9/11 Pentagon survivor tells Alabama audience about God’s goodness in the little things
Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Penny Bailey speaks at the Fultondale Sept. 11 memorial ceremony. (Michael Tomberlin / Alabama NewsCenter)
A sick child. A busy signal. An abandoned lab coat.
Looking back on her day at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, Retired Air Force Col. Penny Bailey can see where God used those three things to protect and comfort her and her family.
Bailey shared her story at a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony in Fultondale today. The memorial was held at one of four large flags visible from Interstate 65 in Fultondale. The Sept. 11 monument was dedicated at the base of the flag in 2012. The three other flags and monuments honor veterans of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Bailey was working at the Pentagon on what would end up being one of the most eventful days in American history. It started uneventfully enough, but looking back Bailey can see a higher power was at work.
“There were just a number of things that God put into place that morning that looking back you can only say that was him in control,” she said.
Pentagon survivor shares her story at Fultondale’s 9/11 Memorial Ceremony from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
A sick child was the first thing.
Bailey called to check in on her children as they prepared to go to school, only to learn her daughter was sick with a headache, a stomach ache and a sore throat. It was alarming because her daughter loved going to school and had never had to miss because she was sick.
Bailey was working with a general to organize a conference for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and couldn’t break away to return home. Her daughter said she would be fine alone until a neighbor could check on her later.
While Bailey was with the general on the Army side of the Pentagon, she blurted out she needed to return to her office. She still doesn’t know why she said this, because she had no other appointments that morning.
She returned to her office and called home to check on her daughter only to learn that her daughter was no longer sick and was feeling fine.
A hijacked airplane slammed into the Pentagon on the Army side, killing 125.
In the aftermath of the attack, Bailey continued working and was trying to make arrangements to have a friend pick up her son from school and stay with her children until she and her husband – who also worked at the Pentagon – could return home.
A busy signal was the second thing.
Unable to reach her friend, a thought occurred to Bailey: Call long distance. That’s when she called her father in Alabama. Her father in Leeds was so relieved to hear from his daughter, he could barely speak. That’s when Bailey realized others were as concerned about her as she was for her own children.
Her father’s office was able to reach her friend and make arrangements for her children. Now Bailey’s concern turned to finding her husband.
Her husband was a trained medic and she assumed he would be assisting either at a makeshift treatment area in the center of the Pentagon or, most likely, near the attack site.
But when she attempted to get to the attack site, a guard told her only medical personnel were allowed in.
An abandoned lab coat was the third thing.
The worried wife sat down at a bench and found a white lab coat there with “Physician” written across the left chest. She slipped on the coat, was eventually waved through by a guard and was able to find her husband among the destruction.
“We came together and I have to tell you it was the greatest, most comforting embrace I’ve ever felt,” Bailey said.
Bailey said she has since heard countless stories from others who were guided away from harm that day using little things like doughnuts or paperwork. She believes God was at work in those lives but was also with the nearly 3,000 who lost their lives that day.
“What I want people to take away is there is evil in this world and we need not to forget,” she said. “But even more so, we need to remember that there is good and our God is good and he is the author of everything good and we need to be his hands and feet and help those people who are in need, whether it was on September 11, 2001 or any day forward.”
Bailey thanked Fultondale for continuing to acknowledge the 9/11 attacks 15 years later.
Fultondale Mayor Jim Lowery said the memorial was something the city wanted to ensure didn’t fade.
“We hope when we bring people back together like this, we can build some of that spirit we had after we were attacked because we’re still under attack,” he said.
Lowery said the events in the country today are a reminder that the unity existing in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks can dissipate but he believes it can always be revived.
“We need that commitment again,” he said. “We need that commitment to get along with others, to get along with each other and honor our police officers and our military people.”
It’s just one small monument off the interstate in Fultondale, but Lowery said the city wanted to do something.
“We did it in honor of those who gave their lives for our country and also we did it to do our part, what little we can, to console those that lost loved ones,” he said.
Bailey knows how little things can be used with big results.
