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American Morning

Workers at E-Ring Section of Pentagon Returning

Aired August 15, 2002 - 09:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Workers at the E-ring section of the Pentagon, partially destroyed when a hijacked plane slammed into it on September 11th, are finally returning to their newly rebuilt offices this morning, and they are back a month early.
CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is there.

Good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula..

Well, just a few minutes ago, we had a walk around these first office that is being reoccupied this morning, on that outer ring of the Pentagon, the portion of the Pentagon that was utterly devastated in the September 11th attacks. The damage was so severe that construction workers had to demolish 400,000 square feet of the Pentagon, as you see here. That is about the size of two very large home depots.

Now if you look at this picture, we are going to show you a picture that is the first office rebuilt, being reoccupied today, and it's going to be one of the offices at the very edge of that abyss. As I said, we had a walk around a few minutes ago.

This is Mr. Peter Murphy, the general counsel to the commandant of the Marine Corps. His office is right there that you see, where that Marine Corps flag is still standing. He escaped -- all of him and his office mates escaped the damage, the smoke and the flames, but their office, as you, see was really right at the edge of abyss.

Peter Murphy showed us around, showed us where the office dropped literally. Construction workers here greeted him again this morning. And he spoke to us about his feelings about moving back into ground zero, and the feelings about seeing that Marine Corps flag still standing. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER MURPHY, GENERAL COUNSEL, U.S. MARINE CORPS: Something inspirational, kind of Marine Corps spirit. You know, that there was one bright spot in that whole horrible mess, and that was that the Marine flag still standing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: It really was something to watch, as he said, you know, PEOPLE thought maybe the Marines put that flag back up there as a point of inspiration. But it's really kind of spooky, the flag just stayed standing, it didn't fall down -- Paula.

ZAHN: That is so remarkable, that anybody could have finished a job like that, not only on schedule, but in this case ahead of time. How did that happen, Barbara?

STARR: Oh, it's been amazing around the Pentagon here for the last year. There has been nearly a thousand construction workers day and night, they have been working around the clock. They are ahead of schedule. Now, the calculation is September 11th, just a month from now, there will be 600 people back in the rebuilt section of the Pentagon. It cost half a billion dollars, but they're determined to move back in.

ZAHN: Thank you, Barbara. Thanks for taking us on that tour this morning. Appreciate it.

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