When the plane hit the Pentagon, I was on the 11th floor of NOAA #2 in Silver Spring, and we could see the Pentagon fire from there. We were all sent home, immediately, and security was vastly beefed up for months. My wife passed the Pentagon on her way to work in Alexandria about 5 minutes before the plane hit, and one of her coworkers was on the road next to the Pentagon when the plane went in, clipping the top off at least one of the parking lot lights. She told me he was white as a sheet when he got to work.