks on New York, Pennsylvania and Washington with the help of our audience.

What do you remember most from that day? And with the benefit of 20 years of reflection, what have been the most significant impacts to your agency’s mission and operations?

We think the best way to tell this story is through feds’ own voices — both current and former. To do that, we’d like to ask you to record your own voice, telling us, in your own words, what you think your fellow citizens should know or remember about Sept. 11, 2001.

The recordings you leave with us will be used as part of our coverage of the 9/11 anniversary, both on-air and online. There’s no requirement to tell us your full name or any more personally-identifying details than you feel comfortable with sharing, but context is valuable. We’d ask that at a minimum, you share your first name and where you were working on that day.

You can share your reflections with us in three ways:

  • Record an audio message on your smartphone via its built-in audio recording app. On iPhones, the app is called Voice Memos; Android devices have similar apps, but the names vary. Please record memories of 1 minute or less. Once it’s recorded, you can email it to us at fnncomment@federalnewsnetwork.com.
  • Although we prefer the voice memo option because of higher audio quality, you can also call us (toll-free) and leave a voicemail from any telephone. Dial (844)-305-1500, and record your message after the tone.
  • Please submit a written memory of no more than 150 words to fnncomment@federalnewsnetwork.com or send us a message on Facebook.
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9/11 memories: Where were you? https://federalnewsnetwork.com/mike-causey-federal-report/2021/08/9-11-memories-where-were-you/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/mike-causey-federal-report/2021/08/9-11-memories-where-were-you/#respond Tue, 24 Aug 2021 05:00:40 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=3626120 If you are of a certain age, chances are the date September 11, 2001 is seared in your conscience. Probably forever. Hopefully forever.

Sept. 11, for many Americans, is the date, like Dec. 7, 1941 — Pearl Harbor — was for an earlier generation. It arguably changed things forever, more than almost any other event. Other burned-into-your-mind dates may include when President John F. Kennedy or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were shot and killed. Life-defining, life-changing moments. With 9/11 being the most recent game-changer. But recent is a relative term. Even for those of us who lived it, it’s still a long time ago. And fading fast for some people. That would be a shame.

Many of us can remember exactly where we were, what we were doing, what we thought was happening. Up close and personal, whether you were in Pittsburgh or Seattle. One of my sons was catching a ride outside the Pentagon when the aircraft slammed into the other side. His brother, my other son, was at a conference at Dulles Airport, which is where the aircraft that hit the Pentagon took off from before it was hijacked. I watched the Pentagon burn from our 5th-floor office, which gave us a look-down view of the Pentagon. We got reports that the State Department, the Pentagon, the CIA and the Capitol Building were hit. We heard that unidentified aircraft were heading toward the White House.

Many people worked frantically that day. Most in the D.C. area were told to go home and wait. Churches and synagogues were filled by people saying prayers or seeking answers. Professionals — especially in the government and the military — went into pro-mode. I later spoke to an FAA manager in Atlanta. She dropped her kids off to school then pulled into work just as the first aircraft struck. As she was being briefed, she was told the Trade Towers in New York City had been hit. Then the Pentagon, as well as many false alerts. She was told Air Force One had left Florida for an unknown destination. And that it was being tracked by 3 unknowns.

After a long, terrifying day at the Pentagon, a friend went home, got his fishing equipment and went down to the Potomac. To think! May sound crazy now, but it was that kind of event.

So what about you?

Lots of you were there on the job, or watching, or both. This is the kind of memory your kids, family, neighbors and fellow citizens should hear. Or at least be able to read. Which is what we’d like to do. Either in written form, or your actual voice on the radio. A reminder for friends and family about where you were, what you felt and how life changing it was for us.

We want to hear from you

Federal News Network wants to commemorate the anniversary of the attacks on New York, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. with the help of our audience.

What do you remember most from that day? And with the benefit of 20 years of reflection, what have been the most significant impacts to your agency’s mission and operations?

We think the best way to tell this story is through feds’ own voices — both current and former. To do that, we’d like to ask you to record your own voice, telling us, in your own words, what you think your fellow citizens should know or remember about Sept. 11, 2001.

