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knoll with Walters and with colleagues Mike Tederick and Mike Lawn. “And you could see the smoke from the Pentagon,” said McKinney, “where the plane had hit. It seemed like hours, but was only minutes when we saw the first fighter jet go by. And then we saw what they call a military observation plane, which has radar and different things on it, but it’s an unmarked plane, and it flew over the White House and made a steep climb just above the White House. I kind of had a feeling, I think all of us did out there, not knowing if that was indeed going to be it. We kind of looked at each other in what I would call a dead stare, because at that particular moment, you think of a million things—family, loved ones—but you never stop to think about the person that’s immediately with you. When something like this happens and you’re unsure, and you can look at someone you’ve worked with—and I’ve worked here twenty-one years—you can look at someone and see in their eyes the same thing that you feel and you know the severity of the situation.”
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