During a visit with a fellow chaplain, who happened to be assigned to
the Pentagon, I had a chance to hear a first-hand account of an
incident that happened right after Flight 77 hit the Pentagon.
The chaplain told me what happened at a daycare center near where the
impact occurred. This daycare had many children, including infants
who were in heavy cribs. The daycare supervisor, looking at all the
children they needed to evacuate, was in a panic over what they could
do. There were many children, mostly toddlers, as well as the infants
that would need to be taken out with the cribs There was no time to
try to bundle them into carriers and strollers. Just then a young
Marine came running into the center and asked what they needed. After
hearing what the center director was trying to do, he ran back out
into the hallway and disappeared. The director thought, 'Well, here
we are-on our own.'
About 2 minutes later, that Marine returned with 40 other Marines in
tow. Each of them grabbed a crib with a child, and the rest started
gathering up toddlers. The director and her staff then helped them
take all the children out of the center and down toward the park near
the Potomac and the Pentagon. Once they got about 3/4 of a mile
outside the building, the Marines stopped in the park, and then did a
fabulous thing - they formed a circle with the cribs, which were
quite sturdy and heavy, like the covered wagons in the Old West.
Inside this circle of cribs, they put the toddlers, to keep them from
wandering off.
Outside this circle were the 40 Marines, forming a perimeter around
the children and waiting for instructions. There they remained until
the parents could be notified and come get their children.
The chaplain then said, "I don't think any of us saw nor heard of
this on any of the news stories of the day. It was an incredible
story of our men there. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. The
thought of those Marines and what they did and how fast they reacted;
could we expect any less from them? It was one of the most touching
stories from the Pentagon."
Remember Ronald Reagan's great compliment: "Most of us wonder if our
lives made any difference. Marines don't have that problem."
Pray for our men and women who have served and are currently serving
our country and pray for those who have given the ultimate sacrifice
for freedom.
**** This was sent to me on the internet. I haven’t verified it, but my source is usually factual. It just made me feel good.
Addendum, Same day
I posted this on my doctor’s web site. My doctor friends did the research I did not do. Unfortunately, my friends, this is not true according to Snopes:
And Snopes will not let me copy the post in any way.
· No cribs
· No marines
· There was a group of park rangers that helped a bunch of kids later in the day evacuate to VDOT on an empty tour bus
· One of the parents left his duty station to check on his child. The duty station was hit and he was spared.
No comments:
Post a Comment