Interview with Eric Weese, 9/11 Through First Responder Perspective, History 150 Spring 2024, Conducted by Alexis Weese, March 15, 2024.

Overview

On September 11, 2001, the United States saw the biggest attack on American soil since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. The September 11 attacks were carried out by 19 terrorists from the Islamist extremist group al Qaeda who hijacked four commercial aircraft on that day. They then intentionally crashed two of the planes into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City and one into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. However, on the fourth plane, Flight 93, after learning about the other attacks, passengers fought back preventing the hijackers from reaching their intended target which resulted in that plane crashing into an empty field in western Pennsylvania.

More specifically with the Pentagon attack, at 9:37 a.m. Eastern Time, American Airlines Flight 77 struck the western side of the Pentagon destroying a large portion of the building. The crash and resulting fire killed all 59 passengers and crew on board the flight, along with 125 military and civilian personnel working that day within the Pentagon. That attack caused significant disruption to the Department of Defense’s operations, but the resiliency of America’s military and civilian staff helped minimize that impact on national security.

The combined attacks of that day in New York and in Virginia, along with the failed attempt on board Flight 93 represented a significant and tragic event in U.S. history that then prompted a nationwide and global response. It resulted in increased security measures being enacted and significant changes being made in U.S. foreign and domestic policy, including the War on Terror, which reshaped the geopolitical landscape since that time. September 11, 2001, will always be remembered for the lives lost on that day and the profound impact it had on the United States.

Biography

My father, Special Agent Eric Weese, has been in federal law enforcement for 28 years. Having grown up and graduated high school in a relatively small town in West Virginia, he attended Fairmont State University where he earned a BS in Criminal Justice and a BA in Political Science. Shortly after that, he accepted a position in the federal government which caused him to move to the Northern Virginia area where he has remained ever since as he has worked his way up to becoming a high-level federal agent. Throughout his law enforcement career, he has been involved in many of our nation’s darkest times like when he responded to the Pentagon immediately after it was attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001. 

Research

September 11, 2001, the United States witnessed one of the most devastating terrorist attacks on American soil, caused by the extremist group al-Qaeda. While much attention is often on the World Trade Center attacks in New York City, another target was the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. American Airlines Flight 77, was taken over and crashed into the western side of the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., which caused catastrophic damage and loss of life. The strikes resulted in the collapse of a huge part of the building and took the lives of 125 individuals within the Pentagon, as well as all 64 passengers on board the plane.

The attack on the Pentagon was a strike aimed at the heart of the American military establishment. The significance of targeting the Pentagon lay in the physical destruction it caused and the symbolic message it conveyed. The strike on the Pentagon showed the vulnerability of even the most secure institutions in the United States. It demonstrated the bold reach of terrorist organizations and the impact they can have. The attack led to a heightened sense of national security and major changes in the country’s defense and intelligence strategies, this included establishing the Department of Homeland Security and implementing enhanced security measures across various departments.

Numerous sources verify the events surrounding the September 11 attacks and their impact on the Pentagon. Government reports such as the 9/11 Commission Report give detailed descriptions of the hijackings and attacks, including the strike on the Pentagon. Journals such as the “Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management” and “Studies in Conflict & Terrorism” have published articles analyzing the reasoning behind targeting the Pentagon and assessing the effectiveness of policy responses. Additionally, eyewitness testimonies, news coverage from highly regarded media outlets, and scholarly analyses offer extensive insights into the events of that tragic day and their enduring outcome on American society and global security that we still feel today.

Bibliography

Kean, Thomas. “National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States.” Great Seal of the United States, 21 Aug. 2004, 9-11commission.gov/report/.

Phillips, Brian. “How Did 9/11 Affect Terrorism Research? Examining Articles and Authors, 1970–2019.” Journal of 9/11 Studies, 26 July 2021, www.journalof911studies.com/.

Ramsay, James. “Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.” De Gruyter, 29 Sept. 2003, www.degruyter.com/journal/key/jhsem/html?lang=en.

