Masonry Magazine August 2002 Page. 32
Pentagon
SERIES
THE
PHOENIX
TEAM
BY TOM INGLESBY
Big events often take seconds to happen.
ages to forget. Such was September 11, 2001 in New York City, in a field in Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon. The first visible sign that these acts didn't slow the country down will be dedicated on September 11, 2002 when the damaged section of the Pentagon reopens for 'business as usual.'
The Human Side
JOE WINDSOR IS A GENERAL FOREMAN WITH Masonry Arts, Bessemer, Ala. On September 11, 2001 he was working on the renovation of Wedge 1 at the Pentagon. He and Ric Vignevic, another foreman, were the last two Masonry Arts employees on the site as their part of the job was ready for turnover to the government. At 8 a.m., they went to Home Depot for some last minute material.
Windsor recalls. "On the way back, we were stuck in traffic when we saw a fireball from the vicinity of the Pentagon. Moments before, my wife had called me on the cell phone and told me about the World Trade Center being hit by an airliner."
"It took about an hour and a half before we were able to get off 1-395," adds Vignevic. "Then we worked our way back to The Union Hall in Maryland. None of our cell phones worked, they must have shut down the system. By the time we called home from the hall, our wives were in a panic, not having heard from us for hours and knowing the plane had hit the section where we were supposed to be working. To this day, my wife won't watch the news because of that."
Vignevic and Windsor made their way back to the Pentagon to see what they could do to help. "We didn't think we'd be able to get back in but we did," Windsor says. "For the next 30 days, we were on the job here doing whatever we could-welding this, burning that, carrying and moving and helping. Every day, 10 or 12 hours a day, we'd be here. We knew those walls; we'd literally built them. We knew our expertise would help in bringing them down, so we helped with the demolition."
Masonry Arts was only one of many companies with crews at the site when the plane hit. When you work construction, you get to know the other trades, the other workers. "When we were working with the cleanup crew, every time remains were found and brought out, they'd blow a horn and we'd all stop out of respect," remembers Windsor. "You'd stand there with a lump in your throat, wondering who was in that body bag. One day, one of the other tradesmen near me started crying and it hit me hard. It wasn't as personal until you saw somebody who had lost a buddy that day."