CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Twenty years ago Saturday, the worst terrorist attack ever on U.S. soil took place.
One Hampton Roads man was directly in the crosshairs and his was the calm, reassuring voice that day, letting the country know that, despite the horrible thing that had just happened, it was all going to be OK.
"We'd been punched in the nose and our nose is bloody, but we're still standing," said retired Navy Rear Admiral Craig Quigley. "It was very important to get that message out."
And get it out he did.
Quigley was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense on September 11, 2001, when hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the western side of the Pentagon, killing everyone on board and 125 people on the ground.
Quigley's job was to be the chief spokesman for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and to let America know that the U.S. military was still in business.
"No one expected this," he said. "Airliners had not been used as weapons of murder before. So this was a new style of warfare. And we, the world, had not seen this before."
In the two decades since, Quigley has had time to ponder the sheer randomness of how the attack unfolded. To consider: what if the plane had hit his side of the building, instead of the other side?
"As it was, our offices were almost diametrically opposite where the plane hit the Pentagon," he said. "So we were never in any danger that day. But it didn't have turn out that way. And yes, I've had that thought."
A 1975 Naval Academy Distinguished graduate, Quigley served on active duty for 27 years.
For the last 11 years, he has been the Executive Director of the Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance.