The Reward of Their Sacrifices

By GORDON I. PETERSON, Senior Editor

To the friends of freedom and foes of barbarism, September's fanatical hijacking of four commercial U.S. airliners and subsequent attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon ended the 10-year interwar period with an abrupt and savage finality.

For the hundreds of passengers and the crews of the four United and American Airlines flights--and to the tens of thousands of people who called the World Trade Center and Pentagon their places of work or duty--the surprise attack in the first war of the 21st century was aimed primarily at civilians. Coming without warning on a brilliantly clear day in late summer as the nation began its workweek, war commenced on the most unlikely of battlegrounds.

But, as Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England told Pentagon reporters on 13 September, "With terrorism, every place is a combat zone."

In addition to the 58 passengers and six crew on American Airlines Flight 77, the Department of Defense announced a week after the attack that 124 Army and Navy uniformed personnel, civilian staff, and contract workers were killed or remained unaccounted for at the Pentagon.

Those killed in action during the Pentagon attack came from all walks of life, religions, and backgrounds--reflecting the rich fabric of the U.S. military's ethnic and social tapestry.

The list of the Navy's fatalities included Petty Officer Second Class Michael A. Noeth, 30, of Jackson Heights, N.Y. As a deck seaman several years ago, he aspired to be an illustrator and draftsman. Volunteering to work at the Naval Media Center in the nation's capital, a colleague recalls, he reported for duty ready to work and willing to learn as he acquired the experience needed to qualify for one of the Navy's most competitive enlisted ratings.

A senior petty officer took Noeth, a talented artist, under her wing to help him learn the intricacies of illustration, graphics, and drafting. A shipmate recalled that he was always at work with his paints, canvas, and linseed oil. Noeth passed the Navy's tough rating examination. He went on to become an accomplished draftsman and served with distinction in other assignments.

Illustrator/Draftsman 2nd Class Noeth was at his duty station in the Navy Command Center when it was destroyed during the terrorist attack on the Pentagon. In the words of retired Capt. Edward Lundquist, a former commanding officer, "He was a good Sailor." There can be no higher compliment.
Similar stories were told by friends and family members about all of the Army and Navy men and women lost during the Pentagon attack. Reservists on active duty. Combat veterans. Eleven graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy. Fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters.

As a new wave of patriotism ignited and spread across America, citizens were recalling earlier symbols of their forebears' fight against oppression, tyranny, and inhumanity. For Samuel Adams, at the dawn of the fight for American independence, there were the sharp memories of the Boston Massacre, Bunker Hill, Lexington and Concord.

Three days after the 11 September attack on the Pentagon, the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole--also a victim of Osama bin Laden's ruthless terrorism--was relaunched without fanfare one day ahead of schedule at the Northrop Grumman Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. The Cole will rejoin the fleet by April 2002, ready to answer the commander in chief's call during the nation's war against the forces of darkness.

One day later, on 15 September, the Department of Defense awarded a $145 million initial contract to begin immediate work to rebuild the damaged portions of the Pentagon.

Those responsible for the horrific events of 11 September totally misjudged the resolve of the American people when raised to anger. They will pay a fearful price for their fatal miscalculation.