Craig Bryan

A meeting is scheduled to take place at the Pentagon, regarding a planned “tabletop disaster exercise” at the nearby Navy Annex building. [Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 11/5/2001; Naval Historical Center, 12/21/2001] This is according to Coneleous Alexander, a building manager at the Navy Annex, which is located a few hundred yards uphill from the Pentagon. [American Forces Press Service, 9/24/2001; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 14, 169] Alexander will say that he and his colleagues have been getting ready for “Fire Awareness Month,” which is this coming October, and are planning a “tabletop disaster exercise for the Navy Annex.” As a result, Alexander is due to be at the Pentagon at 9:00 a.m. today. It is unclear whether an exercise is actually set to take place at the Pentagon or just a meeting to discuss a forthcoming exercise at the Navy Annex. In one interview, Alexander will say he is scheduled to go to the fifth floor of the Pentagon for “a meeting… to discuss doing a tabletop exercise at the Navy Annex.” But in another interview, he will say he is scheduled to go to the Pentagon “for a tabletop exercise for a disaster response for the building.” (Presumably “the building” he refers to is the Navy Annex.) However, there has been a water main break in the Navy Annex. Alexander therefore sends a colleague, Craig Bryan, to the meeting in his place, so he can stay at the Navy Annex to “handle the water main break and other things going on” there. Whether the meeting goes ahead, in light of the attacks in New York, is unstated. [Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 11/5/2001; Naval Historical Center, 12/21/2001]