Sept. 11 survivor adds personal touch to work of commission

WASHINGTON -- Of the 30 people on duty in the Pentagon's Navy Command Center the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, only one -- Lt. Kevin Shaeffer -- survived the crash of a hijacked airliner.

He is again standing out, now as one of 60 employees of the independent commission studying the events of that day.

His scars testify to the fireball that engulfed his section of the Pentagon. His resolve is a reminder that those most affected by the terrorist attacks hunger for answers.

"He brings a passion for telling the definitive account of what happened," said John Farmer, a former New Jersey attorney general who is working with Shaeffer. "He has a million ideas about everything we're doing and is incredibly focused. He brings sort of a spiritual energy to the work."

During a grueling recovery that included 18 operations and two near-fatal cardiac arrests, Shaeffer set a goal of resuming full-time work this September. He willed himself to get well faster, he said, so he could join the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States when it began work early this year.

Now medically retired from the Navy, he hopes the experience will lead him into a career in homeland security and counterterrorism.

"I think every day of all the co-workers who were killed, my close friends and office mates," said Shaeffer, 31. "They all had families. Two of them had pregnant wives on Sept. 11. I know in this life that I'm not going to have any answers of why I survived the attack, but what I do know is that I can hopefully make a difference in the future."

Shaeffer works on a task force, led by Farmer, which is investigating the emergency response to the plane crashes at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pa.

Improving reaction

The goal, Farmer said, is to find lessons that will improve the reaction to future attacks, should they come.

The commission has until May to report on topics including intelligence, diplomacy, aviation and the flow of assets to terror organizations. Even as he focuses on his task force, Shaeffer immerses himself in the full scope of the inquiry.

He watched from the audience, quietly and intently, as the commission held a two-day hearing last month on aviation security. The office in his Virginia home, a few miles from the now-repaired Pentagon, includes a shelf of books he has read, including "Report from Ground Zero," "Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why" and "Inside Al Qaeda."

"Being a survivor," he said, "I'm trying to learn every lesson I can."

Other commission staffers also suffered personally on Sept. 11. Elinore Hartz, a liaison to victim families, lost her husband at the World Trade Center. John Azzarello, a former federal prosecutor working as a commission counsel, lost two brothers-in-law.

Thomas Kean, appointed commission chairman by President Bush, said he and other commissioners debated whether to hire people with personal ties to Sept. 11.

Kean said the commission determined it would be open to hiring all but the most active of victim advocates. "To have some of the passion that these people bring to our inquiry is helpful, not harmful," said Kean, a former New Jersey governor.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Shaeffer was at his desk near the center of the Navy Command Center, on the west side of the Pentagon. There, officers monitored events around the globe, around the clock, with the help of giant television screens.

"Just like the millions of people around the world, we were watching the attacks unfold in New York City," said Shaeffer, who served on the staff of the chief of naval operations. "I just couldn't stop watching the television. Never did I or anyone else in the space have any sense of the impending danger. I mean, I was in the safest office building in the world."

American Flight 77, seized by hijackers after its takeoff from Washington Dulles International Airport, slammed into the Pentagon shortly before 9:40 a.m., tearing into the command center.

All told, the crash killed 125 in the Pentagon, plus the plane's 59 passengers and crew and five hijackers.

Shaeffer had serious burns over 42 percent of his body and severe respiratory injuries from inhaling jet fuel.

"I consider it a miracle I survived that initial blast," he said. "I also consider it a miracle I stayed conscious and didn't pass out, because had I done so, I don't think I would have made it out."

Shaeffer said he has struggled to find a reason why he survived and others did not. The commission's work may provide an answer.

The attacks, he said, "gave a totally unexpected purpose to my life."

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On the Net: National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States:

http://www.9-11commission.gov