WEST BETHESDA, Md. –
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, at 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, claiming the lives of 184 people. In the immediate, chaotic aftermath – just a day after the hijacked plane’s wreckage was pulled from the side of the building – a small team of historians and curators was granted access to the impact zone. Among them was Dana Wegner, the Navy's senior curator of models from Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division.
Their grim task was to walk through the devastation to mark and save artifacts that would tell the story of the attack to future generations. They navigated a space where the building had been obliterated, walking across a flat concrete deck covered in puddles from the firefighting efforts.
Thinking their primary job was done, Wegner and his colleague from Carderock decided to scout a little further. They ventured up to a third-story office that was teetering right on the edge of the massive breach. The exterior wall was completely gone, leaving the office wide open to the sky and the elements. The occupants had evacuated in a hurry, leaving behind their daily routines.
There, sitting exposed to the wind and recent rain, was a personally owned model of an A-6 Intruder. For more than 30 years, the actual A-6 Intruder served as the all-weather workhorse of the Navy and Marine Corps, famous for pushing through the harshest conditions. Fittingly, this professional desktop replica had just survived a devastating inferno. It was a faithful, accurate tribute piece that an aviator would proudly display to represent their service. Beneath the canopy, the pilot's name, CDR Boxman Wood was still clearly visible.
Wegner immediately recognized its value as a survivor of the attack. The model was heavily coated in soot from the explosive fire. Recognizing that this ash was the most critical part of its history, Wegner carefully sprayed the model with a fixative right then and there to lock the smoke damage in place. Aside from a few fingerprints where the curators had to hold it to carry it out of the ruined building, the model remained unaltered.
For nearly a quarter of a century, the Intruder has been meticulously preserved and protected by the curator of models at Carderock. Now, as the nation approaches the 25th anniversary of 9/11 following the Navy and country’s 250th anniversaries, it stands as a silent witness. Its soot-stained fuselage offers a tangible, haunting connection to the events of that day—and a quiet tribute to the 184 lives lost.