The recordings you leave with us will be used as part of our coverage of the 9/11 anniversary, both on-air and online. There’s no requirement to tell us your full name or any more personally-identifying details than you feel comfortable with sharing, but context is valuable. We’d ask that at a minimum, you share your first name and where you were working on that day.

You can share your reflections with us in three ways:

  • Record an audio message on your smartphone via its built-in audio recording app. On iPhones, the app is called Voice Memos; Android devices have similar apps, but the names vary. Please record memories of 1 minute or less. Once it’s recorded, you can email it to us at fnncomment@federalnewsnetwork.com.
  • Although we prefer the voice memo option because of higher audio quality, you can also call us (toll-free) and leave a voicemail from any telephone. Dial (844)-305-1500, and record your message after the tone.
  • Please submit a written memory of no more than 150 words to fnncomment@federalnewsnetwork.com or send us a message on Facebook.
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US remembers 9/11, with virus altering familiar tributes https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2020/09/us-remembers-9-11-as-pandemic-changes-tribute-traditions/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2020/09/us-remembers-9-11-as-pandemic-changes-tribute-traditions/#respond Sat, 12 Sep 2020 01:53:15 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=3059339 NEW YORK (AP) — Americans commemorated 9/11 on Friday as another national crisis, the coronavirus, reconfigured ceremonies and as a presidential campaign carved a path through the memorials.

In New York, victims’ relatives gathered Friday morning for split-screen remembrances at the World Trade Center’s Sept. 11 memorial plaza and on a nearby corner, set up by separate organizations that differed on balancing tradition with virus safety.

Standing on the plaza, with its serene waterfall pools and groves of trees, Jin Hee Cho said she couldn’t erase the memory of the death of her younger sister, Kyung, in the 2001 terrorist attack that destroyed the trade center’s twin towers.

“It’s just hard to delete that in my mind. I understand there’s all this, and I understand now that we have even COVID,” said Cho, 55. “But I only feel the loss, the devastating loss of my flesh-and-blood sister.”

Around the country, some communities canceled 9/11 ceremonies, while others went ahead, sometimes with modifications. The Pentagon’s observance was so restricted that not even victims’ families could attend, though small groups could visit its memorial later in the day.

On an anniversary that fell less than two months before the presidential election, President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden both headed for the Flight 93 National Memorial in the election battleground state of Pennsylvania — at different times of day.

Biden also attended the ceremony at ground zero in New York, exchanging a pandemic-conscious elbow bump with Vice President Mike Pence before the observance began.

In short, the 19th anniversary of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil was a complicated occasion in a maelstrom of a year, as the U.S. grapples with a pandemic, searches its soul over racial injustice and prepares to choose a leader to chart a path forward.

Still, families say it’s important for the nation to pause and remember the hijacked-plane attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people at the trade center, at the Pentagon outside Washington and in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 11, 2001 — shaping American policy, perceptions of safety, and daily life in places from airports to office buildings.

“People could say, ‘Oh, 19 years.’ But I’ll always be doing something this day. It’s history,” said Annemarie D’Emic, who lost her brother Charles Heeran, a stock trader. She went to the alternative ceremony in New York, which kept up the longstanding tradition of in-person readers.

Speaking at the Pennsylvania memorial, Trump recalled how the plane’s crew and passengers tried to storm the cockpit as the hijackers as headed for Washington.

“The heroes of Flight 93 are an everlasting reminder that no matter the danger, no matter the threat, no matter the odds, America will always rise up, stand tall, and fight back,” the Republican president said.

Biden visited the memorial later Friday, laid a wreath and greeted relatives of victims including First Officer LeRoy Homer. Biden expressed his respect for those aboard Flight 93, saying sacrifices like theirs “mark the character of a country.”

“This is a country that never, never, never, never, never, never gives up,” he said.

At the Sept. 11 memorial in New York hours earlier, Biden offered condolences to victims’ relatives including Amanda Barreto, 27, and 90-year-old Maria Fisher, empathizing with their loss of loved ones. Biden’s first wife and their daughter died in a car crash, and his son Beau died of brain cancer.

Biden didn’t speak at that ceremony, which customarily doesn’t let politicians make remarks.

Pence went on to the separate ceremony, organized by the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, where he read the Bible’s 23rd Psalm. His wife, Karen, read a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes.

