(piano music) - My name is Mark Volk and I was at the Pentagon on 9/11/2001.

I ended up going into the ROTC program at the university of Scranton and was commissioned in December of '77, and then went on active duty in the Army.

I spent 26 years total on active duty, traveling around the world.

(orchestral music) Split that time, about 13 years, half as a field artillery officer, and then half in intelligence, and then returned to the Pentagon, having been just about promoted on the promotion list for Colonel, where I took over as Chief of the Strategic Leadership Division in Army Strategy, Plans and Policy.

And that's where I was serving, in Suite three D four 50 on 9/11/2001.

(New Age music) For us kind of monitoring what was going on was normal.

And I had a television in my office, happened to be watching CNN at the time and turned around and saw the smoke coming off of the first tower.

And we were sitting there watching when we, you could almost really sense more than you could initially hear the plane hitting.

And then almost immediately by a large explosion, all of our windows were blown in.

There was flames that came in through the windows and later found out it was because fuel had washed out as the plane hit the ground initially and washed over the rings, and then detonated, blowing in all our windows.

And at that point, people in my office had fallen who were standing had fallen on the floor.

We all kind of got up and I yelled for everyone to begin an evacuation at that point.

And so I just began because I was the last one in, I was the last one out and I went cubicle to cubicle, desk to desk, just to make sure everyone was cleared out.

But as I stood there in the hallway, then ultimately a woman who worked in Strategy, Plans and Policy in the, out in the E-ring, one of the officers came up and told me that she had been in a meeting, that she was not sure whether her staff had gotten out and she was concerned, and I grabbed the fire extinguisher.

I ducked under the smoke and I ran out onto the E-ring, and following me were both Lee and a young Army contractor.

So we then began the process of going office to office to make sure that there was no one left behind.

At some point there was another individual out here who I've never been able to identify.

I'm not sure who he was.

He was trying to kick in a door that we could not get open.

And at just about that point, there was a secondary detonation, something, whether the structure began to fail or whatever, ceiling tile began to drop.

And that was the first time that I really sensed danger.

And so I yelled for everyone at that point to evacuate.

I learned later that after some time, within minutes after us evacuating that those upper floors that were still standing over top of us, pancaked down on top of where we were.

I know there were at least two times that day, the initial impact of the plane and how it came in, and our office was spared.

And then later when I was out on the E-ring, are at least two times that I can recognize now, that I could have not been sitting here today without a little bit of luck.

The day I retired in October, 2003, I think was the ceremony, I was awarded the Soldier's Medal, which is the Army's highest, I guess you would say non-combat heroism award.

(orchestral music) I did what I think I should have done.

What was expected of me as an Army Colonel, and what I should be doing as a human and a person to try and help others.

There are many people who were sacrificed that day, who did even more than I did.

There are people who died, who were injured, families that were broken apart all around the United States, but certainly in DC, and the families of Flight 93, and then in the World Trade towers.

So, you know, and those stories continued to be written as their children now are more influential.

They're doing things, they're 20 years older than they were at the time.

This is an amazing country.

And I feel blessed to have been able to serve as an officer in the military, and then to serve at Lackawanna College, ultimately to be the president there for eight years.

I try and recognize that we don't know when that final day or that final minute will be.

And so don't waste it.

Don't waste time.

(uplifting music)