Transcription

Alexis Weese 0:01
What were some changes you saw and experienced after the 9/11 attacks throughout the world?

Eric 0:10
I guess the most obvious sort of changes that were immediately apparent, apart from actually being involved in reacting to what happened, was in our country. Up until that time, coming out of the 90s, things have been pretty good for America. There wasn’t as much social division as we have now. But even then, there was some, but I think the most apparent immediate sort of thing that stood out was after the attacks, there was an incredible sense, and a surge of unity, that regardless of your background, where you came from, the color of your skin, that we were all Americans, that we’d all just been attacked, and that it was our sort of collective responsibility to come together and unify behind the flag, behind our nation, be behind our first responders to sort of collectively come together, and experience the suffering as a whole. I think for some people that gave them a little more sense of relief, but there’s a sense that, regardless if you were a, you know, blue-collar worker, or white-collar worker, an NFL player, or whatever the case might be, that you had a common sense of responsibility to not just be part of what was happening, but to do something if you could. And that’s why a lot of people joined the military, a lot of people got into the government, a lot of people became first responders, and a lot of people just simply helped out in their communities. So, I mean, there was just this true sense of community responsibility, and getting behind the country apart from the divisiveness that typically exists as that kind of went away for a little while there while we all kind of experienced what happened together and suffered together.

Alexis Weese 2:17
Great response. How did 9/11 affect you personally or change you?

Eric 2:24
Well, the way it affected me was that I immediately had to respond to the Pentagon. I was there within 30 minutes of the Pentagon being struck by the plane. So, for me, from the time of impact and for the next few weeks, I was working long hours, day after day, seven days a week, responding to the incident and being right there trying to figure out what happened, who was involved, the evidence involved, was there for recovery operations for those who were victims of what happened. So, I saw it all firsthand. I mean it’s something that’s with me and will always be with me. The images of what happened there are things that I don’t normally talk about, but the things that I saw there are a part that will always be with me, it changed me in ways that it didn’t change most Americans, but it did most likely change the first responders, the military personnel there, and all those of us who were on scene shortly after the attacks. It’s just… it will always be part of who I am. That experience will always have defined who I later became as well. What was the second part of the question?

Alexis Weese 3:49
How did it change you?

Eric 3:51
So, as far as changing me, I mean, I had a sense of duty leading up to 9/11 already then being part of the federal government, not just because of what happened on 9/11. But I initially joined the government because of what happened in Oklahoma City. So, I had a sense of duty to begin with. But what happened on September 11 just cemented that much more about why I needed to be part of our federal government to do my part to be part of the chance to defend our country in the best way that I could against people who would do exactly what happened on 9/11. And so even after 9/11, it just cemented that much more in me the importance of why I was doing what I was doing.

Alexis Weese 4:41
When did you find out/realize America was under a terrorist attack?

Eric 4:45
So, on the morning of 9/11, I was sitting on the Potomac River, just north of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. So, I was already pretty close to the Pentagon. I was doing surveillance as part of my normal responsibilities, and as I was sitting there in the position that I had for my surveillance that morning, I was listening to the radio and I heard that the first plane had struck a building in New York. Well, you know, my initial reaction was, that’s tragic, you know, that’s terrible. How could that happen, you know, normal reactions that most people would have had? But then as I continued to listen to the radio, the second plane struck the tower. I immediately, like everyone else who was paying attention at that point, immediately knew that we were under attack. So, me being part of the specialized response team for my normal duties and responsibilities, I knew at that point that my team would that day be sent to New York, because at that point, you know, nothing was happening in DC yet. So, my focus at that point of the morning was to get back to my office and start getting prepared for what I knew would be a call to be sent to New York. Well, as I was crossing the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, I looked to my right, and I could see smoke starting to rise from the Pentagon. Well, in my mind, again, I knew it at that exact moment without anybody telling me that something had just happened around the Pentagon, and the Pentagon must have been struck as well. So, I knew at that point, we were under attack. I still had to get to my office, I still had to join up with other members of my specialized unit for us to respond. But at that point, it was no longer the idea that I’d be responding to New York, it was get to my office, and get with my colleagues on my team so that we could respond to the Pentagon. So, 30 minutes after the Pentagon was struck, we were arriving on the scene there. And we were there, for the next I think it was 17 or 18 days straight after the first day, I think some of us worked 36 hours straight before we went to 12-hour shifts. But those opening moments, those opening hours, there was all kinds of false information coming in. I mean, at that point, it was a plane had struck down near the national monuments, there were potential explosives and abandoned vehicles on bridges, and it was pure chaos. So, for us, it was just about reacting and responding the best way we knew how to with what we knew to be true. And at that moment, what we knew to be true was something had struck the Pentagon, most likely a plane. So, we got our combined forces together, arrived there, and allowed the rest of the information for whatever else potentially may have been happening to sort of unfold. We later realized and understood that the Pentagon was the only thing in DC attacked even though what happened in Shanksville, with that plane that potentially could have been the second plane that would have attacked DC, but those folks were heroes on that plane and took matters into their own hands and prevented that from happening.