“For the families of the lost and friends they left behind, I pray these ancient words will comfort your heart and others,” said the vice president, drawing applause from the audience of hundreds.

Formed in honor of a firefighter killed on 9/11, the foundation felt in-person readers were crucial to the ceremony’s emotional impact and could recite names while keeping a safe distance. By contrast, recorded names emanated from speakers placed around the memorial plaza. Leaders said they wanted to keep readers and listeners from clustering at a stage.

As in past years on the plaza, many readers at the alternative ceremony added poignant tributes to their loved ones’ character and heroism, urged the nation not to forget the attacks and recounted missed family milestones: “How I wish you could walk me down the aisle in just three weeks,” Kaitlyn Strada said of her father, Thomas, a bond broker.

One reader thanked essential workers for helping New York City endure the pandemic, which has killed at least 24,000 people in the city and over 190,000 nationwide. Another reader, Catherine Hernandez, said she became a police officer to honor her family’s loss.

Other victims’ relatives, however, weren’t bothered by the switch to a recording at the ground zero ceremony, which also drew hundreds.

“I think it should evolve. It can’t just stay the same forever,” said Frank Dominguez, who lost his brother, Police Officer Jerome Dominguez.

The Sept. 11 memorial and the Tunnel to Towers foundation also tussled over the Tribute in Light, a pair of powerful beams that shine into the night sky near the trade center, evoking the twin towers. The 9/11 memorial initially canceled the display, citing virus safety concerns for the installation crew.

After the foundation vowed to put up the lights instead, the memorial changed course with help from its chair, former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The lights again went on at dusk Friday.

Tunnel to Towers, meanwhile, arranged to display single beams for the first time at the Shanksville memorial and the Pentagon.

The anniversary has become a day for volunteering, with the 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance organization encouraging people this year to make donations or take other actions from home because of the pandemic.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press journalists Alexandra Jaffe and Ted Shaffrey in New York, Darlene Superville in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

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PHOTOS: Services at Pentagon, White House, Capitol honor 9/11 victims https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2019/09/photos-services-at-pentagon-white-house-capitol-honor-9-11-victims/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2019/09/photos-services-at-pentagon-white-house-capitol-honor-9-11-victims/#respond Wed, 11 Sep 2019 16:49:00 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=2427509

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump participate in a moment of silence honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump participate in a program honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump place a wreath and will participate in a moment of silence honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump pause after placing a wreath and will participate in a moment of silence honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump participate in a moment of silence honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump participate in a moment of silence honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

A flag hangs on the Pentagon before a ceremony in observance of the 18th anniversary of the September 11th attacks at the Pentagon in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

A flag hangs on the Pentagon before a ceremony in observance of the 18th anniversary of the September 11th attacks at the Pentagon in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Flowers rest on a bench bearing a name in memory of retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Gary Smith before a ceremony in observance of the 18th anniversary of the September 11th attacks at the Pentagon in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Members of Congress gather at the Capitol to observe the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on America, in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony in observance of the 18th anniversary of the September 11th attacks at the Pentagon in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

President Donald Trump, members of Congress and the armed forces honored the victims of Sept. 11, 2001 at services across Washington, D.C., from the site of the attack at the Pentagon, to the White House and Capitol Hill, on Wednesday.

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Government shutdown? Maybe not the best time https://federalnewsnetwork.com/mike-causey-federal-report/2017/09/government-shutdown-maybe-not-the-best-time/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/mike-causey-federal-report/2017/09/government-shutdown-maybe-not-the-best-time/#comments Mon, 11 Sep 2017 05:00:43 +0000 https://federalnewsradio.com/?p=1543093 The fact that politicians are still deal-making over a possible government shutdown shows, at best, a very poor sense of timing. Especially today: It’s the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and we are still in the midst of three super-powerful hurricanes that have already created the greatest natural disaster ever for the U.S. The president’s surprise deal with congressional Democrats has pushed any shutdown future down the line. But it is still an option, even as many bewildered citizens, unfamiliar with the wisdom of political Washington, wonder what’s going on.

Coverage of the hurricanes, their likely destinations, destruction and wind speed has been 24/7. We’ve all seen government workers, military personnel and tens of thousands of private citizens doing their duty. And then some. A friend from Europe said he’s in awe of what we (that is, they — the rescuers and providers) have done. And are still doing, even as the politicians wheel and deal with a shutdown later on (unlikely, but still an option).

