Senior executives reflect on Sept. 11 experiences

Teamwork helped federal employees respond to last year's terrorist attacks, career executives told members of the Senior Executives Association Tuesday.

"Even though so much of this had not been practiced, the traditional hierarchies broke down," said Stephen Browning, director of military and technical services for the Army Corps of Engineers. Browning spent weeks helping with the cleanup at ground zero in New York, reporting back to work on Sept. 12 and working more than 16 hours a day.

Browning and two other senior executives recounted their Sept. 11 experiences during a forum sponsored by the Senior Executives Association at the Naval Heritage Center in Washington. The event honored civil service employees killed and injured by the terrorist attacks.

"We were confronted with unprecedented problems, but the typical response-we need to study it, we need a committee-none of this happened," Browning said. "Hope was the only method we had there. We depended on the incredible selflessness of public servants to help us do this."

Browning said he learned some important lessons from his Sept. 11 experience: professional responsibility needs to cut across bureaucratic lines, first responders did not have the training needed to respond to manmade disasters and communication methods were inadequate. Although employees worked together in responding to the crisis, Browning said federal agencies have yet to really address many of the problems that came to light in the aftermath of the attacks.

"The U.S. military learned a lesson, but I don't think the federal community learned anything," Browning said. "I don't see any movement on that front."

Linda Schuessler, deputy program director for the Federal Aviation Administration, was in charge of getting hundreds of airplanes out of the sky following the terrorist attacks.

"The controllers in the command center put America first that day," Schuessler said. "I think we learned that teamwork is important. I think we found a new belief in our mission."

One year ago, Peter Murphy, counsel to the commandant of the Marine Corps, was looking out his Pentagon window, when a big explosion threw him across his office. A hijacked American Airlines airliner had crashed into the building. While he gathered his wits, the ceiling began falling down and the floor began to buckle. Thick black smoke quickly began to fill the room. Murphy and five of his staff members managed to find their way out, but his brand new office in Wedge I had been destroyed. Despite his harrowing experience, Murphy returned to work on Sept. 12.

"I still look out the window sometimes to see if something is coming," Murphy said. "We try and avoid the thought of the Pentagon being a recurring target." Murphy said the safety measures built into the newly renovated part of the Pentagon-shatter-proof windows, reinforced concrete walls-had saved his life.

Office of Personnel Management Director Kay Coles James praised senior executives after listening to Schuessler, Browning and Murphy recount their stories. "Thank God for the Senior Executive Service," she said.

"Thank God there were senior professionals like these and others who were in place in these agencies and who don't come and go with administrations, who know their jobs and perform them well and were able to perform them on Sept. 11," said James, who relied heavily on the advice of senior executives that day.