Pentagon begins to reopen damaged areas

Healing -- physical, psychological, spiritual -- has taken many forms since Sept. 11. For workers at the Pentagon, a sense of closure accompanies the opening, starting last week, of the more than 400,000 square feet of office space destroyed by last year's terrorist attack.

Because of the scope of the damage and the number of lives lost in New York, much of the world's attention has been focused on the rubble and extraordinary recovery efforts where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood in lower Manhattan. But deep wounds were also inflicted by terrorists at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania on the same day.

At the Pentagon, American Airlines Flight 77, under the command of terrorist hijackers, slammed into one side of the enormous pentagon-shaped structure that serves as our nation's military headquarters. The plane broke through three of the Pentagon's five rings and collapsed part of the five-story outer ring. In all, 125 persons in the building were killed along with all 64 aboard the airplane.

Since September, another extraordinary effort has been going on as crews have been rebuilding the damaged area of the Pentagon, an area that ironically had just been refurbished and reinforced to withstand a hostile attack.

The aim is to have all of the damaged area open for business when President Bush visits on the anniversary of the attack. In addition, workers will have a private memorial service on Sept. 11.