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>> Why did I live
and why not them?

2
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Why was I not sitting
at my desk?

3
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This is the second time
I've come here.

4
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Didn't come for the first
10 years because of that guilt.

5
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I love the water feature.
It is very calming.

6
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They gave everybody
their own bench, angled

7
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to denote who was on the plane
and who was in the building.

8
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So my office was right over there
on the second floor.

9
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The fuselage went right
under my office

10
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and that's where the hole was,

11
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that everything fell down
when the av-gas went off.

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William L.
Stoppel, I'm the Program Manager

13
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for Employee Performance
Management at HSI.  On 9/11,

14
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I was Lieutenant Colonel
William Stoppel,

15
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I was the board's branch chief
for Army Guard Affairs

16
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in DMPM in the G-1.

17
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It was my son's first day
at Pentagon daycare.

18
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6:30, get to the Pentagon
daycare, drop Will off.

19
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I head into work, so I get into
my office about eight o'clock.

20
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Dave Scales rolled
in. Colonel Dave Scales,

21
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He was my cube mate.
We sat back to back.

22
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He was the Army Reserve member
and I was the Army Guard member.

23
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Probably about nine o'clock,
I decided I better go check on

24
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Will, it's his first day
at daycare.

25
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Let me go do that.
Got down to Pentagon daycare

26
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and we feel the Earth
shake a little bit.

27
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That's kind of odd.

28
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So we walked outside and we
looked up from Pentagon daycare

29
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and you could see flames coming
out of the top of the Pentagon.

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Phone rang and it was Pentagon
security,

31
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and they said you need to
evacuate the childcare facility.

32
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The parents that were there

33
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and the staff gathered

34
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all the children, took them
across the parking lot

35
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in north parking
to the bridge area,

36
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crossing over to
Lady Bird Johnson Island.

37
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Somebody from Pentagon force
protection came in and said,

38
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Hey, there's another
plane coming.

39
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So if you can, you need
to get out of here now.

40
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So I got my son
and I headed home.

41
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So my office, we spent the next
several months

42
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going to funerals,

43
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and when we go to a funeral,
we'd get a 15 passenger van

44
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and we'd all load in
and go together.

45
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When they were cleaning up,

46
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They gave each one
of the survivors.

47
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Piece of the rubble,
constant reminder when I see it,

48
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every time I'm moving
or shuffling through the drawer,

49
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just what happened
and and who's been lost.

50
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I just don't, I don't know
what to say.

51
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I almost asked Dave, you go with me
to day care,

52
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to see my son that day.

53
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But I didn't,
and I don't know why.

54
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Think about it all the time
and think about why did I get up

55
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and leave that day when that's
totally not what I would do.

56
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What made me get up and go?

57
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Some people say
God had a plan for you.

58
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I don't know.

59
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There were some reason I got up,
and I guess I can.

60
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I always laugh.
I can never spank my son.

61
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Because if it weren't for him,
dad wouldn't be here.

62
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I think it did help give me
a better perspective

63
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about what's important in life.

64
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And I think when I retired
and I wanted to do something

65
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that I could feel
passionate about again,

66
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I found two great
organizations to do that.

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First working
at the Peace Corps.

68
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And then I came to ICE

69
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and work at Homeland
Security Investigations,

70
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which all you have to do
is read one op summary

71
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about what our great agents
are doing in the field

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to feel passionate

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about what we're doing
protecting the homeland.

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When you come to the 911
memorial here

75
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and you sit on the bench
for Dave Scales

76
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or you the one for Karen Wagner
or Bill Ruth or Duane

77
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or any of the others,

78
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think about those people
and what their sacrifice was.

79
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Fast forward now,
here we are 20 years afterwards.

80
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The country's done a nice job
in memorializing them here.

81
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Pentagon, Shanksville
at New York.

82
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And we always like to say never,
never forget.

83
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And now it's always nice.

84
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People say thank you
for your service.

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It's nice that they think
that now,

86
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and I hope
we never do forget

87
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because it could just as easily
happen again.