McMahon Recounts Pentagon Experience on 9/11/01

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Retired Maj. Gen. Robert McMahon, who just recently relinquished command at Robins Air Force Base, appeared on the 41NBC News at 6 and spoke to Andrew Reeser about his personal experience at the Pentagon the day of the attacks on 9/11.

McMahon says he was in the building when the American Airlines Flight 77 hit, and when 187 people perished in that location. Although he didn’t feel or hear the explosion, the lessons of that day had a tremendous impact on him.

“It was the first time in my life I felt prejudice…that someone did something to me not for who I am, but for what I am–an American,” McMahon told 41NBC.

He recalls the scene: billowing smoke, injured people helping each other to safety, and, surprisingly, order when he says “all hell broke loose.” 

Before the plane hit, Pentagon officials, along with McMahon, were watching what was happening in New York, when they were ordered to evacuate the building. “There was a very orderly movement out of the Pentagon,” he recalls, “Those that seemed to be bothered by it, those that were crying, someone helped them; it was much like we saw across our nation, people pulling together.”

McMahon recalls the mixture of emotions on that fateful day in 2001. “We were angry, we were sad, but at the same time we were tremendously proud as we watched people respond the way we would have hoped they would,” says McMahon.