Keith Pernell

A number of medical workers at the US Army’s DiLorenzo Tricare Health Clinic (DTHC) initially believe the evacuation in response to the Pentagon attack is part of a training exercise. The DTHC is located in the basement on the east side of the Pentagon, more than 1,000 feet from where the building was hit, and therefore many of the people there did not feel or hear the impact when the attack occurred. [Nursing Spectrum, 9/24/2001; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 107-108; Creed and Newman, 2008, pp. 57-58]
After being told to get out of the clinic, Captain Jennifer Glidewell leaves along with Sergeant Matthew Rosenberg. According to Glidewell, they are “thinking fire drill.” They head for the Pentagon’s center courtyard where they see an injured man running and screaming, with his face burnt and the skin hanging off. According to authors Patrick Creed and Rick Newman, Glidewell initially thinks this is “the best moulage job she had ever seen. Moulage was the makeup medical practitioners put on mock patients during exercises, to simulate injuries.” When she realizes the injuries are genuine, she grabs her radio and yells into it: “This is not a drill! This is real!” [Marble and Milhiser, 9/2004, pp. 19; Creed and Newman, 2008, pp. 57-58]
Sergeant Mark Maxey Davis will recall, “I just thought [the evacuation] was a routine fire drill or something like that.” [Marble and Milhiser, 9/2004, pp. 69]
Dr. Veena Railan describes: “I was not very sure what was happening, what was going on at that time. Maybe this is a drill because of what happened in New York.” [Marble and Milhiser, 9/2004, pp. 125]
Staff Sergeant Keith Pernell recalls, “We just thought it was a regular fire drill.” [Marble and Milhiser, 9/2004, pp. 111]
US Air Force Surgeon General Paul Carlton Jr. is accompanying a team of medics from the DTHC to the center courtyard. [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 109] He will recall that a young sergeant with him is “under the impression that this crash was yet another exercise.” Carlton tells him, “I think this one’s for real, my friend.” [Murphy, 2002, pp. 222]
Captain Liza Lindenberg later describes, “Not until we went out the door did I see these plumes of smoke and thought, this is definitely not a drill.” [Marble and Milhiser, 9/2004, pp. 85]
Major Bridget Larew remains at the clinic to help an injured victim. Soon, she will recall, “our medical teams were starting to come back in the building, realizing that this was not a drill and that they needed to be here with us to get supplies and stuff.” [Marble and Milhiser, 9/2004, pp. 83]
A factor that may have contributed to this confusion is that personnel from the DTHC have participated in at least two training exercises during the previous 12 months based around the scenario of a plane crashing into the Pentagon (see October 24-26, 2000 and May 2001). [MDW News Service, 11/3/2000; US Department of Health and Human Services, 7/2002, pp. B17 ; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 107] In response to the attack, the clinic’s workers will be involved with the emergency response, performing triage and treatment at the Pentagon. [US Department of Health and Human Services, 7/2002, pp. B1 ]