Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Event/Special

Pentagon Ceremony Marked by Song, Prayer

Aired September 11, 2002 - 07:09   ET

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

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf Blitzer is at the Pentagon, which has been rather quickly put back together, when you consider the terrible hit that it took a year ago now. But almost put together. It's not completely put together. There are still scars, both physical and emotional, there.
Wolf, it is good to see you again this morning.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Though, Aaron, people have returned to their desk, people who worked one year ago in this building right behind me. Some of them have now gone back to their jobs, a very difficult ordeal for all of them.

They will be here, their colleagues will be here, their family members, friends, relatives of those who were killed when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.

About two-and-a-half hours from now, the ceremony will begin. At 9:37 a.m. Eastern, there will be a moment of silence here at the Pentagon. Some 12,000 guests have been invited to attend, and in addition to the president, the secretary of defense, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

A minute later, at 9:38 a.m. Eastern, a huge American flag will be draped along the side of the wall here that had been destroyed. All of us remember vividly that picture of the flag that was draped one year ago, shortly after the Pentagon was attacked.

The ceremony is expected to last for about one hour.

Later in the afternoon at around 1:00 Eastern Time, there will be a separate two-hour ceremony, a ceremony that will honor the construction workers, who worked around the clock, seven days a week, to get this building back in shape at a cost, that some estimate, $800 million. A very, very difficult ordeal, but one that people were directly involved in say they were passionately committed to getting the job done to prove to the terrorists that the work of the United States government, especially the U.S. military, which is headquartered here at the Pentagon, will continue.

The president will deliver what his aides say will be a major address here, setting the tone for this one-year anniversary.

Tomorrow, as you know, he will be in New York at the United Nations General Assembly, a very different kind of speech. He'll be making the case potentially -- potentially for a U.S. war with Iraq.

We'll be following all of this as well.

Aaron -- back to you.

BROWN: Wolf, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.