The nation will soon mark the 15th anniversary of one of the darkest days in its history — Sept. 11, 2001. But on Saturday, a group of firefighters returned to the Pentagon, where they responded after a plane slammed into the building and killed 184 people 15 years ago.
Inside the building, 125 people died, and 59 others onboard American Airlines Flight 77 died. Those numbers do not include the terrorists.
“What these [firefighters] did here is beyond heroic,” Alexandria Fire Chief Robert Dubé said Saturday.
Even 15 years later, what happened here is seared into the memories of these men and women.
“It’s hard looking at [the Pentagon] now,” Dubé said. “All I see is what I saw that week.”
It took 10 years for Dubé to return to the Pentagon, and that was for the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
“I just couldn’t come back. I don’t know why … . I just didn’t want to see it. I didn’t want to do it — bring that up in my head again,” he said. “It’s hard. It’s hard to know what was there and to think about that now.”