9:00 a.m.-9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: Chief of Naval Operations Continues with Budget Meeting while US Is Under Attack

The Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Vern Clark, the Navy’s top officer, is in his office on the fourth floor of the Pentagon for a budget meeting. Although it is clear after the second WTC tower is hit that the US is under attack, Clark apparently does nothing in response, and no attempt is made to evacuate him from the Pentagon. Reportedly, when the Pentagon is hit at 9:37, he is “receiving a budget briefing.” It is only then that a member of his staff enters his office and tells him, “You’ve got to evacuate.” Clark will then head to the Pentagon’s National Military Command Center (NMCC), where he meets with other senior Department of Defense leaders, and decides to re-establish the Navy’s command center in another secure location in Washington, DC (see After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). Clark later reflects, “There has never been an experience like this in my lifetime. We were thinking about the immediate protection of the United States of America.” [Sea Power, 1/2002; National Public Radio, 6/14/2007]