The Pentagon: A History Read online

  TITLE PAGE

  DEDICATION

  EPIGRAPH

  MAPS / ILLUSTRATIONS

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  PRELUDE

  PART I

  THE MAKING OF THE PENTAGON

  1 DYNAMITE IN A TIFFANY BOX

  2 THE SOMERVELL BLITZ

  3 DREAM BUILDING

  4 CARRYING L’ENFANT’S BANNER

  5 A FIRST-CLASS BATTLE

  6 HELL’S BOTTOM

  7 UNDER WAY

  8 THE VIEW FROM HIGH AND LOW

  9 THEY WOULDN’T DARE ATTACK PEARL HARBOR

  10 THE BIG PUSH

  11 THE PLANK WALKERS

  12 HELL-AN-GONE

  13 ONE OF THE WORST BLUNDERS OF THE WAR

  PHOTO INSERT I

  14 THE RACE TO MOVE IN THE HIGH COMMAND

  15 HEADQUARTERS FOR THE WAR

  16 WHAT TO DO WITH THE PENTAGON

  PART II

  THE REMAKING OF THE PENTAGON

  17 NO DECENT PEACE

  18 THE BATTLE OF THE PENTAGON

  19 THE REMAKING OF THE PENTAGON

  20 SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

  PHOTO INSERT II

  21 THE PHOENIX PROJECT

  EPILOGUE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  NOTES

  SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  PRAISE FOR THE PENTAGON

  COPYRIGHT

  TO MY PARENTS,

  DONALD AND JOAN VOGEL

  GO SIR, GALLOP, AND DON’T FORGET THAT THE WORLD WAS MADE IN SIX DAYS. YOU CAN ASK ME FOR ANYTHING YOU LIKE, EXCEPT TIME.

  —NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

  Map by Laris Karklis & Brenna Maloney

  Map showing Washington, D.C., Arlington County, Virginia, and environs in the summer of 1941.

  Map by Laris Karklis & Brenna Maloney

  Front Matter The Pentagon and environs, December 1942, U.S. Army map (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Office of History)

  Front Matter Map of Washington, D.C., in 1941 by Laris Karklis and Brenna Maloney

  Front Matter Pentagon timeline by Laris Karklis and Brenna Maloney

  Front Matter Irregular Pentagon sketch for early plot plan (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Office of History)

  Part 1 Photo of Somervell in 1941 by Harris & Ewing (The Washington Post photo archives)

  Chapter 1 Somervell as bricklayer cartoon © 1941 by The Washington Post, reprinted by permission

  Chapter 2 Stathes aerial perspective drawing (National Archives)

  Chapter 3 Original site map (National Archives)

  Chapter 4 FDR heaven cartoon © 1941 by The Washington Post, reprinted by permission

  Chapter 5 Pentagon overlay on 1878–79 map. Original map: G. M. Hopkins, Griffith Morgan. Philadelphia: G. M. Hopkins, 1879, c. 1878 (Library of Congress). Overlay: Daniel Koski-Karell, Technical Report: Historical and Archaeological Background Research of the GSA Pentagon Complex Project Area, 1986. (Office of the Secretary of Defense, Washington Historical Office)

  Chapter 6 Architects rendering, October 1941 (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Office of History)

  Chapter 7 Aerial photo with blimp. U.S. Army photo (Office of the Secretary of Defense, Washington Historical Office)

  Chapter 8 Aerial photo by Harry Goodwin, showing the Pentagon construction site right before Pearl Harbor © 1941 by The Washington Post, reprinted by permission

  Chapter 9 Field progress report, May 1942 (National Archives)

  Chapter 10 Soldiers in hallway, U.S. Army photo (Pentagon Library)

  Chapter 11 Popular Science schematic (Office of the Secretary of Defense, Washington Historical Office)

  Chapter 12 Capitol from Popular Mechanics © 1943 by The Hearst Corporation, reprinted by permission

  Chapter 13 Somervell and Stimson cartoon © 1944 by The Washington Post, reprinted by permission

  Chapter 14 Empire State Building graphic (Office of the Secretary of Defense, Washington Historical Office)

  Chapter 15 Pentagon tower drawing, U.S. Army (The Washington Post photo archives)

