Retired Army Colonel Matthew Klimow, who served as executive assistant to General Richard Myers on September 11, 2001, describes that day as the most challenging of his long military career. In his account, Klimow reflects on the immense emotional toll of the attacks, noting that he spent the day acting as a “good soldier”—stolid, resolute, rational, and dispassionate—only to be overwhelmed by the gravity of the situation once he finally arrived home. He acknowledges that the nation was profoundly humbled by the events that claimed the lives of 64 people on the hijacked airliner and 125 individuals inside the Pentagon.
Klimow’s military journey began after he entered West Point in 1970. By 2001, he had built a 29-year career that included commanding paratroopers in the 18th Airborne Corps and earning a Silver Star during the Gulf War. On the morning of the attacks, he was at his desk by 5:15 a.m. to support General Myers, the vice-chair of the joint chiefs of staff, who was preparing for imminent Senate confirmation hearings to become the full-time chair. Around 8:45 a.m., Myers departed for Capitol Hill with his aide-de-camp, Captain Chris Donahue.
The atmosphere shifted instantly when Klimow saw the World Trade Center burning on a television screen. Shortly after, the secure “red switch” telephone began to bleep. It was General Ralph Eberhart, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad), sounding an urgent alarm. Klimow reached out to Donahue to retrieve Myers from a senator’s office. When the red switch rang again, Eberhart delivered a chilling warning: multiple aircraft were in the air on suspicious trajectories. While Klimow frantically documented the information, he found himself juggling the secure line and an unsecure call from General Hugh Shelton, the chair of the joint chiefs who was traveling in Hungary.
The reality of the attack hit the Pentagon when the building shook from the impact of Flight 77. Klimow, deeply focused on his communications, initially missed the sound of the crash into the western facade. It was only when a watch officer from the National Military Command Center (NMCC) broke into the red switch line that the situation became clear. The plane had struck a newly renovated section of the building, where ballistic glass helped limit the casualty count but trapped the kinetic energy of the explosion.
In the ensuing pandemonium, Klimow reunited with Myers at the river entrance, and the two men pushed past police officers to re-enter the burning structure. During the chaos, Klimow experienced a moment of panic when he realized Myers had disappeared. He searched the corridors, eventually finding the general with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Klimow notes that while Rumsfeld’s instinct to assist with rescue efforts was brave, it created a 30-minute window where the secretary was unreachable during a national security crisis.
Klimow’s account highlights the friction between Norad and the Air National Guard, noting that Langley pilots were initially hampered by erroneous flight plans and a lack of clear rules of engagement regarding civilian aircraft. Throughout the day, Klimow’s wife, Edie, a retired army nurse, waited in agony, while their son was informed of the attack at school. It was well past midnight when Klimow finally left the soot-covered, fuel-scented ruins of the Pentagon.
Reflecting on the 25th anniversary of the attacks, Klimow draws parallels between the unity of the post-9/11 period and the divisions that have since emerged through the Iraq war, financial crises, and political polarization. Despite these societal shifts, he remains optimistic. Having witnessed the social instability of the 1960s, he refuses to despair, viewing the 2021 withdrawal from Kabul—where he saw a solitary soldier board the final transport plane—as a poignant bookend to his decades of service. Donald Trump is scheduled to mark the 25th anniversary of the attacks with a ceremony at the Pentagon this Friday. The report also notes that there was sadness for the lives lost. The report also notes that too: humiliation, but there was another emotion. The report also notes that “The fighting force of which I was part had been impotent, unable to protect our fellow citizens. The report also notes that the darkness I felt matched the darkness inside my house as I opened the door.”. The report also notes that a study in leadership and a first-person account of the chaos that unfolded at the headquarters of the US defence department in Arlington, Virginia, on the day that planes also hit New York and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, klimow recalls the longest day of his career in As the Pentagon Burned. The report also notes that klimow’s book recalls how leaders at all levels suppressed their emotional shock to respond with calm determination and grace under pressure. The report also notes that and how coordination was plagued by erroneous intelligence, overlapping chains of command and communication gaps – including a critical half-hour when Donald Rumsfeld, the US secretary of defense, was unreachable, but it also tells how the attacks revealed a tension between military protocol and the need for improvisation. The report also notes that born and raised in Johnson City, New York, Klimow’s career spans more than half a century of military and diplomatic service.