Seriously?

Holding part of the government under what amounts to house arrest while denying people promised coverage is a dumb, costly act in the best of times. And these are definitely not the best of times. Especially for those who remember the horror and chaos of the attacks on New York City and the Pentagon, which changed America big time, forever. And hurricanes Harvey and Irma, despite their cute names, have changed Florida and Texas. The rebuilding effort will take billions of dollars and maybe decades. And it can’t happen when politicians (who continue to work and draw their pay) put a CLOSED sign on those functions of government that they think we can do without. Finding a federal operation that hasn’t or won’t have some involvement in rebuilding Houston and south Florida — and other areas that got slammed — isn’t easy.

We’ve seen Homeland Security, ICE, CBP and Coast Guard rescuers on TV. FEMA has been all over the place. People from the Small Business Administration to Agriculture have been all over the place. The Postal Service continued to operate — or save and hold mail — all over the place. We’ve read about the Cajun Navy volunteers who rushed to find, free and feed people stuck on the top floors of their ruined homes. But there are so many others in the government that play a role that most of us don’t ever see, much less know about.

Although I have trouble finding my shoes and keys most mornings, Sept. 11, 2001 is burnt in my brain. Yours too, assuming your brain is in its mid-20s. Or older.

Sixteen years ago today, several of us from the newly formed FederalNewsRadio operation were in a training class on the top floor of our building here in Northwest D.C. One of the tenants from another company in the building came in and asked us what was going on. She figured that as good news hounds, we were on top of it. Apparently, an airplane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center buildings. Gulp. Horrible accident, no doubt. Was it a single-engine or a jumbo jet? Neither, as we quickly learned. Then the second aircraft hit and we watched it on TV.

There was another crash, this one at the Pentagon. A friend from the Drug Enforcement Agency called me to say he had seen it come in. Another friend was in her car going to work when the plane flew — way too low — into the building. She saw it almost from ground zero.

The reports came in fast and furious. The CIA had been hit, we heard. The State Department had been hit. There were 4,200 aircraft in the sky that morning. Many of them headed for New York or D.C. One of them, we heard, was heading for the Capitol building. A friend at the Office of Personnel Management called to say they had been evacuated because of their proximity to the White House. Other feds in other agencies gathered in parks. There were reports of shots fired at the Pentagon supposedly from a sniper who was targeting workers as they fled the building and first-responders as they went in.

While sorting the facts from bogus reports, we could see the smoke, black smoke like oil (or aviation fuel) coming from the Pentagon. Being a radio operation, we are located on the highest ground in the District of Columbia. We look down on the Russian Embassy, the Washington Monument, on Georgetown and, of course, the Pentagon across the Potomac in Virginia. No matter where you were that day, you probably have some vivid memories you can’t shake. Or don’t want to.

Most of us — like most people who had jobs to do — operated on auto-pilot. The grieving, the crying mostly came later.

I like to think what we here at FNR did was helpful. And professional. Responsible. But not heroic.

What so many of you and your colleagues did that day was.

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Rupa Bhattacharyya: Sept. 11 first responders still feeling the pain 16 years on https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-federal-drive/2017/09/rupa-bhattacharyya-sept-11-first-responders-still-feeling-the-pain-16-years-on/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-federal-drive/2017/09/rupa-bhattacharyya-sept-11-first-responders-still-feeling-the-pain-16-years-on/#respond Tue, 05 Sep 2017 12:49:49 +0000 https://federalnewsradio.com/?p=1538170

Next week marks the 16th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. But the Justice Department program Congress set up to compensate first responders and others  injured or disabled by exposure to toxic substances at the attack sites is still getting new claims. Rupa Bhattacharyya is the special master of the September 11 Victims Compensation Fund. She told Federal Drive with Tom Temin the program is now in its second iteration after the passage of the James Zadroga Act in 2011.

