Eyewitness to Tragedy...

On September 11, 2001,  Dr. Bobby Eberle, a conservative political analyst, writer, commentator and founder and CEO of GOPUSA.com, the leading Republican/conservative web-site in the country, was visiting Washington D.C., from his home in Houston for a conference.  He was running behind and was driving a route into the city that took him past the Pentagon. 

I recently read an article he wrote the very next day about the events as he witnessed them that morning.  It was reprinted this year on September 11th.  Here is an excerpt from the article and the link to it will be posted at the end.  In his own words:

"At about 9:30 am, we rounded a bend and had the Pentagon in our sites -- right in front of us. We continued to listen to the radio to take in the latest news on what was happening.

Riding in a convertible with the top down, I then heard a tremendously loud noise from behind me and to my left. I looked back and saw a jet airliner flying very low and very fast. It's amazing what can run through your mind in just a matter of seconds. As a pilot, I can't help but look at an airplane and think about airplane topics. What I saw sent a shiver down my spine as I realized something was not right.

The aircraft was so very low -- as an aircraft would be on its final approach to an airport. However, if you have watched any aircraft come in for a landing, even though the aircraft is descending, it is angled up slightly. This aircraft was angled downward. In addition, landing gear would also be visible on a aircraft so low and so near landing. This aircraft had its landing gear retracted. Finally, an aircraft on final approach is traveling rather slowly. This aircraft sped by very loudly and very quickly.

All of this flashed in my mind as the aircraft passed from behind my left shoulder to in front of me. It was then that the other events of the morning crystallized in the realization that tragedy was about to occur. With all of these images spinning in my head, the only words that came out of my mouth were 'Oh no!'

With that, the airliner crashed into the Pentagon and exploded."

Conspiracy theorists have speculated that what hit the Pentagon that morning was a missile fired by an unknown (but probably an American military) source.  They easily disregard the 64 citizens on the plane who, if a missile hit the Pentagon, mysteriously vanished, along with their plane, on that day.  I realize that most likely the families of those people are all in cahoots with the government conspiracy but I won't get into that right now...

One can only imagine the horror off actually watching something like that happen.  I watched on TV as the second plane hit the World Trade Center.  I was horrified to see that but on TV the impact is a bit less for most of us because we see bad things happen all the time in movies and TV shows.  To see it in person drastically increases the impact and shock.  Imagine what it must have been like to see that and know people inside the building(s). 

Even Bill Clinton one publicly (and very angrily) stated that the conspiracy theories involving the government were ridiculous.  But there are still those who want people to believe it.

I watched a documentary about the twin towers and an in-depth interview of the architect who designed them.  He said after watching the videos of what happened and how they collapsed from the impact and the fire he realized the design flaw that led to the collapse.  The main support structure of the buildings was in the external skeleton rather than in the center of the building which, in the intense heat of the jet fuel-fed fires, fell inward.  Once the collapse began it carried downward and toward the center because of the design.  Conspiracy theorists like to ignore that because it doesn't hold up their theory.

So anyway, the bottom line is that Bobby Eberle saw the plane that hit the Pentagon and while he didn't see the exact moment of impact, the plane he saw was on a collision course and didn't pull up and fly away.  There was no mistaking that it hit the Pentagon.  Conspiracy theories be damned - it happened.  And I thought it appropriate in this month of September to mention it.