Elementary school students got an inside view Monday of what it was like when the Pentagon was hit on Sept. 11, 2001.
John Barry, Aurora Public Schools superintendent, was working in the Pentagon the day the hijacked Boeing 757 crashed into the nation’s military headquarters. He spoke to students at Vassar Elementary School.
“I thought it was kind of amazing that he got to experience that and didn’t get injured,” said Stephen Womack, 10.
“It was cool that he was actually there,” said Jolee Thailing, 10. “I would have been really afraid.”
Barry, who was director of strategic planning for the U.S. Air Force in 2001, said in an interview that he and colleagues had heard that a plane had crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center and then watched on television as another plane flew into the second tower.
When the Pentagon was hit less than an hour later, “it felt like an earthquake,” he said, even though he was in another wing of the massive building.
More than 180 people died at the Pentagon and on the plane, and hundreds more were injured, he said.
Barry and others helped people evacuate, making certain those in the five-story building got to stairwells that went all the way to the ground floor.
When the building alarms went off, he saw a variety of reactions. “Some were hysterical. Some were just dazed. Some had been blown across their offices.”
Barry, 54 and a native of the Bronx, credited his Air Force experience for his ability to act quickly. In his long military career, he had been in combat zones and had flown fighter planes.
“Your training and instincts come in,” he said.
In the confusion, Barry received a text message on his Blackberry from his daughter, Jennifer Barry, then attending Colorado Christian University in Lakewood.
He quickly messaged her that he was OK, and she notified the rest of the family, including his son, John Barry, then at the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs.
The worst part of 9/11, he said, was losing friends and “going to so many funerals.”
He said he wanted to speak to children because he wants them to understand what a historical and massive event 9/11 was. “They need to remember and honor the dead.”
His words made an impact on the Vassar students.
“I think it was kind of scary,” said Kera Youngren-Woods, 11. “If they can hit New York, maybe they could get to Colorado.”
Several of the students interviewed, all fifth-graders, said they thought the saddest part was that some kids lost their parents in the attacks.
Jolee Thailing said she only now understands 9/11 because when it happened, “I was young. I just learned about it last year.”
Assistant principal Bonnie Hargrove said that in telling the kids about 9/11, “we asked the teachers to focus on the heroes and the courage.”
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