Subscribe to Federal Drive’s daily audio interviews on iTunes or PodcastOne

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Army looks to pare soldiers’ administrative tasks: They’re ‘not humanly doable’ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/dod-reporters-notebook-jared-serbu/2016/10/army-looks-pare-soldiers-administrative-tasks-theyre-not-humanly-doable/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/dod-reporters-notebook-jared-serbu/2016/10/army-looks-pare-soldiers-administrative-tasks-theyre-not-humanly-doable/#comments Mon, 10 Oct 2016 09:34:34 +0000 http://federalnewsradio.com/?p=1099814 Listen to Jared Serbu on Federal Drive with Tom Temin

 

In recent weeks, we’ve written about a couple of Air Force initiatives intended to scale back on ancillary tasks that have questionable connections to the core business of warfighting, and now it appears the Army is doing much the same — looking for ways to stretch declining budgets by ceasing at least some activities that have been layered onto units over the years.

Eric Fanning, the secretary of the Army (who, perhaps not uncoincidentally was previously the undersecretary of the Air Force), said last week that he’s ordered a new initiative designed to reduce time-consuming requirements directed by Department of the Army headquarters, particularly with regard to training.

“We essentially made a decision that if it’s Army-directed — which, unfortunately, a lot of it is — then we’re going to leave it up to the commanders to figure out how to get their soldiers trained, rather than have them walk through the mandatory PowerPoints we create at headquarters and send out to you in the field,” Fanning said last week at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington. “We need to do that, because we have a number of new warfighting requirements. The continuing resolution that was just signed extends a budget we submitted two years ago, before everything was happening with Russia, before ISIL emerged, before the Chinese became more provocative. So there are a lot of new stressors on the force, and we need to push more authorities and flexibility down to the garrison commanders.”

Gen. Mark Milley, the Army chief of staff, said the problem of excessive tasking isn’t just a Pentagon problem, but rather a cumulative one generated by each echelon of the Army’s leadership structure, down to the level of an Army company.

“At the end of the day, the last document I saw was 12 pages of single-spaced, nine-point type listing all of the activities a company commander and a first sergeant have to do, mandated by us. It’s nuts. It’s insane,” he said. “What’s happened over the years is that everyone who has a computer thinks they’re Leo Tolstoy and they want to put 50,000 requirements out there. Their staffs are large, but the company commander has no staff. It’s not humanly doable, and it has a lot of second-and-third order implications.”

Although he did not offer examples, Milley said Army leaders would try to thin out those demands by exercising what he called a “line-item veto” over existing requirements imposed by Army officials at the Pentagon, Army Forces Command or other higher headquarters.

“We are going to delete, in a very deliberate way, any task that is not directly associated with combat readiness and preparation for war. We have to cease fire on all this stuff,” he said.

Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel Dailey, the service’s top enlisted soldier, said there’s an additional reason the Army needs to free up service members’ time from compulsory computer-based training and administrative compliance: as the Army reduces its reliance on contractors, it’s going to expect soldiers to take over many of the home-station tasks it outsourced while troops were busy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“That’s part of the way we’re going to reduce our spend and make sure we’re still supplying essential services, and you’re already seeing some of that as soldiers have taken over duties like gate guard,” he said. “That may seem like that’s a detractor to training, but I can tell you that being a gate guard is a way to apply discipline and training to our soldiers. We have to look at opportunities like that where we can balance commanders’ needs on their installations with the needs of individual soldiers for training and readiness.”

Return to the DoD Reporter’s Notebook

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Remembering the Pentagon on Sept. 11 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2016/09/remembering-pentagon-sept-11/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2016/09/remembering-pentagon-sept-11/#respond Mon, 12 Sep 2016 08:43:48 +0000 http://federalnewsradio.com/?p=1046636

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump participate in a moment of silence honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump participate in a program honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump place a wreath and will participate in a moment of silence honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump pause after placing a wreath and will participate in a moment of silence honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump participate in a moment of silence honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump participate in a moment of silence honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

A flag hangs on the Pentagon before a ceremony in observance of the 18th anniversary of the September 11th attacks at the Pentagon in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

A flag hangs on the Pentagon before a ceremony in observance of the 18th anniversary of the September 11th attacks at the Pentagon in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Flowers rest on a bench bearing a name in memory of retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Gary Smith before a ceremony in observance of the 18th anniversary of the September 11th attacks at the Pentagon in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Members of Congress gather at the Capitol to observe the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on America, in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony in observance of the 18th anniversary of the September 11th attacks at the Pentagon in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

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An IRS customer service rep recalls 9/11 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2016/09/an-irs-customer-service-rep-recalls-911/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2016/09/an-irs-customer-service-rep-recalls-911/#respond Fri, 09 Sep 2016 19:13:24 +0000 http://federalnewsradio.com/?p=1046994 I was on the IRS customer service toll free line assisting taxpayers when the first  tower was hit.

