Air Force vet's 9/11 Pentagon photos offer rare look at one of history's darkest days

ARLINGTON, Va. — An Air Force veteran who was arriving for work at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, captured more than 1,500 photos of the attack and its aftermath.

Mike Garcia's images offer a rare, ground-level look at one of the darkest days in American history.

Garcia, a member of an anti-terrorism unit, had his Nikon D1X camera with him when American Airlines Flight 77, hijacked by Al Qaeda terrorists, slammed into the building.

"So it came directly over the hotel and went down a straight line down behind us and just slammed into the building," Garcia said.

The then-41-year-old found himself just feet from the gaping hole left by the impact.

"We were right on it. I mean, I was like from here to my window that close. You can feel the flames. You can smell the smoke," he said.

WTVR via Mike Garcia

Garcia began securing and photographing the massive crime scene, documenting the Pentagon burning, pieces of the jetliner scattered across the landscape, and first responders risking their lives to battle the fire.

"People that said it was a missile, clearly this is not a missile. This is part of the plane," he said.

Among his images is a photo of a window where jet fuel had run down the inside of the building, melting the glass.

Another shows a fire truck stationed at the heliport that was destroyed in the attack and could not be used to fight the fire.

In the aftermath, Garcia and other service members entered the Pentagon searching for survivors.

"We weren't able to rescue anybody inside. There's nobody else to rescue. In that corridor and we went all the way down to as close as we could to the crash site itself," he said.

A fire chief halted a second trip inside, a decision that may have saved their lives.

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"There were 20 of us about to go in the building. He goes, 'Hey, I don't think the building is stable enough.' And we backed off. As soon as we backed off, the building collapsed," Garcia said.

Garcia and his team remained at the Pentagon every day from September through December.

His photos from that period include an image of President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on scene — with Garcia standing directly behind them.

WTVR via Mike Garcia

Shortly after the attacks, Garcia and his team traveled to New York City, where he was left speechless by what he saw at the still-smoldering World Trade Center.

"There was facades of the building up on a corner. And then just you can just see metal everywhere just sticking up out of the ground. The smell was ungodly," he said.

Most of Garcia's images from that day have never been released to the public. In the months that followed, he continued documenting the rebuilding of the Pentagon.

"Yes, that gave everybody some hope and just. You know, just rallied everybody. It was pretty awesome. It was just, it was a great moment," he said.

One of the two Nikons Garcia used on Sept. 11 now sits in the Smithsonian Institution.

The camera he still carries today has traveled with him to Antarctica, China, Easter Island, and across the globe.

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"I mean, without the camera, I wouldn't have captured anything. It would have just been all verbal. 'Hey, I saw this. I saw that.' With this, it's a picture is 1000 words, so it, it helped me document," he said.

On the 25th anniversary of the attacks approaches, Garcia said he worries about Americans losing sight of what happened that day, when 184 people lost their lives at the Pentagon.

"Anytime I see the building, I think about what happened that day, what we did, what everybody did collectively," he said. "To honor those that we lost and honor all those at all the crash sites that we lost and then. Just to show our resolve, we should not forget what happened."