The National Park Service Responding To The September 11 Terrorist Attacks

This book fosters a deeper appreciation and understanding for the way the Service and its employees responded to the attacks and to create a detailed historical record of this unique and significant period in the Service's history. This history is also designed to provide The National Park Service responding to the September 11 Terrorist Attacks service managers and policymakers with information they might find useful in responding to future emergencies.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath left few Americans unaffected. As the federal agency with primary responsibility for protecting and preserving many of the nation's most significant cultural and historic sites, the National Park Service had a unique perspective and role in responding to this tragedy. The most profound personal impact within the Service was no doubt on those employees who either witnessed the attacks firsthand or were directly involved in the immediate response, but every national park was affected to one degree or another. Park Service historians and ethnographers quickly recognized the need to record and preserve the experiences and perspectives of those who had witnessed or responded to the attacks. They conducted more than a hundred oral history interviews with Service employees throughout the country, in parks, regional offices, and the Washington headquarters. These unique interviews reveal the memories and interpretation of the event and aftermath in the words of those directly affected. In addition to conducting interviews, there was also a need to document and evaluate the official response of the National Park Service. With that in mind, I began to research the following questions: How did Service managers and staff respond at the national level and in the regional and park offices? What actions did they take and why? How did the attacks and their aftermath affect the way the Service and the parks operated? How did they affect park resources and the allocation of those resources? What impact did the attacks have on the way park staffs viewed their jobs and the way Americans viewed their parks? And finally, what lessons could the Service learn from this experience? What did the Service's response say about its values and responsibilities? Simply put, my goal was to foster a deeper appreciation and understanding for the way the Service and its employees responded to the attacks and to create a detailed historical record of this unique and significant period in the Service's history. This history is also designed to provide Service managers and policymakers with information they might find useful in responding to future emergencies. Writing this history presented some unique challenges. Many of the major decisions about the response operations were made in phone conversations or in meetings with little or no written record. A scarcity of written records meant a greater reliance on the oral history interviews that National Park Service historians and ethnographers conducted. This approach involved a certain amount of risk: memories can be faulty especially after experiencing such a traumatic event; oral accounts can sometimes be confusing or lack specific details. The September 11 event was truly unique in nature and scope. For the first time in our history, American commercial airplanes were used as terrorist weapons. Never before had a terrorist attack within the United States resulted in so many casualties. The resulting story is complex, involving a broad range of perspectives, activities, and locations. When dealing with such a traumatic and chaotic event, even determining an accurate sequence of events can be difficult. Memories are powerful. Witnesses were often more likely to recall vividly their sense of shock and fear, the acrid smell of burning debris, or their images of wounded victims than to recall factual details. Yet both types of information are important for the historical record. "The lived experience is more complex than subsequent interpretations reveal," explains Mary Marshall Clark, the director of the Oral History Research Office at Columbia University. The personal stories conveyed in the interviews reflect the horror of what witnesses experienced before these stories were turned into a more acceptable narrative.

The most comprehensive account to date of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon and aftermath, this volume includes unprecedented details on the impact on the Pentagon building and personnel and the scope of the rescue, recovery, and caregiving effort. It features 32 pages of photographs and more than a dozen diagrams and illustrations not previously available.

This edition has been designated as the only official U.S. Government edition of the 9-11 Commission’s Final Report. It provides a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks. It also includes recommendations designed to guard against future attacks. Contains the final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission), an independent, bipartisan commission created by congressional legislation and the signature of President George W. Bush in late 2002. Other related resources: World Trade Center Building Performance Study: Data Collection, Preliminary Observations, and Recommendations can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/064-000-00029-2 Pentagon 9/11 (10th Anniversary Edition) (Paperback) can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-000-01049-8 Then Came the Fire: Personal Accounts From the Pentagon, 11 September 2001 (Paperback) can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-029-00545-0 Attack on the Pentagon: The Medical Response to 9/11 can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-000-01048-0 Reference Manual to Mitigate Potential Terrorist Attacks Against Buildings: Providing Protection to People and Buildings can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/064-000-00038-1 Taking Shelter From the Storm: Building a Safe Room for Your Home or Small Business; Includes Construction Plans (CD) can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/064-000-00069-1 Countering Radicalization and Recruitment to Al-Qaeda: Fighting the War of Deeds can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-000-01113-3 Al Anbar Awakenening, V. 1, American Perspectives: U.S. Marines and Counterinsurgency in Iraq, 2004-2009; V. 2, Iraqi Perspectives: From Insurgency to Counterinsurgency in Iraq, 2004-2009 can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-020-01596-2