On September 11, 2001, Florence and I, together with a group of retired Foreign Service Officers and spouses took part in “A Day on Capitol Hill” excursion sponsored by the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA). The purpose was to generate congressional understanding of and support for the State Department’s work to advance American interests abroad. It was an unofficial lobbying mission of our professional association.

This is an annual event, which usually occurs in early May in connection with Foreign Service Day when retired Foreign Service Officers from all over the country return to Washington for a reunion. The Secretary of State and his principal officers would brief the retirees about the current work and priorities in each of geographic and functional bureaus of the Department.

In 2001, “Foreign Service Day” was changed from early May to early September because the Secretary wanted to rename “Foreign Service Day” to “Foreign Affairs Day” so as to make it more inclusive rather than exclusive by including both civil service and foreign service employees The September date was also more convenient for all those involved; therefore, we were on the Hill on 9/11.

We had an appointment with Senator Joe Biden’s office in the Russell Senate Office Building. We arrived at the briefing room promptly at 9 am. The Senator’s chief of staff came out a few minutes later and told us the shocking news, a plane had just crashed into one of the world trade towers in New York. He said he saw it on TV in his office but he had no idea what or how it happened, whether it was an accident or a terrorist attack. Everyone was in shock, eager to find out more. A few minutes later, someone came in and reported a second plane had crashed into the south tower. The briefer then told us he had better end the session and for us to move on to our next appointments.

Our group dispersed. Smaller groups went on to different congressional representative offices. In our case, the next appointment was with Congressman Jim Moran, who represents our Virginia congressional district. His office was in the Rayburn Building across the vast span of green lawn linked by small and narrow walkways. Before reaching the Rayburn Building, I saw a small plane in the distant western sky, as so often we see from our Arlington apartment commercial planes coming down to land at the National Airport. Suddenly, we heard a thunder-like boom and then huge black smoke rising skyward. That was about 9:45 am. We wondered if it was a plane crash at the National Airport. We were wrong. It was the Pentagon burning, which we later learned.

At Jim Moran’s office, Moran’s foreign affairs assistant came out to greet us. She said the scheduled meeting is now cancelled because of an impending terrorist attack and for us to leave the building. Rumor was circulating that there was another hijacked plane unaccounted for and may be heading toward D.C. All offices were then being evacuated. We rushed out of Moran’s office and saw hundreds of congressional employees milling around the building as if in a fire-drill, chattering about the attack and about another missing hijacked plane. It was chaos and alarm. Florence and I looked at each other and decided it was time to leave the scene. We got on Metro at Capitol South Station two blocks away. That was about 10:30 a.m.

Passing through various Metro stops, we saw hundreds of riders who could not get on the train, stranded on the platform, all looking very grim and perplexed. We were the few lucky ones to get on early and arrived home in Arlington safely. Shortly after, the metro trains stopped operating for security reasons and people were forced to flee by foot, if they could not get on a bus or catch a taxi. We were the lucky ones. But looking back it was a terrifying and unforgettable experience to have encountered such a momentous event in such a close and personal way.