9/11 survivor recalls Pentagon attack

Survivors and relatives of the victims killed in the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon attended a memorial ceremony on Friday morning.

One of those survivors is Traci Williams, a Dallas woman who told her story of survival for the very first time to FOX 4.

Fourteen years ago, she was part of a Department of Defense team on a project called Territorial Security.

“This was the precursor to Homeland Security,” she said. “No one knew about this office standing up.”

Then, two planes plowed into New York's World Trade Center towers, and passengers took a third plane down over Pennsylvania as they struggled with hijackers.

“My office was directed to start preparing for a 24-hour center and prepare for emergency mode for the Pentagon,” she said.

Then, Flight 77 hit the Pentagon.

“I told my colleagues who were two Marines, I said, “This is not normal. I’m a civilian, but something’s wrong here,’” she said.

Williams was in a conference room with two Marines at ground zero.

“Things were coming into the window that were letting us know that we were in trouble,” said Williams.

Williams says the attack shook her very foundations.

“I lost trust and faith in people and systems and sometimes God, but I’ve come, I’ve realized I’ve come back to my foundations,” Williams said.

Williams returned to the Pentagon in 2011, the 10th anniversary marking the attack.

This year, fourteen years after 9/11, she took a picture with Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.

Williams says doesn’t want survivors of the Pentagon attack to be forgotten

“They don’t consider the people who walked out, the trauma, that we were able to use…the strength that we were able to use to get out of that particular situation and to run and to keep our faculties about us,” she said.

Williams left Washington, D.C. and returned to Dallas after the attack. She has not returned to Department of Defense work.