As lucky as Otter Six is, I never thought that this would happen. We were granted access into the Department of Defense’s Headquarters: The Pentagon. This five sided, five above ground floors, five ring corridor building spans a 33.8 acres, which includes the central courtyard. The extensive escalators, elevators, and building format allows a person to dash across to the opposite side of the Pentagon in only seven minutes. While touring, we observed the Pentagon’s 9/11 memorial and reflection rooms. In addition, several museum-like hallways honoring each of the branches of military, over 20 dining operations (including Starbucks, Subway, and Dunkin Donuts), and even a Red Box movie rental room. At least 23,000 military and civilian employees work there on a daily basis. It is the size of a small city, and is fully self-contained.
Harmony: It was a lot more interesting than I had anticipated. I feel like there’s so much history to learn and I wasn't able to really absorb all of it. I would love to see it again at a slower pace.
Brandi Rae: The most memorable part of touring the Pentagon was the 9/11 Memorial room listing over a hundred names of those who died in the building when the plane crashed. The tour guides pointed out several names, including the youngest victims who were children. He also explained that due to construction that was taking place at the time, there were extra reinforcements on the side of the building which was hit. If the plane had hit any other side or those reinforcements were not up, thousands of people would have died. That was a part of the story I did not know, and I found it very shocking.
Jessica: I really appreciated that we were able to spend time in the 9/11 Memorial. As a New Yorker, it is sometimes hard to remember that there were other tragic events that took place that day, because the pain of the Twin Towers attack was so strong and so close to home. The pride that the construction workers took in rebuilding the damaged sections of the Pentagon was something to be admired.
Eduardo: The Pentagon left me with a curiosity and awe in regards to how an entire subculture can exist within one building. I was also fascinated by the building’s structure and design and how large and vast it actually is.
Shane: I had always wanted to go into the Pentagon. My father has been in the military for twenty-six years and it is amazing to me that everything defense related came out of what I imagined to be a small building. I was wrong. This is a building that can fit 118 White House’s inside of it, or so the tour guide said. The amount of things indie the building was mind blowing; there are banks, and jewelers, and restaurants and much more.
Courtney: I found the pentagon tour far too quick for all of the information it held, the walls were so detailed in pictures and descriptions I’m sure I could have spent an entire day or more reading them.
Grace: The Pentagon was not what I expected. It felt too much like a mall. I wish that the tour wasn’t so rushed and we had more time to experience the building. I did enjoy that a little more time was spent in the 9/11 memorial room, which was nice place to pause and reflect.
Kendra: To me the Pentagon Tour seemed very touristy. It was a mix of a museum and a mall and while it was fairly interesting on that level, when I think of the Pentagon, the home of some of our nation’s most important people and information, I expect much more.
Greg: I felt that the Pentagon tour missed a lot of opportunities to go deeper into the history of the military than just random facts and numbers.
Want to see the Pentagon for yourself? Here's the link for Pentagon Tours:
https://pentagontours.osd.mil/tour-selection.jsp
|