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“One thing that I do remember, very vividly and clearly, is the impact.”

Racquel Kelley talks about working at the Pentagon on the morning of September 11, 2001. At the time, Kelley was the mother of an 8-month-old son.

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Recorded in Washington D.C.

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Credits

Produced by Vanara Taing.

Facilitated by Justina Mejias.

Recorded in partnership with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

Transcript

Click here to read the transcript for this story.

Interview transcript

Racquel Kelley: One thing that I do remember, very vividly and clearly, is the impact. I can like relive that like it just happened. Everything was on fire and I climbed under my desk and I remember saying a prayer: Lord, look. I just had this baby, now I need to go to proms, marriages, and all of that. I can't die. So we gotta work something out. I grabbed my purse and my other bag--they laughed at me at the hospital cause they said I had my bags with me--and I looked for my cell phone but I couldn't feel it cause my hand was on fire and I was still trying to figure out what is going on around here. So, they flew me to Washington Hospital's burn unit...that's when I started to get the full gist of what was happening.

In some form or fashion, every day I think about 9/11. You know, I'm going into my building in Crystal City I'm sitting there going, What if a plane crashed, where am I gonna go? And, when I'm coming across 14th street bridge, do I speed up or slow down and let that plane go? So I'm always constantly thinking, What am I going to do, What if. I think I'll be like that for the rest of my life.