9-11: AA 77 and the Pentagon; a Personal Comment

There is in the blogosphere a mythology that denies the reality that AA 77 struck the Pentagon.  That mythology is based on speculation, innuendo, and, most of all, wishful thinking.

The supporting methodology is an intellectually dishonest and analytical unsupportable notion that snippets of information out of context can be extrapolated to a larger whole that does not exist.  Those who perpetrate and perpetuate the mythology are engaged in a self-serving exercise in futility.

Those who attempt to argue against the mythology are also engaged in an exercise in futility; they are in a ‘do-loop’ of repeated, near incessant, psuedo-science that replicates itself at repeated intervals.  There is no progess in the argument and little progess in the counter-argument.

My Position

I accept the “Pentagon Building Performance Report,” a January 2003 report sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Structural Engineering Institute (added Jan 25, 2010), as definitive.  I also accept the work of Creed and Newman in Firefight to Save the Pentagon as a valuable addition to our understanding of the event and its aftermath.

I am an eyewitness to the immediate aftermath of the Pentagon attack as I wrote in one of my first articles on this website.  There is no question in my mind that the event was anything other than a terrorist attack using a plane, AA 77, as a weapon. (Edited Mar 1, 2010)  All evidence points to only one conclusion:  the strike on the Pentagon was perpetrated by terrorists, who used a plane, AA 77, as a weapon.

I am a former member of ASCE; I hold a professional engineering degree, GeolE, from the Colorado School of Mines, and joined ASCE as an undergraduate.  I understand the professional vetting that goes into an article such as the ASCE-sponsored building performance report.  The ASCE findings are comprehensive, compelling, and conclusive.  They are incorporated into the design of the Pentagon Memorial.

The Pentagon Memorial

If for any reason you are engaged in the blogosphere point/counter-point discussion about AA 77 and the Pentagon you owe yourself a visit to the Pentagon Memorial.  Sit on the bench of the youngest victim and answer for yourself  any questions you might have.