Alexis Weese 8:21
What was it like being so close to the Pentagon and rushing into action right after the strikes?

Eric 8:28
Having a sense of duty that not just myself but all of the team who were responding. I mean, when you’re in that type of environment, it’s about what has to be done and what has to be done now. It’s not even so much about what’s going to happen the next day or the weeks following. It’s what do we have to do now? So, as we’re arriving, we’re trying to put together some kind of plan real quick. It’s chaos. The Pentagon got stuck here. Its roof is on fire. People are coming out. We’ve got locals coming in. You quickly compartmentalized. What is your responsibility there? What should you be doing at that moment? Where will you do the most good? So, for my team, our primary focus was on which of us was able to get there in the pure chaos, everyone was trying to escape from DC. And we had one of our guys on the team, he, because of the chaos, ended up wrecking his car into a telephone pole. He then left the car at the scene, jumped into a cab, and was somehow able to get to the Pentagon. So, our first reaction was okay, what resources were able to get on the scene? And based on those resources, what was our responsibility at that time to the scene? Was it to continue to help rescue, or was it to coordinate with the local fire departments and police departments in the military and everybody else that was coming in? So, we figured out our individual roles, we figured out their responsibilities, and then we went into action. It is almost like a professional sports player going to a game. It’s, okay, you’ve stepped up to the table. What is it that you’re about to do? Adrenaline does then kick in, and as tragic as it is, as horrifying as the scene as that is, the adrenaline kicks in. And what do I have to do to do my job, you know? What is expected of me? What is expected of my team to get done? What needs to be done right now? We will deal with the emotions and everything that comes with what we’re seeing and the horror that’s there, but what do we have to do right now to do our jobs? And that’s what we did.

Alexis Weese 10:38
This kind of goes along with the first one. But after all these years, what are some things that have stuck with you after 9/11?

Eric 10:44
As I said, for me, and I know it’s not just me, I know, it’s all of us who responded, not just to the Pentagon, not just Pennsylvania, but New York was a much worse scene than what we had to deal with. But those images, those things that most people only saw on TV, the things that people didn’t see on TV because of just the very nature of them, those are the types of things that will be with me for the rest of my life… I’ve seen the worst of what human nature can do. I’ve seen the end result of that. I mean it’s no different for those of us who responded than for soldiers in a war who’ve seen their friends blown up and what that leaves behind. That’s exactly what happened here. The scenes were no different than battlefields. In New York, with all the buildings that were coming down, it was even worse. I mean there are no words for it. And there isn’t, you just pray that no one ever has to experience it. But the best way I can equate it is these were scenes right out of what you would think you would see on a battlefield where bombs are being dropped on buildings and people. And that’s exactly what happened here. These planes had the same effect. These are things that will be with me for the rest of my life, then there are a lot of other people, a lot of first responders, who to this day it will continue to affect them. We all deal with those realities the best way we know how, but there are a lot of people who are suffering the same effects that soldiers have had when they’re coming back from battle zones. It just has the same effect because it is the same reality that we had to experience.

