(Shortly After 9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Air Force Secretary and Chief of Staff Initially Unaware a Plane Has Hit Pentagon; Head to Operations Center

James Roche. [Source: United States Air Force]Secretary of the Air Force James Roche is in his office on the fourth floor of the Pentagon, along with Air Force Chief of Staff John Jumper. [CNN, 10/10/2001; Airman, 10/2002] Both men had learned of the first attack on the WTC and seen the second attack live on television during a staff meeting in the Air Force Council conference room (see (9:00 a.m.-9:15 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Air Force Space Command News Service, 9/5/2002; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 136] They do not feel the impact when the Pentagon is hit at 9:37, being on the opposite side of the building to the crash. [CNN, 10/10/2001; Midland Reporter-Telegram, 4/2/2002] They are initially unaware that a plane has hit the place. Reportedly, “for those first minutes and hours of confusion, rumors circulated about a bomb hitting the Pentagon.” Tim Green, the assistant executive to the Air Force chief of staff who is responsible for securing Jumper, will later recall: “It was amazing, from inside the building, how little we knew about what actually went on. People outside of the building… probably knew more about what happened from the news than I did.” Roche and Jumper, accompanied by Green, head down to the Air Force Operations Center. [Midland Reporter-Telegram, 4/2/2002; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 136] The Operations Center is located in the basement of the Pentagon’s C Ring. In it, the Crisis Action Team (CAT) is carrying out emergency operations for the Air Force. [Syracuse University Magazine, 12/2001] Roche later recalls, “Once in our crisis action center, we found out that the building had been hit by an aircraft.” [CNN, 10/10/2001]