When the attack on the World Trade Center occurred, the emergency response of New York firefighters, the New York Police Department, and countless others was the largest response to ever occur in the history of the United States. …show more content…
The initial response to the Pentagon attack was performed by the fire and emergency units from the Arlington County Fire Department (ACFD), the Fort Myer Fire Department, and the Metropolitan Airport Authority Fire Unit at Ronald Regan Airport (reference). The coordination for the Pentagon response was more complex than the World Trade Center attack, thus creating additional problems for responders at the scene.
When the Arlington County Fire Department (ACFD) established the incident command structure, the ACFD based their response efforts on the Incident Command System and Unified Command (reference). Additional units from the Department of Defense (DoD), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Urban Search and Rescue Task forces coordinated with the ACFD during the incident. There was a larger presence in the form of federal entities at the Pentagon attack oppose to the one that occurred at the World Trade …show more content…
At the Pentagon, security was a major issue from the beginning because the attack occurred on the headquarters and symbol of the United States Armed Forces (reference). In the first hour of the attack at the Pentagon, snipers were placed in position on the rooftops of nearby building to protect the response team, but there was an issue with the immediate control access to the scene after the attack.
At the World Trade Center attack, establishing a tighter security posture was even more infuriating to those at the scene because they had a larger area to manage. The size of the World Trade Center was three times the size of the Pentagon and within New York; there were more civilians to attend to at the scene too. Both response teams at the crash sites worked diligently to establish security once the threat was presumed over and commenced operations to the best of their ability on that dreadful day.
In conclusion, the attack on September 11, 2001 was a horrific and savage ordeal in U.S. history and it’s something many people will remember many years from now. The United States was vulnerable and not fully prepared for the attack, which took so many lives that day. The United States has learned from the tragedy and has proven this will never happen