Alexis Weese 12:52
What are some changes you saw and experienced in law enforcement after 9/11?

Eric 12:59
Well, what we came to realize there is that even though this was the early 2000s, and you would think at this point that communications and different agencies and local and state governments and different entities like that would be able to work together pretty smoothly, what we came to realize is pretty quickly that even basic things like communications were a huge issue. We weren’t able to talk to each other the way that we thought we would be able to due to radio issues. There were phone issues that made it complicated to just talk to each other if we weren’t face to face as far as agencies and local and state governments and stuff like that. So, there were a lot of changes made on those fronts, there and afterward like in areas affected by natural disasters. A lot of focus after that was put into that kind of thing to where that wouldn’t be something that would be preventing us from being able to work together. The federal government went and created Homeland Security and created a couple of other things like the Director of National Intelligence. The federal government focused on sort of creating these departments or department heads that would allow for smoother sort of capabilities to have everyone working together under a sort of a chain of command that would work and allow everyone to be effective when they’re responding to these types of events. And again, natural disasters fall on us now as well. So, before 9/11, it was kind of this agency did this, this department did that, but it wasn’t a collective effort. Worst case scenario, like 9/11 is everyone gonna be able to talk together, is everybody going to be able to work together, and who’s got priority here and priority there. So, the federal government focused a lot of its efforts on going forward from 9/11, fixing issues that existed in those areas so that the federal government could function better as a single unit when and if it had to do so.

Alexis Weese 15:23
With being a federal agent, did you feel that the government was prepared for something like this to ever occur? In what ways was it and in what ways was it not?

Eric 15:32
Well, with me working for the FBI at the time, I uniquely was provided an opportunity to train in a lot of areas that prepared me for what happened on 9/11. Most of my colleagues didn’t get the type of training that I got. So, I think the agencies and departments and stuff like the FBI who were thinking about these possibilities, I do believe they were starting to prepare and plan for these types of events occurring. So, I do believe that there was at least a thought that these types of events actually could happen. But until it happens, until 9/11 happened, you truly don’t fully appreciate the scope of what that means. You know before that, they may be like, yes, maybe the Pentagon gets hit, yes, maybe a building in New York gets knocked down, yes, maybe terrorists try to take over a plane and passengers bring it down to protect us, but I can’t imagine anyone was prepared for the possibility of all three of those things occurring at the same time and causing to happen, what happened. So, there was thought that this was possible. And again, I know this from the training that I was receiving before even the year 2000 that we were getting prepared for events like this, but never on the scale, the scale of what happened was just, I don’t think anybody truly could have imagined it happening the way that it did. So, I believe that 9/11, it opened a lot of eyes and said, that we always, as Americans, have always known we’re targets. There are other parts, other belief systems in the world, and other organizations that would love for nothing other than to see us fail. It’s just we’ve had a long sense of security that something like that cannot ever really happen to this scale on our own soil. Now, we’ve seen that it can happen on our soil. We’ve seen with the right planning, it doesn’t take much, you know, that was 19 individuals, it doesn’t take much to cause something like this to happen. So, were we prepared? No, we weren’t prepared for the scale of what happened.

Alexis Weese 17:56
What was it like starting a family not long after the attacks?

