A Man on a Mission

John Yates - Pentagon September 11 2001 Survivor

Photo Credit:  StoryCorps

John Yates worked at the Pentagon as a civilian security manager in September 2001.  He was in his office on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, gathered with several of his co-workers watching the news coverage of the World Trade Center attacks, when American Airlines 77 was flown into the Pentagon at approximately 550 miles per hour by the murderous cowards who had hijacked it following its takeoff from Dulles International Airport.   

When it hit the building, it literally knocked John Yates off his feet and sent him through the air.  He crawled through the wreckage and made his way to the Pentagon's center courtyard.  His clothes were cut off him and a doctor starting treating him.  His recitation of what he experienced is nothing short of chilling: 

I was just standing there, because we were talking and watching what was going on in New York.  Then, there was just a tremendous explosion that came from behind me and from my left.  I remember a ball of fire coming over my head.  I remember being blown through the air.  I didn't have any idea where I was when I landed.  The room was instantly black from the smoke.  It was down to within a foot of the floor.  Everything was instantaneously hot.  The temperature in the room went from 75 degrees to 1800 degrees in just seconds.

His next memory is a visit from President George W. Bush in the burn unit of the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., which visit took place on September 13, 2001.  He spent two and one-half months in that burn unit and then, incredibly, returned to work.  His candor is inspiring about his difficulty with the panic he felt rise up in him every morning when he pulled into the parking lot for days upon his return.  It paralyzed him.  One time it kept him in his vehicle for ninety minutes.  

But he always got out.  He always did.  He did so not just for himself but also for his colleagues who had died on that terrible Tuesday morning.  He continued to work at the Pentagon for fifteen years, retiring in 2016.   After retirement, he and his wife Ellen relocated to North Carolina.  

-AK