Photos: Pentagon First Responders Honored at Fort Hunt Park

In honor the 10th anniversary of September 11th, about 90 US Army first responders to the Pentagon terrorist attack and family members gathered at Fort Hunt Park last Sunday for a reunion. 

“It was just so important to me to get all these guys together, “said organizer Ashley McNeff Behrens. “And for them to feel recognized.”

McNeff Behrens said that the role the military played in searching for people and sifting trough the rubble at the Pentagon is often overlooked by the general public. 

She said that because the Pentagon contained sensitive national security information, it was the army—not the police or the firefighters—that first entered the burning building on September 11^th to catalogue the remains.

Though the first responders have gone their separate ways, many of them still keep in touch through Facebook.  McNeff Behrens said she and her husband, still send a text to their friends who served beside them at the Pentagon on each September 11^th anniversary.

James Martin said he was glad he had the opportunity to reconnect with other US army first responders, but the reunion was also a reminder of a tragic event.

“On some part I want to be left alone, on the other part I want people to know what happened,” he said.

The event featured everything from a moon bounce for the kids to a raffle for first responders and their families.

Among some of the businesses that contributed to the event were Georgetown Cupcakes, and Hooters, which sent waitresses to serve food;NASA donated children’s space suits for the raffle.

Click to read about two Fort Hunt responders’ experience at the Pentagon.