Eric 18:00
Well, following 9/11, and then immediately following that, the anthrax attacks happened, it showed us that, again, our sense of security was being attacked, and bringing a family into basically that world would be hard. I grew up in a time when, as Americans, you know, it was, it was after the potential threat of nuclear war wasn’t an issue anymore. So really growing up in an America where, you know, the worst-case scenario was some knucklehead with a gun doing something stupid, but 9/11 changed the world and changed the idea of what the world had become. For not just America, because if these things could truly happen to America, then it clearly and easily could happen somewhere else. As a parent, you have to emphasize that you don’t stress fear, we shouldn’t live in fear, where our mindset shouldn’t be fear. But you should raise your children to be vigilant and to be mindful of the potential of what can happen not just on a large scale, but even on a small scale like when going into a restaurant. You know, why do you face the door? Why know where the exits are in a store? What happens if there’s a fire or somebody with a gun is doing something in the hallway or in front of the store? Why teach these lessons to your kids? So, for me, it really, even before having kids, it emphasized to me the importance of making sure your kids have the common sense and the street smarts to know that the potential for danger always exists. It exists on the street when you’re driving, and it exists when you go into a restaurant. So now, it no longer has to be only if you’re in a foreign country. Now, it’s always be aware. Always be smart. Always be mindful of your environment. And always, at least take an extra second to think, what if? What if somebody comes to the door with a gun? It’s no different than, well, what if the driver in front of you slams on his brakes? It’s no different than that, it’s not a mindset of fear. It’s a mindset of vigilance. Always be vigilant, and always be mindful that a worst-case scenario could happen. And if it does, what will you do? How will you prepare yourself to react to that? It could just simply be by being aware that I already know that there’s a backdoor out here, I already know if that car blows a tire I can go into the next lane over. It’s no different than that. So as a father, it’s why I’ve had these conversations with you and your brother, that just be mindful. There are reasons why you do this, don’t walk through life with your head in the clouds and think it’s not going to happen. Because all these people on September 11, got up and they went to work, they went about starting their day off just like any other day, and then everything changed.

Alexis Weese 21:28
Do you have any closing statements?

Eric 21:32
You know, again, sort of going back to the last one, there’s no reason to walk around life in fear. Tragedy happens, and bad things happen. I mean, my parents’ generation, it was the attack on Pearl Harbor. My generation it was 9/11 and it was the anthrax attacks. Bad things happen. That’s the reality of life. I mean, going back even before World War Two, there’s always going to be examples where bad things happen. History does repeat itself. Bad things will happen going forward. There will be these world-life-shaking events that happen. It should not change the person that you are. It should not change how you view the world. Most of the people of the world are good, it’s just that there’s always going to be bad actors. And it’s just part of our reality. So, if you’re called to respond, if you’re called to serve, you do your part. Because the way that these bad actors ultimately win in these situations is when people become fearful and they’re afraid to do their part and to step forward and say I’m not going to be a victim here. And as 9/11 shows us, so many people said, okay, you attacked us, but you didn’t win, because all you did was stir us into action, cause us to stand up. Even the people that brought the plane down in Pennsylvania, they recognized the situation they were in, they recognized what was happening, and they said, You know what?… I at least believe they said… You know what? We realize that this may be our last day on this planet. But we’re going to do what it takes to be part of the solution here. We’re not going to let them win in this instance. And ultimately, we know that plane went down, but they’re heroes for a reason. Those people who acted when they needed to act and didn’t let fear overcome them, they are heroes. They are the true sense of a hero. They are no different than our soldiers who’ve gone into battle. These people knew what they needed to do that day and they reacted. It’s the same for the first responders that rushed into the buildings in New York knowing that those buildings potentially were coming down. No different than my colleagues who were there with me rushing towards the Pentagon. It just takes those single moments to define how will you react. Will you do what needs to be done? Or will you run away? And on 9/11, I did not hear one story of anybody turning around saying, I can’t do this. Every story is more like this… I was called to action. This is my job, my duty. I’m doing it.

Alexis Weese 24:51
Thank you for your participation.

Eric 24:54
You’re welcome.

Overview of interview technology and process

To begin the interview process, I made a thorough proposal and set up questions that would be able to get the information I needed. These questions would help ensure that I would get background information and as well personal information about my Dad’s life and how September 11 continues to affect him to this day. To conduct this interview my Dad and I did it in person and used a cell phone mobile app to record. For the editing transcription process, I made sure to listen to the interview while going through and manually editing the transcript that Otter.ai provided. Something very important to me was ensuring my wording and spelling were correct, as stated in the Columbia Style Guide creating a word list of things that need to be spelled correctly helps while editing the transcript.