I was on the IRS customer service toll free line assisting taxpayers when the second tower was hit.

By the time the Pentagon was hit, I had to tell a taxpayer that I had to discontinue the call, because we were being evacuated.

Remember 9/11!

—John Fox, IRS

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Witnessing 9/11 from an overseas embassy https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2016/09/1046978/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2016/09/1046978/#respond Fri, 09 Sep 2016 19:07:27 +0000 http://federalnewsradio.com/?p=1046978 I grew up in a suburb of New York City, and could remember when the World Trade Center Towers were being built, and twice visited them to sample the amazing view from the observation decks.

The towers weren’t very popular for a good while, as they were very different from the Empire State and other, older skyscrapers.  After a while, though, people came to accept the towers, in all their brutal simplicity, as an integral part of NYC and part of any New Yorker’s cultural identity.

On 9/11/2001 I was serving overseas at a U.S. embassy.  I was in a counseling session with one of my staff when one of my local employees knocked on the door and said that I had to see the TV news, there had been a terrible plane crash in New York.  I said I would check it out as soon as I finished the meeting (I thought it might be something like the  accidental crash of a military plane into the Empire State Building back in 1945).

At the end of the meeting, I went to our little cafeteria to get a jolt of coffee and to see what was going on in New York — I had no clue.  I walked up to the cafeteria counter just in time to see, on the TV on the far wall, a smoking tower crumble and crash to the ground.  That was my first hint of what was going on — I did not yet know the disaster unfolding on TV was the result of a deliberate, horrible act.

More than 30 people from my home county in southern New York State died that day — business people, office workers, cops and firefighters.  To back up a bit, I had already served overseas in some dicey situations, but when my spouse and I took on those assignments, we were taking on the risks willingly in order to do our jobs and serve our country.  We had the comfort of knowing that our family and friends back in the U.S. would not have the same kind of security and safety worries.  That all changed on 9/11 — we could no longer be reasonably assured that our home folks would not be facing the same risks.

My wife’s niece had been working in one of the towers until her office was relocated to midtown Manhattan shortly before 9/11.

My father-in-law was a war veteran (who still had machine gun bullets in his body) and a naturalized American.  He was immensely proud of his U.S. citizenship.  He had been retired for some time, and not in the best of health, but to give back to his adoptive country, on 9/11 he was at his usual job in south Manhattan to help elderly folks in need.  When the towers came down he was sent home.  His public transit route was shut down, so he walked home 50 blocks.  When my wife called and expressed her worry about his long trek and his health, he said he was fine, and that there were a lot of other people in New York who would be far more needful of help and support for a long time to come.

I’m old enough to remember our losses of JFK, MLK, and RFK.  Immense events for all of us who were around in those years, but 9/11 was different.  Different for the personal scale of the tragedy, and different because so many had what Churchill might have called their finest hour.

So many of us can’t avoid choking up when we try to talk about the amazing courage and generosity of the American people that day and in the following days. Few of us could be at Ground Zero or the Pentagon, but many of us have since stepped up in whatever small way that we could.  My wife and I later would take on some hard assignments and weathered some hard experiences, trying to do our bit —  and a lot of public servants were trying to do the same in their own way, many of them years after 9/11/2001.

We had some plenty of good models to follow, be they the people who were worked on The Pile, rescued the injured from the Pentagon, volunteered for any kind of public service, or those on one airplane simply said, “Let’s roll” — and did.

—Anonymous

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‘Sept. 11, 2001 was my 40th birthday’ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2016/09/sept-11-2001-was-my-40th-birthday/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2016/09/sept-11-2001-was-my-40th-birthday/#respond Fri, 09 Sep 2016 18:58:10 +0000 http://federalnewsradio.com/?p=1046956 Sept. 11, 2001 was my 40th birthday. I was at work with the rest of the folks that occupied the since-defunct Northeast Philadelphia Campus of the IRS (they are now at the old Post Office building on 30th Street in downtown Philly).