  Part 2 Rendering of Pentagon memorial (Pentagon Memorial Fund)

  Part 2 Officer in concourse showing Brazilian visitors model of the Pentagon, 1946 U.S. Army photo (The Washington Post photo archives)

  Chapter 17 Photo of marchers in front of Pentagon (The Washington Post photo archives)

  Chapter 18 Map of the march on the Pentagon by Mike Jenkins, Peter Jenkins, and Brad Goodwin

  Chapter 18 Pentagon renovation logo, the Pentagon Renovation and Construction program (PENREN)

  Chapter 19 The damaged Pentagon on September 11, 2001 (Department of Defense)

  Chapter 20 The plane’s path on 9/11, adapted by Michael Keegan from an original 2002 graphic by Doug Stevens and Brenna Maloney in The Washington Post, reprinted by permission

  Chapter 20 Aerial photo showing the Phoenix Project, Pentagon Renovation and Construction program (PENREN)

  Chapter 21 Rendering of Pentagon memorial (Pentagon Memorial Fund)

  PART I

  (Ranks and titles are primarily as of 1941)

  The Builders—Army

  Brigadier General Brehon B. Somervell, chief of the Army’s Construction Division, later commander of Army Services of Supply

  Colonel Leslie R. Groves, chief of operations and later deputy chief of Construction Division, later head of the Manhattan Project

  Lieutenant Colonel Hugh “Pat” Casey, chief of design for Construction Division

  Captain Clarence Renshaw, constructing quartermaster/engineer for the Pentagon project

  Lieutenant Robert Furman, executive officer for the Pentagon project

  The Builders—Contractors and Architects

  John McShain, chief contractor for the Pentagon project

  J. Paul Hauck, job superintendent for the Pentagon project

  G. Edwin Bergstrom, chief architect for the War Department

  David Witmer, chief assistant to Bergstrom, later his replacement

  Luther Leisenring, chief of the architects’ specifications section

  Ides van der Gracht, chief of production for the Pentagon design team

  Socrates Thomas “Red” Stathes, a draftsman

  Larry Lemmon, a draftsman

  The White House

  President Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Harry Hopkins, special adviser to FDR and former head of the Works Projects Administration

  Major General Edwin “Pa” Watson, the president’s military aide

  Harold Smith, director of the White House budget office

  Harold Ickes, secretary of the interior

  The War Department

  Henry L. Stimson, secretary of war

  General George C. Marshall, Army chief of staff

  Robert Patterson, under secretary of war

  John J. McCloy, assistant secretary of war

  Robert Lovett, assistant secretary of war for air

  William Hastie, civilian aide to Stimson

  Members of Congress

  Senator Harry S. Truman, Democrat of Missouri, chairman of Senate special committee investigating national defense; in April 1945 succeeded FDR as president

  Representative Clifton Woodrum, Democrat of Virginia, member of House Appropriations Committee

  Representative Merlin Hull, Progressive of Wisconsin

  Senator Carter Glass, Democrat of Virginia, chairman of Senate Appropriations Committee

  Representative Albert Engel, Republican of Michigan, member of House Military Appropriations subcommittee

  Civilian Commissioners and Staff

  Gilmore Clarke, chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts

  Frederic Delano, chai
rman of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission and uncle to the president

  William Delano, member of planning commission; friend of Somervell’s and distant cousin to Frederic Delano

  Hans Paul Caemmerer, secretary of the fine arts commission

  Jay Downer, highway consultant, associate of Clarke and Delano

  Paul Phillipe Cret, architect and member of fine arts commission

  Army Officers and Staff

  Colonel Ernest Graves, Corps of Engineers officer, mentor to Somervell and Groves

  Brigadier General Charles “Baldy” Hartman, Somervell’s predecessor as chief of construction

  Brigadier General Eugene Reybold, chief of supply, later chief engineer

  Major General Edmund Gregory, quartermaster general

  Major Garrison “Gar” Davidson, an aide to Groves and the former West Point football coach

