Flash: Buried in rubble, walls on fire, leg pinned: Flash bowed his head and asked God to show him the way out. cover art

Flash: Buried in rubble, walls on fire, leg pinned: Flash bowed his head and asked God to show him the way out.

Flash: Buried in rubble, walls on fire, leg pinned: Flash bowed his head and asked God to show him the way out.

Listen for free

View show details
On September 11, 2001, Flash was an officer in the U.S. Air Force; he had worked in the Pentagon for nearly 10 years. Just before the attack on the Pentagon, he and his co- workers had gathered in an office to watch television footage of the plane attacks on the World Trade Center.

It was during these moments when, according to Flash, "I felt the need to stand up, leave the office and go to my desk." He told me he was on his way to his office when the room exploded, and he was lifted off the ground only to be buried under a pile of rubble. As he struggled to remove his leg pinned under fallen debris, Flash called out to others in his office; there was no response.

He told me the walls were on fire, he could barely breathe, and couldn't move his leg. So, he said that’s when he called out to God. In his words, Flash says, "I bowed my head, and I said a little prayer, 'Lord, help me get my leg loose and show me the way out.’ And that’s when he began working on his leg, until it popped loose."'

In the moments that followed, Flash -- who was presumed dead by a co-worker since the co-worker's last vision was of him being "swept away in a ball of fire," -- would crawl the floor and climb over debris to emerge from the building. He was bloodied, and he was wounded, but in his words, "I just kept moving; I knew I didn't have much time in there."

After reaching the Courtyard, Flash volunteered to help carry stretchers until he was escorted to a triage area to have his own wounds examined. He also told me of a woman, a soldier whom he saw on the ground cuddling a baby. He said he wanted to help her, but she held that baby tight and wouldn’t let anyone near.

Flash told me that all of the people who were killed in his office that morning were those whom he had left in the room watching the televised events of the World Trade Center attacks. As a result, Flash noted that on that morning he had stood “at the line between life and death," and he ended up being on the side he needed to survive.
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet