Joseph Cinadr’s 9/11 Memory

On 9-11-01, I was the National President of the League of Postmasters and was representing our members at a Board of Governors meeting held at Postal Headquarters in Washington DC. The meeting was on the 11th floor of L’enfant Plaza and I was seated next to the window with a view of the Pentagon. Shortly after the first tower was struck, postal inspectors interrupted the meeting to notify us of the “accident”. They came back after the second tower was struck and notified us it was no longer an accident. After the Pentagon was struck, the postal inspectors notified us we were in the next tallest building in that part of Washington and advised us to leave immediately. I could see smoke billowing from the Pentagon as we exited.

I left and drove by the Pentagon on my way back to League headquarters in Alexandria. As I viewed the mushroom shaped cloud of smoke over the Pentagon, I remember praying that I was dreaming all this.

Joseph W. Cinadr