The anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks is observed by many Americans as a day of remembrance for those who died in the attacks, as well as an opportunity to thank first responders and heroes.
“Never forget” is the phrase used. But forgetting that day is what Marie Hood Lewis has been trying to do for 13 years.
The Columbus native and 20-year Air Force veteran was in the Pentagon when terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and flew it into the Pentagon, killing all 64 people aboard and 125 others in the building. Lewis was approximately 200 yards away from the impact.
She survived uninjured, as did her husband, Michael Lewis Sr., who was also in the building, and her then-infant daughter, who was in the Pentagon daycare.
Still, Lewis suffered.
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The Caledonia High School graduate is one of 15 children born to Susie Hood, who still lives in Columbus. Lewis joined the Air Force in 1986, following in the footsteps of four brothers who also joined.
“We stayed three miles from Columbus Air Force Base, so there was a connection I had with the base,” she said.
In July 2001, Technical Sgt. Lewis was assigned to the Pentagon for the Directorate of Supply. Two months later, she arrived at her office on the fourth floor of the south side of the building.
“We were listening to the radio and we heard this news break come in about the plane hitting one of the Twin Towers,” Lewis said. “We were listening to the newscast and (then heard that) another plane hit.”
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The next thing she remembers is hearing what “sounded like a sonic boom.” It was a plane crashing into the building’s west side just after 9:30 a.m.
“It hit and then all of a sudden it exploded,” Lewis said. “I was in the office talking to my boss. The windows were blowing in and out, so we all just got our stuff out and we ran.”
Hundreds of people were trying to get out of the building through an exit on the Pentagon’s south end. Lewis and a colleague fled on foot across the parking lot and tried to go inside the Pentagon City Mall to take cover.
“We ran out and then we saw the fuselage poking out of the building,” Lewis said. “There was black smoke. Everybody was running and screaming. We ran through the tunnel to get over to the other side. Everybody was just panicky. Then the FBI came over the radio and they were saying, ‘Scatter, scatter, scatter,’ because another plane was coming into the area.”
They tried to enter the mall. All the doors were locked.
“We just stooped down and put our hands over our heads knowing all the time that wasn’t going to do anything,” Lewis said. “It was unbelievable.”
She got the all clear about 20 minutes later and reported to her assigned emergency location so she could be accounted for.
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Poor cell phone service kept Lewis from being able to contact family members in the Golden Triangle. Lewis said her sister, who was stationed in Oklahoma, reached her between 2 and 2:30 p.m. Her sister had been able to contact Michael Lewis, who was on the north side of the building, and informed her that he was OK. Her sister then relayed to other family members that Lewis and her husband were accounted for. Lewis said her husband picked up their daughter from the Pentagon daycare and went to their home at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C.
She left the Pentagon at about 3:30 p.m. to go pick up her son, Michael Jr., who was in a school near Capitol Hill.
“He had this frightened look on his face,” she said, “because he thought we were gone because nobody had made it to pick him up and everybody else’s parents had picked them up.”
Lewis, her husband and two children were not all reunited until 6:30 p.m.
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The next day, her boss called. She had to go back to work.
Her son didn’t want her to go. This became a daily routine as she worked 12-hour shifts over the next several months in the Installations and Logistics Support Center in support of military missions.
“My son would stand in front of the door so he blocked the door and I couldn’t leave,” Lewis said.
The sight of body bags and the smell of smoke and jet fuel was a common occurrence each day, she said.
“To me, there are no words to describe it,” she said. “I had sleepless nights because everything is playing over in your head. But at the same time, you have to remain focused and still do your jobs. Mentally, it was almost unbearable. Because we are warriors, we were forced to go on as if nothing happened.”
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Five years later in September 2006, she was deployed to Bagram, Afganistan, for 120 days. Her experiences there, coupled with the events of 2001, prompted her to retire from the Air Force in 2007 because she felt it would be in the best interest of her family.
“When I was over there, there were so many lives we had lost,” Lewis said. “It became too personal. I was very paranoid when I was over there. We were worrying about stepping on IEDs that would be hidden. I wanted to come home in one piece to my family.”
She now lives in McDonough, Georgia, and frequently volunteers for her church. Last year, she was an honoree at the Veteran’s Day program in Columbus for her more than 20 years of service. Lewis still comes home to Columbus several times a year to visit her mother.
She tried to work for several months after leaving the military but fully retired after she suffered panic attacks brought on by her experiences.
She can’t sit with her back to a door. She can’t stand to smell anything burning. Sirens trigger uneasy feelings.
“You never think there’s going to be an attack on your homeland,” Lewis said. “It was just something that traumatized a lot of us. Some things you live to forget, and that’s what I’ve been trying to do. I’m trying to forget that day ever happened because it always brings back things you don’t want to remember.”
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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