Attack On the Pentagon
This article originally appeared in Issue 9 of Calvary Chapel Magazine, Fall 2001.
Aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon. Photo courtesy of the Navy Public Affairs Centers
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12
Dee Parlato, from Calvary Chapel Largo, MD, immediately began praying for the men in the room and the decision they were about to make. The Pentagon, where Dee would normally have been at that time of day, had just been attacked.
It was now certain that terrorists had hijacked the jets that had slammed into the World Trade Center. Another plane had also crashed in Pennsylvania.
Dee sat in on a high level meeting with her supervisor, Gordon R. England, Secretary of the Navy. Commercial airliners were still in the air, but contact had not been made. The Chief of Naval Operations and five top admirals conferred via telephone with the Commandant of the Marine Corp. Fighter jets could begin shooting down passenger aircraft if they headed for another target.
Dee did not focus any of her thoughts on matters outside the room. Her military training did not allow her to think about the human consequences of what was being decided.
“Fighter jets could begin shooting down passenger aircraft if they headed for another target.”
“I felt God had me here to pray for these men and the awful decision they might be forced to make,” said Dee. “I prayed for discernment and wisdom. There was no fear or hesitation. They would act within the best interests of our nation.”
Thankfully, the flights eventually responded and landed safely at the nearest airport. With much of the area’s communications down, there was a struggle to locate people. No one knew at first who was missing, who was in a hospital, or who had just left the Pentagon for safer ground. Rumors abounded of impending attacks.
The next morning Dee returned to the Pentagon. Assigned as the Secretary of the Navy’s personal photographer, her office is 800 feet from the area of impact. It was covered with soot and dust. She walked through the darkened hallways until poor visibility and fumes chased her back. There were no sentries guarding that section of the inside of the building.
She experienced a tremendous sense of anger and a spiritual heaviness. Evil, she felt, had permeated the building, gloating with the success of its operation. Just a little distance ahead, victims lay in the rubble; fires were burning. Dee marched back to her office and decided to fight back. Pulling her Bible out of her desk, she began methodically writing out Bible verses and taping them all over the corridors nearest to her office. Soon words of encouragement and comfort appeared on every doorway, window, hall, and bathroom stall in the immediate vicinity.
Dee also slid verses under locked doors so that it would be the first thing people saw when they returned. “I felt I needed to raise up a standard, or a banner, letting them know that our Lord would be a God of comfort to them, if they would turn to Him.”
Months later, some of the verses are still there. Many believers as well as non-believers have thanked her for her efforts. Before September 11th it was unadvisable to even have a Bible on your desk. Now God’s Holy Word has brought healing to a place of death and destruction.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging...Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah. Psalm 46:1-11
Photo courtesy of the Navy Public Affairs Centers
Triage area in front of the Pentagon after the attack. U.S. Navy photo by Journalist 1st Class Mark D. Faram
Injured are transported by ambulance in front of the Pentagon after the attack. U.S. Navy photo by Journalist 1st Class Mark D. Faram
Photo courtesy of the Navy Public Affairs Centers
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