  George Holmes, Somervell’s public relations man

  Captain Donald Antes, an aide to Groves

  Brigadier General Wilhelm B. “Fat” Styer, deputy to Somervell

  Brigadier General Alexander D. Surles, chief of the Bureau of Public Relations

  Colonel Thomas F. Farrell, executive officer to Groves

  Brigadier General Thomas M. Robins, Somervell’s replacement as chief of construction

  Brigadier General Dwight D. Eisenhower, chief of war plans; later Allied commander for landings in North Africa and Europe; Marshall’s successor as Army chief of staff

  Lieutenant General Henry H. (Hap) Arnold, commander of Army Air Forces

  Major Franklin Matthias, an aide to Groves

  Navy Department

  Henry Knox, secretary of the Navy

  Admiral Ernest King, commander in chief of the United States Fleet

  Workers

  Stanley “Joe” Nance Allan, a carpenter

  Donald Walker, a steelworker

  Hank Neighbors, a payroll witness

  The First Pentagon Employees (“The Plank Walkers”)

  Helen McShane Bailey, administrative assistant, Office of the Chief of Staff

  Marjorie Hanshaw, secretary, Ordnance Department supply section

  Opal Sheets, “Miss 10,000,” administrative assistant, Services of Supply

  Marian Bailey, a telephone operator and later supervisor

  Lucille Ramale, file clerk, Transportation Corps

  Henry Bennett, clerk, Ordnance Department

  Jimmy Harold, assistant engineer, Ordnance Department field service

  PART II

  The Early Cold War Years

  James Forrestal, secretary of defense,1947–49

  Louis Johnson, secretary of defense, 1949–50

  George C. Marshall, secretary of defense, 1950–51

  Clark Clifford, aide and later special counsel to President Harry Truman 1946–50; secretary of defense, 1968–1969

  Marx Leva, aide to Forrestal, Johnson and Marshall, 1947–51

  The Vietnam Years

  Robert McNamara, secretary of defense, 1961–1968

  General Harold K. Johnson, Army chief of staff, 1964–1968

  David McGiffert, under secretary of the Army, 1966–69

  Lieutenant Colonel Ernest Graves Jr., son of Ernest Graves and aide to the secretary of the Army, 1967–68

  Captain Phil Entrekin, commander of C Troop, 1st Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment at the Pentagon, 1967

  Abbie Hoffman, marcher at the Pentagon, cofounder of Youth International Party (Yippies)

  Norman Mailer, marcher at the Pentagon, author of The Armies of the Night

  Bill Ayers, marcher at the Pentagon, later member of Weather Underground

  Rita Campbell, custodial foreman for Pentagon’s fourth floor cleaning crew

  The Post-Vietnam Years

  Donald Rumsfeld, secretary of defense, 1975–77, 2001–2006

  Colin Powell, military assistant to secretary of defense Caspar Weinberger, 1983–86; chairman of the Joint Chiefs, 1989–93; secretary of state, 2001–05

  John Hamre, Department of Defense comptroller, 1993–97; deputy secretary of defense, 1997–99

  Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense, 2001–2005

  Pentagon Management

  David O. “Doc” Cooke, the “Mayor of the Pentagon”

  Steve Carter, building engineer; assistant building manager on 9/11

  John Jester, chief of Pentagon police force

  The Pentagon Renovation and Phoenix Project

  Lee Evey, chief of the Pentagon Renovation Program, 1997–2002

  Frank Probst, a communications contractor

  Les Hunkele, a renovation project manager

  Allyn Kilsheimer, structural engineer in charge of demolition and redesign for the Phoenix Project

  Stephen Ludden, a Phoenix Project construction foreman

  Inside the Pentagon on 9/11

  Lieutenant Kevin Shaeffer, action officer in the Navy Command Center

  Colonel Phil McNair, executive officer to the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel

  Paul Gonzales, office supervisor, Defense Intelligence Agency comptroller’s office

  Peter Murphy, counsel for the commandant of the Marine Corps

  Rescuers

  Alan Wallace, Pentagon heliport firefighter

  Lieutenant Colonel Paul “Ted” Anderson, Army congressional liaison office

  Captain Mike Smith, Arlington County Fire Department

  Assistant Chief Jim Schwartz, Arlington County Fire Department incident commander

  Early plot plan for a new War Department headquarters at Arlington Farm.