The management team had gathered for a meeting and our room was right next to the Public Affairs Office. The PA had a TV on that constantly streamed the local news, so they saw the first plane hit and came into our room to tell us what happened. We all went into their room and saw as the second plane hit the second tower.

Then all hell broke loose at our location as people scrambled back to offices and phones and tried to find out what happened. Eventually, we were told to orderly depart the building as all government offices were being evacuated for the day. In the middle of this chaos, my employees all came into my office with a beautiful cake that they had purchased for the occasion. They sang to me and then I said ‘Eat your cake and go the hell home!’

I distinctly remember the drive home on that gorgeous September day. The sky was a brilliant blue as only September skies can be. And as I made my way home on I-95 South towards my home in South Jersey, a steady parade of police, fire, emergency vehicles of all kinds from all over the Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia area went screaming past me in the opposite direction toward New York.

It was and will remain the most surreal experience in my life.

—Randi Salkowitz, IRS

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‘I knew what it was even before seeing the plane’ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2016/09/i-knew-what-it-was-even-before-seeing-the-plane/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2016/09/i-knew-what-it-was-even-before-seeing-the-plane/#respond Fri, 09 Sep 2016 18:48:34 +0000 http://federalnewsradio.com/?p=1046942 I was in the Pentagon in a meeting with my boss, the chief, U.S. Army Reserve Maj. Gen. Tom Plewes, on 9/11 when the plane hit the building.

During our meeting I felt a tremor like an earthquake and then outside the office you could hear people running and the lights went out, smoke filled the hallways and you could smell something burning. We thought it was a fire.  The meeting was abruptly ended and I headed towards the exit of the Pentagon to the parking lot.

People running by me were shouting that a plane had crashed into the building.  Gen. Plewes went towards the Pentagon courtyard to see if anyone needed assistance.  I was by the Pentagon exit to the Metro and people were trying to go down the long escalators to the Metro.

A bunch of officers, including myself, held hands to prevent frightened people from going down the long escalator to the Metro tunnel, as we urged them to leave the building and the area as soon as possible.  We figured the worse place you could be in an attack on the Pentagon was way down in the ground at the Metro stop.  If there were other bombs, you would never survive the falling concrete and steel.  People then started leaving the building at the entrance to the Pentagon parking lot.  When I got outside the building the smell of burning jet fuel hit me, and I knew what it was even before seeing the plane.

When I was a young boy living in Wisconsin, I lived across from the Milwaukee Airport, and one day an Air National Guard tanker plane filled with jet fuel crashed in the fields behind my house.  I was the first person to get to the crash scene, and the smell of burning jet fuel was overwhelming — there were no survivors.

When I walked out of the Pentagon that day and smelled that fuel, I knew what it was immediately, even before I saw the plane.  We encouraged people to get out of the Pentagon area so first responders could get to survivors and help put out the fire.   As I walked away from the Pentagon, I could finally see part of the plane sticking out of the Pentagon and firefighters trying to put out the fire.

I found out later that day that one of my best friends, LTC David Scales, who had just left our Army Reserve Headquarters office in Crystal City, and had transferred to work for the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel (DCESPER), was working in the Pentagon area where the plane hit and he was killed instantly. He had a wife and a young son.

I went back towards Crystal City to let my Army colleagues know that I was not hurt or missing.  Everyone was let go early but we could not call our anxious families as the phone lines were jammed, and there was no transport back to my home in Centreville, Virginia.

We listened to the news reports about the damage and lost lives in New York and the Pentagon and the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.  My deputy, Maj. Michael Coughlin, went back to the Pentagon to volunteer to help in any way he could.  He ended up being one of the military members who put a giant U.S. flag on the side of the Pentagon where the hijacked plane had hit the building.  I spoke at my friend David Scale’s funeral and went to his interment at Arlington National Cemetery.

What a sad day for our country.  I am so glad that the hijacker’s final plane did not get a chance to hit the White House or the Capitol Building, thanks to all the brave passengers on that flight.  I have gone several times to visit the memorial to all the Pentagon victims of 9/11 on the grounds of the Pentagon and have said prayers for all the victims, and especially my friend David Scales.

