Murfreesboro, TN - “Unsung heroes” worked inside the burning Pentagon building to maintain critical communications after the 9-11 terrorists’ attacks Sept. 11, 2001, said USAF Ret. Col. Thomas Hickerson.

“This is the story of the front line of the first battle of the war on terrorism,” Hickerson said during the keynote address Wednesday at the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office’s annual 9-11 Memorial Ceremony.

Hickerson, who lives in Smyrna, served as program manager for Lockheed Martin whose employees provided the backbone network capability for the Pentagon’s 25,000-plus employees.

He was working at the Pentagon when the terrorists flew an airplane into the building, killing 59 employees, 60 years to the day of the ground-breaking of the Pentagon in 1941

After the attack, men and women knowingly risked their lives for something greater than themselves, he said.    

Everyone was evacuated, thousands were outside, and we he recalled they wondered if more terrorist attachs were ahead. Col. Hickerson remembered, “An F16 came in 100 feet off the ground and did two circles around the Pentagon and flew straight up,” Hickerson remembered. “Folks, it’s going to be all right now. Go Air Force.”

Listen here to Col. Thomas Hickerson's inspiring 9/11 story.

If you weren't able to make the 9/11 Rutherford County Sheriff's Office ceremony, you can listen back to it here (Note: there was a technical error at beginning and the "welcome from WGNS' Bart Walker" and "invocation from Rev. Michael McDonald, a member of the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Board" did not get recorded clearly):

Ed Kaup, assistant vice president and MTSU Police chief, was the guest speaker for the 10th annual 9/11 Remembrance at Middle Tennessee State University. He shared on the WGNS Roundtable with Chip Walters what he told those who gathered there.

PREVIOUSLY REPORTED

Murfreesboro, TN - 9/11 is a day "we will never forget"! Throughout the area there will be REMEMBRANCE CEREMONIES for the public to attend. 

MTSU at 7:30AM

The Remembrance Ceremony at MTSU is open to the public and it is free. It begins early at 7:30AM on Wednesday morning in the second-floor atrium of the Miller Education Center, 503 E. Bell St., in Murfreesboro.

The 9/11 Remembrance, coordinated by the Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center, will commemorate the 23rd anniversary of a series of four coordinated terrorist suicide attacks by the extremist group al-Qaida on U.S. landmarks, which occurred Sept. 11, 2001.

Edwin “Ed” Kaup, assistant vice president and University Police chief, will be the guest speaker for the 10th annual 9/11 Remembrance at Middle Tennessee State University.

RCSO at 9:00AM 

The 9/11 program at the Rutherford Couny Sheriff's Office begins at 9:00AM on Wednesday morning and features retired U.S. Air Force Col. Thomas Hickerson. He led his Lockheed Martin team into the burning Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001 to restore and maintain critical communications following the terrorists’ attacks.

Col. Hickerson will share first remembrances of what he saw, heard and experienced where 184 persons died when American Airlines flight #77 was flown by terrorists into the structure. Click photo below for more details of the event at the RCSO.  

If your group is offering a 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony that is open to the public, please let WGNS know about it, so we can share this with the community.

Click the below photo of the fire truck recovered from ground zero to make it larger.