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Between the two memorial walls in the interior of the Pentagon, memorial books with photographs and personal information about each victim of the attack wait for visitors to browse through and glean a sense of sorrow or pride from the display.
Staff Sgt. Raymon Santiago Estrada pledges allegiance as he re-enlists in the Air Force yesterday at a new memorial inside the Pentagon. Estrada, who helped with Sept. 11 search and rescue efforts, asked for his ceremony to be held at the memorial site.
As a service for those stopping by the memorial in the Pentagon, a wall of engraved names flanks a table where memory books and blank paper enable visitors to read about 9/11 victims and record their feelings. |
HEN SHE WAS
working a
string of 20-hour days last month, Shelly McMahan didn't have much time to think about the impact her work would have on herself or others.
But now that the Fredericksburg woman has finished the 4-foot by 8-foot black acrylic panels bearing the names of the 184 men, women and children killed when terrorists slammed a jetliner into the Pentagon Sept. 11, she's been able to enjoy a sense of satisfaction.
"I'm just really proud that I played a part in doing it," the 35-year-old graphic designer and former soldier said.
McMahan, who operates Smart Design in Woodbridge, was one of three contractors who created the "America's Heroes" memorial inside the Pentagon. Defense Department graphics director Kathy Brassell and design specialist JulieAnne Tabone came up with the design.
The memorial--a partially enclosed room 10 feet deep and 25 feet wide--was unveiled May 4 in a ceremony open only to family members of the victims. Glenn Flood, a Pentagon spokesman, said the families wanted a quiet, closed event rather than a public dedication.
McMahan's company--consisting of her brother and one other employee--not only made the two panels bearing the victims' names but essentially the entire display.
They created a replica of the "United in Memory" emblem unveiled in October to remember Pentagon victims, as well as two windows with transparent acrylic carvings of the Purple Heart and Defense of Freedom medals.
They also created three other panels--two that explain the medals and a central one that speaks of the Sept. 11 attacks and quotes the speeches of President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at a one-month anniversary ceremony.
The interior memorial is located next to the Chaplain's Office and a prayer room on the third floor at the apex of corridors nine and 10. It was envisioned as a place Pentagon employees could visit to reflect on the events of Sept. 11--the day 125 coworkers were killed and scores of others injured.
For the public, an outdoor memorial is planned within view of the site where American Airlines Flight 77 smashed into the building. Dedication is tentatively set for the two-year anniversary of the attack.
A design competition is open to anyone. Details on the competition will be available next month on the Web at http://pentagonmemorial.nab.usace.army.mil.
A bill creating a third memorial--one on the National Mall that would honor victims of all terrorist attacks on Americans--advanced Wednesday from the House Resources Committee to the full House of Representatives.
This week, military personnel at the Pentagon and others in town for just a few days stopped to pay tribute at the indoor memorial. Master Sgt. Lori Kelly, an Air National Guardsman from North Pole, Alaska, wrote a note in the sign-in book encouraging the nation to never lose its fighting spirit.
"It's an appropriate monument--something to help us all not forget people who sacrificed their lives for our country," she said.
Staff Sgt. Ramon Santiago Estrada offered a special tribute as well. He was working at the Pentagon when it was attacked and had planned to end his Air Force career when his tour ended.
Instead, the 10-year veteran re-enlisted Thursday in a brief ceremony at the memorial performed by 1st Lt. Robyn Inks and attended by Estrada's wife and fellow airmen.
"He's paying tribute to these people and this country by re-enlisting here," Inks said.
When McMahan won the bid to help with the interior memorial, she was no stranger to the corridors of the nation's defense headquarters.
After four years in the Army, she had worked in the Pentagon for seven years in the Air Force's graphics department. Even after leaving, she had handled several contracts, including a 34-panel display detailing the history of the USO.
The morning of Sept. 11, she was scheduled to make a delivery to the area hit by the jetliner, but was running late. She was still inside her Woodbridge workshop when she saw the World Trade Center attacks on television and then learned about the assault on the Pentagon.
She immediately thought of all the people she knew who worked there. They all survived, but she was shaken.
She didn't make that day's delivery, but was summoned to the Pentagon three days later for a new assignment.
The Defense Department needed signs--thousands of them--to direct the hundreds of people working in the recovery efforts.
"I was making deliveries sometimes at two or three o'clock in the morning," she recalled. "That was a pretty rough period."
But she didn't bemoan the long hours or the chaotic schedule.
"It was draining, but I felt good that there was a way I could help," she said. "Going up there at night, you would see the relief effort going on. You saw how hard they were working and I guess it sort of motivated me to go on."
In December, McMahan received the contract to work on the interior memorial. Then, on April 3, she got a call that it was time to start--giving her 16 days to do five weeks' worth of work.
And painstaking work it was.
Carving lettering into quarter-inch thick acrylic panels with a router requires precision to the thousandth of an inch, McMahan said.
Evidence of her high standards remains in her workshop, where imperfect panels still sit. But she has no regrets about her insistence on perfection.
Visitors who come to the memorial can take away a replica of her work. As at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall, relatives and coworkers can make rubbings of the names inscribed on the panels--or any other part of the display.
So the last thing McMahan wants is for someone's prized memento to have even the slightest flaw.
