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<item xmlns="http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5" itemId="19318" public="1" featured="0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5 http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5/omeka-xml-5-0.xsd" uri="https://www.911digitalarchive.org/items/show/19318?output=omeka-xml" accessDate="2026-04-20T11:09:15-04:00">
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        <description>The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.</description>
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          <element elementId="50">
            <name>Title</name>
            <description>A name given to the resource</description>
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              <elementText elementTextId="54151">
                <text>September 11 Digital Archive Stories</text>
              </elementText>
            </elementTextContainer>
          </element>
          <element elementId="41">
            <name>Description</name>
            <description>An account of the resource</description>
            <elementTextContainer>
              <elementText elementTextId="54152">
                <text>This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. </text>
              </elementText>
            </elementTextContainer>
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        </elementContainer>
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  <itemType itemTypeId="25">
    <name>911DA Story</name>
    <description/>
    <elementContainer>
      <element elementId="98">
        <name>911DA Story: Story</name>
        <description>Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story:</description>
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            <text>I used to work for the Defense Department.  On 9/11/01, I was in the Pentagon cafeteria getting coffee when I heard people talking about a plane crash in New York City, and it sounded like a terrible accident.  I left the cafeteria and ran into an Army sargeant that I knew well and he told me "World Trade Center... both towers... one plane each."  I ran up to my boss' office in the "E-ring" and walked in to find two of my colleagues watching the breaking news on TV, with the Trade Towers on fire.  We knew who must have done this.

As we watched, it occurred to me that the day might not be over, since we knew that Al Qaeda often liked to try simultaneous strikes in different locations.  As my thoughts were swirling in my head and I began to focus on the fact that we were probably already in a War on Terrorism, I felt the building shake.  We called it the "thud" on the side of the building where I was (nearly the complete opposite side of the building from the impact).  I knew we had been hit.  My colleagues spent the next couple of minutes in denial, until the TV broke away from the story in New York, to show our building with thick, oily black smoke pouring from it.  The mental loop went through our heads over and over, a surreal disconnect of realization that we were actually in the building that was now on the news around the world.

After another minute or two, people began shouting in the hallway.  We had been hit.  By what, we did not know, but most assumed that it was another airplane.  Could there be more?  We filed outside and the alarms were sounding.  Standing on the parade ground, I turned around to see the black cloud I had seen moments earlier on the television.  Wondering what might be next, we heard the Defense Protective Service police shouting for us to get away from the building -- another plane was coming.  I made it to my car and drove up the George Washington Parkway, finally getting home a few hours later, after stopping at a payphone to convince the operator to put me through to my parents in Boston.

On 9/12, no one returned to their office at the World Trade Center.  We returned to a Pentagon still on fire at 7am, to continue the fight.  My office reeked of jet fuel.  We did not yet know that we would be facing a war on many fronts or that anthrax would further scare the nation a month later.  And, two years on, we have a long, long way to go.

We will never forget.</text>
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      <description>The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.</description>
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        <element elementId="50">
          <name>Title</name>
          <description>A name given to the resource</description>
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            <elementText elementTextId="244547">
              <text>story9479.xml</text>
            </elementText>
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    <elementSet elementSetId="4">
      <name>911DA Item</name>
      <description>Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item.</description>
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        <element elementId="52">
          <name>Status</name>
          <description>The process status of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="244548">
              <text>approved</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="53">
          <name>Consent</name>
          <description>Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="244549">
              <text>full</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="54">
          <name>Posting</name>
          <description>Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="244550">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="55">
          <name>Copyright</name>
          <description>Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="244551">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="56">
          <name>Source</name>
          <description>The source of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="244552">
              <text>born-digital</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="57">
          <name>Media Type</name>
          <description>The media type of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="244553">
              <text>story</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="59">
          <name>Created by Author</name>
          <description>Whether the author created this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="244554">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="60">
          <name>Described by Author</name>
          <description>Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="244555">
              <text>no</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="61">
          <name>Date Entered</name>
          <description>The date this item was entered into the archive.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="244556">
              <text>2003-09-06</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="62">
          <name>IP Address</name>
          <description>The IP address of the device used to submit the item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="244557">
              <text>207.172.83.182</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
      </elementContainer>
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