  A pentagon

  On a warm and rainy Thursday evening in July 1941, inside a War Department office in Washington, a small group of Army officers hastily assembled for a meeting and listened in disbelief to the secret plan outlined by their commander.

  The general spoke in the velvety southern accent of his native Arkansas, but at a cadence far too rapid to be called a drawl. He was not in uniform—Army policy kept officers in civilian clothes so as to disguise from Congress the burgeoning military population in Washington—but he cut an immaculate figure, with his trim build, combed-back graying hair, and neatly groomed mustache. Over the past eight months, the officers of the Army’s Construction Division had grown accustomed to bold and quick action from their chief. At age forty-nine, Brigadier General Brehon Burke Somervell had earned a reputation as a tough and “ruthless expediter.” Somervell, it was said, could spot red tape before it even turned pink. Now he turned his eyes—“the keenest, shrewdest, most piercing eyes one is likely to meet,” in the words of one observer—toward his chief of design, Lieutenant Colonel Hugh “Pat” Casey.

  “Pat, we’re going to build a new War Department Building, and we’re not going to build it in Washington,” Somervell said. “It’s going to be built over in Virginia.”

  The building Somervell wanted to create was too big to fit in Washington and would have to go across the Potomac River in Arlington. It would be far larger than all the great structures of the city, including the U.S. Capitol. It would surpass any office building in the world. Somervell wanted a headquarters big enough to hold forty thousand people, with parking for ten thousand cars. It would contain four million square feet of office space—twice as much as the Empire State Building. Yet it must be no more than four stories high—a tall building would obstruct views of Washington and require too much steel, which was urgently needed for battleships and weapons.

  The War Department would occupy the new headquarters within half a year, Somervell instructed. “We want 500,000 square feet ready in six months, and the whole thing ready in a year,” the general said.

  The War Department’s chief architect would immediately assemble the people and equipment needed for the job, Somervell said. “Now, don’t question his requirements,” the general told his staff. “That isn’t your job.” Somervell gave no written instructions. The project was moving too fast, and its details wer
e too sensitive. He ended the meeting with orders to have the general layout, basic design plans, and architectural perspectives for the building on his desk by 9 a.m. Monday.

  “That,” Casey later said, “was a big order.” Somervell’s engineers and architects were in for a long weekend.

  Washington was consumed by war anxiety. Three weeks earlier, Adolf Hitler, already in control of much of Europe, had launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union. The German army was already halfway to Moscow and had 300,000 Russian soldiers encircled around Smolensk. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, alarmed by Nazi gains, had declared a national emergency on May 27, triggering furious military preparations. The War Department in Washington was growing at an explosive rate, its 24,000 workers scattered in seventeen buildings around the area, including apartment buildings, warehouses, private homes, and several rented garages. Somervell’s own headquarters was nestled in a new five-story federal office building on Capitol Hill known as the Railroad Retirement Building; he and other Army commanders spent hours every day traveling from office to office.

  The dispersion of the War Department, inconvenient during peacetime, was unacceptable in a national emergency. General George C. Marshall, the Army chief of staff, racing to prepare the military for a conflict he believed the country could not avoid, needed a quick solution, and turned to Somervell, the Army’s chief of construction. Marshall pictured a complex of temporary buildings on one site. Somervell took the concept further, envisioning a single, huge headquarters to house the entire War Department. A powerful Virginia congressman signaled interest on July 17 in finding a solution to the War Department’s problem. Somervell launched the project that evening.

  Working around the clock over the weekend, Somervell’s staff brainstormed on a design. The restrictions were confounding, given the space they needed. The easiest solution, constructing a tall building, was out. They would have to spread out horizontally. But how? Pat Casey visualized a city of 40,000 people, not traveling by car, but instead moving by foot through one vast building. Casey and chief architect Edwin Bergstrom, working with harried assistants, toyed with different layouts. A square building that size—with the enormous interior distances to be covered—was too unwieldy, as was a rectangle. An octagon seemed too awkward. Finally, guided by the odd shape of the plot of land on which they hoped to build, they sketched a five-sided ring, curiously reminiscent of an old fortress: a pentagon.