Navy Veteran/Retired First Responder Shares His 9/11 Experience

To celebrate and honor the men and women who have served our country on Veteran’s Day, Ohio Connections Academy recently hosted a special LiveLesson for its students to hear a presentation from retired U.S. Navy veteran and fireman Alan Wallace. Mr. Wallace was among the first responders at the Pentagon when American Airlines Flight #77 crashed into the west side of the building on September 11, 2001.

Mr. Wallace shared with the students how he joined the Navy and chose to become a medic and was assigned to the Bethesda Naval Hospital. When he returned home to Lithopolis, he got married and worked as a surgical assistant at Grant Hospital. He went on to serve as a firefighter at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus. When that military base was closed, he transferred to Washington D.C.

On the morning of 9/11, he was at the Pentagon because his duties that day had been switched. Typically, he was assigned to Arlington National Cemetery and other facilities around the city. On this day he was assigned to work with two other men, one of which was from Carrollton, Ohio, Wallace recalled.

Wallace told the students that he first learned of the plane crashing into the World Trade Center’s North Tower around 9 a.m. Then after the second plane hit the South Tower, he was called by the fire chief just before 9:30 a.m. and told to be ready. Mr. Wallace said President Bush was coincidently at the Pentagon the day before.

Mr. Wallace and one other fireman were standing in front of the fire truck that was parked in front of the firehouse on the west side of the Pentagon. He said they were about 30 feet in front of the truck when they saw a plane out of the corner of their eyes. There was no noise and there was no warning. At 9:37 a.m. Flight #77 hit the Pentagon about 150 feet behind them.

The impact sent both firefighters in different directions and Wallace rolled under a van while the other fire fighter was sent into an open field. There was debris and flames everywhere.

The two fire fighters were able to find each other despite all the chaos and confusion. Mr. Wallace remembered jumping into the firetruck and it wouldn’t move. “The truck was the biggest fire truck that had ever been built. I had been trained to operate for weeks so I thought I knew what I was doing,” he said.

It was his plan to get the truck moved towards where the plane had crashed into the building. He saw large flames right behind the truck and thought it was from the building. He soon found out the truck was on fire. According to Wallace it was the large firetruck parked where it was that that kept the station from total destruction from the fireball and debris blast caused with the plane’s impact.

“When the truck wouldn’t respond I thought we needed to get as much equipment off it,” Wallace said. In addition to respirators and hose, Wallace said he grabbed two fire extinguishers. With a blaze that intense he didn’t know what he thought he could accomplish with a small fire extinguisher. But as he dragged the tank through the building, a woman heard the noise caused by the tank. She called out to Mr. Wallace and was able to get to the window and get out of the building safely.

“It was one of the blessings that happened that day,” Wallace said.

As other fire departments arrived, Wallace and his team helped as best as they could. He and the other firefighter were injured in the blast, so they were taken to a local hospital and treated for 2nd degree burns. He left the hospital after a couple hours and returned to the Pentagon to continue to help in the rescue.

It wasn’t until 2:30 a.m. the next morning when Mr. Wallace learned that both towers at the World Trade Center had collapsed.

Wallace left the fire department and worked as a tour guide in Washington DC for a number of years after 9/11. He later retired and moved back home to Ohio and currently lives in Lithopolis.

When Mr. Wallace completed his presentation, the students were given the opportunity to ask about his military service, his experience on 9/11 and the impact it had on his life. One student asked what became of his fire gear.

Mr. Wallace explained how after the attack, he and the other fireman rolled their gear into black plastic bags and were permitted to take them home. Sometime later they were asked to return their gear. He said he was surprised by the powerful odor of jet fuel that emerged when he reopened the bag because during the attack and the days that followed he had no memory jet fuel smell

Wallace’s fire coat hangs in the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York City.