An Untold Story

A friend sent the following to me. I can’t verify that it really happened, but I pass it on to you as I received it:

A chaplain, who happened to be assigned to the Pentagon, told of an

incident that happened right after Flight 77 hit the Pentagon on 9/11.

A day-care facility inside the Pentagon had many children, including

infants who were in heavy cribs. The day-care 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.”

About 2 minutes later, that 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 the park near

the Potomac.

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 nor heard of this

on any of the news stories of the day. It was an incredible story of

our men there.” There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.