Serving in The Old Guard’s Fife and Drum Corps didn’t prepare Staff Sgt. Christine Adamski to pull the remains of fellow soldiers from the smoldering wreckage of the Pentagon.
But the 28-year-old fifer didn’t hesitate when the call came for volunteers to assist the FBI.
While the Old Guard was ordered to support the Pentagon rescue efforts, the soldiers were asked to volunteer when it came to carrying body bags.
Adamski was one of 40 to do so.
She is among the hundreds of active-duty and National Guard soldiers from units near the Pentagon that have come together to restore security in the region.
“Whatever we can do to help, that is what we are going to do,” she said Sept. 13 after carrying her first body bag of remains from the collapsed section of the Pentagon.
Staff Sgt. Glen Patton, also a member of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment at Fort Myer, Va., was part of another four-person recovery team.
“At first, it sounds like a pretty horrific experience,” Patton said, describing the challenge he faced on the recovery detail. “It’s a great honor to do it, but at the same time we are carrying out our dead comrades.”
In the Washington area, active and National Guard soldiers are working 12-hour shifts, doing everything from providing security to directing traffic.
The Old Guard has been rotating companies to the Pentagon to help set up tents, remove debris and recover remains.
FBI agents put the remains in the body bags, but the soldiers carry them out on stretchers as they trudge though what used to be the newest wing of the Pentagon.
Command Sgt. Major Aubrey Butts, the regiment’s command sergeant major, accompanied his soldiers into the devastation.
“It was pitch black, with water up to our knees. … It was hell,” said Butts, who saw combat in the Persian Gulf War. “These young people really saw the horror of mad people. It’s [soldiers] like that that stand as sentinels and make it possible to have all the freedoms we have in America.”
But not all the soldiers at the Pentagon were inexperienced at attending to fallen comrades. The 54th Quartermaster Company (Mortuary Affairs) deployed from Fort Lee, Va., to assist in recovery efforts, as well.
The soldiers of the 54th travel all over the world in their gruesome mission.
“Their primary mission is to make sure we can assist in the recovery of remains with dignity and respect,” said Sgt. Maj. Joseph Brundy of the 49th Special Troops Battalion, which oversees the 54th.
While the work at the Pentagon remains a priority, many other soldiers are working long hours on the streets of D.C.
Members of the D.C. Army National Guard’s 372nd Military Police Battalion have set up traffic-control points to support D.C. police.
Spc. Natalie Scallon said she was surprised to see the reaction of city residents as she stood at her post at the intersection of 19th and L streets NW in Washington.
“They were coming up to us and saying ‘thank you,’ ” she said. “They were happy we were coming out here to make them feel a little bit better.”
Chief Warrant Officer Carl Flowers, a member of the D.C. Guard’s 104th Maintenance Company, said he is glad to be serving during this time.
But at the same time, it’s difficult for him to talk about the reason for the mission.
“When they hit the Pentagon, I knew we had a problem,” he said, describing his disgust over the attack. “It really made me sick.”
Chaplain (Maj.) Andrea Foster said so far she has been helping to counsel those with friends and loved ones still listed as missing.
“All things considered, I think the morale is pretty good,” she said, describing how most people have nothing to compare to this tragedy.
“It’s so big, people don’t know they feel. … There is nothing in training that can prepare you for a tragedy of this magnitude,” she said.