—Paul Conrad, retired Army officer

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‘Trying to understand what had happened’ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2016/09/trying-to-understand-what-had-happened/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2016/09/trying-to-understand-what-had-happened/#respond Fri, 09 Sep 2016 18:39:13 +0000 http://federalnewsradio.com/?p=1046880 I was working at U.S. Customs in the Ronald Reagan Building when word first started to dribble in about an incident in NYC.

My wife called to tell me about a huge traffic jam around the Pentagon and then about possible plane crashes. She urged me to get home as quickly as possible.

I took the Metro to Twinbrook with some of my colleagues and surprisingly, for Metro, the trip was smooth, other than the constant comments from passengers about what they had heard. There was a huge traffic jam on the local streets as people were frantically trying to get wherever they were going.

I tried calling my kids school to see what was going on there, and I was told that they were on lockdown, but would be released shortly.

After I got home, I hugged my wife and kids, and sat in front of the TV for many hours trying to understand what had happened and how our world would be changed forever.

Fifteen years later, I am still here, although now we call it Customs and Border Protection. Proud to be part of the struggle to make this a safer world for everybody.

—Gary Rosenthal

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‘The senselessness of so much death that doesn’t accomplish anything’ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2016/09/the-senselessness-of-so-much-death-that-doesnt-accomplish-anything/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/remembering-911/2016/09/the-senselessness-of-so-much-death-that-doesnt-accomplish-anything/#respond Fri, 09 Sep 2016 17:46:02 +0000 http://federalnewsradio.com/?p=1046842 On 9/11/2001, I was sitting in my office in Falling Waters, West Virginia, when across the radio came a report that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.  My initial thought was “OK, some guy in a Cessna wasn’t paying attention and crashed his plane or maybe he had a heart attack”.  Since there weren’t many details in the broadcast my thoughts seem logical.  I wasn’t too worried about it.

Then came a second report of another plane hitting the second tower.  My thoughts were no longer valid and I ran to the break room to see what was really going on. Many other people were already there watching with concern the images of two smoking towers.  As we watched they started to discuss closing the federal government.  I thought ‘That’s ridiculous.  They aren’t targeting us.  That is unnecessary.”  Then came the report of the third attack, on the Pentagon.  Now closing the federal government seemed like an urgent thing to do and shortly we were sent home.

For three days I was glued to the news on TV almost around the clock watching, praying, hoping for anything that would bring hope to those directly affected.  Hoping for rescue of people still trapped and some sort of understanding of what just happened and why.  Something to make sense of it all.  I don’t think that ever really came.  The senselessness of so much death that doesn’t accomplish anything but sorrow, fear, pain, and terror.  All of these things the product of hate.  Even as I type this it brings back so much emotion.

In the aftermath though I came to see another side to the horror and devastation of these events.  Something I believe was the hand of God.

There was the father and son who worked in the World Trade Center.  They had just come back from vacation and called in to say they were taking one more day before returning to work.

There is the story of two people who were engaged to be married.  The gentleman worked in the World Trade Center.  He couldn’t sleep the whole night before and they spent most of the night discussing their lives, their future and their love.  Almost like saying goodbye.  He died in the one tower.  She was part of the first responders that helped bring medical care.

Then there was the story of a son in the World Trade Center.  Despite all the chaos and the jammed phone lines he was able to call his parents and tell them that he loved them.  He also died in the collapse.

Lastly, there was the story of the head of security of one of the financial firms.  He had been laughed at when years before he had brought in a friend to do an analysis of the weakness of their building.  The analyst said “you are vulnerable at the garage level.”  He developed a plan to get his people out safely and they practiced it.  Most of the employees did not take it very seriously.  That is until the day the truck bomb went off in the garage.  They didn’t laugh at him anymore.  He brought his friend back to do another analysis and the report came back that they were now vulnerable from the air.  He revised their emergency evacuation plans.  After their tower got hit, every one of the employees of that firm made it out alive except for two people.  The head of security who wasn’t going to leave until everyone was out and one other guy who chose to stay with him.

What powerful stories that give me hope and assurance that even in the face of tragedy there is a God who loves us and cares about our pain and sorrow.

— Wendell H, Justice Department

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