Warren County man recounts experiencing 9/11 from inside of the Pentagon

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – One Bowling Green man, Jim Allen, was serving in the Army as a public affairs soldier working at the Pentagon when a plane hit the building on 9/11 in 2001.

Thursday, he shared his story at the Bowling Green Rotary Club and with News 40.

He said his day started normal with blue skies, until the first plane hit a tower.

“I was the Public Affairs Officer for the Secretary of the Army. And every morning, I went to his office, and he had a staff meeting and I would attend. And that particular morning course, the first plane had hit the Twin Towers. And we were all kind of hovered around the TV, in the Secretary’s at her office talking about wondering what happened?

“Well, then we saw the second plane hit. And that’s when everybody immediately realized that this was no longer an accident. I said, ‘you know, we would be a good target.’ She said, ‘Don’t even say that.’ Well, you know, we got back in office, you know, got settled in, went across the hall, to a conference room where I was holding this meeting. And I started the meeting around 9:30. Well, in about seven minutes, boom, the plane hit. And I was close enough to actually feel the the impact.

“I went down the hall toward the blast area, to see if I could help injured or whatever people. And so I got down there, and I was helping people out of the building. You know, people were confused and disoriented. And then the firemen came in and basically ran us out and said it wasn’t safe. And with that, I went outside. And there were casualties laying all over the ground that had been carried out of the building or had gotten out of the building.

“So we begin to kind of render first aid or whatever we could to them, and never was afraid for some reason. I don’t know what it’s just stupidity or what. But at the end of the day, I went back to my public affairs duties. And, I mean, we were the Army’s media connection, every media in the world wanted to talk to us. So that’s, you know, it was just answered the phone talk, answer the phone talk. And that was our that was our day. One of the biggest problems was that I couldn’t get in touch with my wife to tell her I was okay. She basically knew where I worked in the building and knew where the blast was and knew I was close. And, but it was late in the afternoon before I could ever contact her to tell her I was alright. We were usin, everybody was waiting in line to use the phone and he didn’t have long to talk. I said, ‘Look, I’m fine. I’ll be home when I get there. Tell everybody, you know. I love you. Goodbye.’ That was pretty much the conversation,” said Allen.

Allen worked at the Pentagon for a total of eight years and said he went to check out the restoration of the building on several occasions.

He said he was amazed seeing the workers come together to restore the damage so quickly as a team.