Remembering 9/11 at DAR Headquarters, 25 Years Later
DAR staff recounted how surreal and eerie it felt in Washington, D.C., on the day of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil.
By Samantha Chery
Lighted benches serve as a memorial in Arlington, Virginia, honoring those killed at the Pentagon during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. iStock
On September 11, 2001, the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was in the midst of transformation.
The late President General Linda Tinker Watkins, a businesswoman by trade and the recently elected leader of the organization, was hard at work ushering the more than a century-old group into the digital age. She worked to overhaul the DAR with new technology, security systems, and communication practices, her daughter, April Watkins Barrett, also a member of NSDAR, said. But on 9/11, DAR workers were shaken up by another wind of change, one that would alter the patriotic group—and the nation it was committed to serve—forever.
What started as a peaceful, sunny day was ravaged by a terrorist attack that rattled the country, threatened the safety of DAR’s national headquarters and priceless artifacts, and forced the organization to put emergency plans into action.
Terrorists hijacked four commercial planes with the intent to attack prominent U.S. landmarks. In doing so, they killed themselves and nearly 3,000 people—including all the passengers and crew aboard the planes, businesspeople, military personnel, and first responders. It all started when a plane hit the World Trade Center’s North Tower in New York City at 8:46 a.m.
Barrett, a news junkie and DAR’s public relations director at the time, was listening to the morning news on the radio while getting ready for the day when she heard of the crash.
“I thought, ‘Oh, that’s awful,’” she said. “But I was thinking it was a little plane at this point.”
Several DAR staff members had already started their workdays at DAR Headquarters when they heard what happened. Anne Ruta, a DAR Museum collections manager, arrived at HQ around 8:30 that morning during her first week back from parental leave. She and two of her coworkers were listening to classical and easy listening music on the radio when the music was interrupted by breaking news about the North Tower. Because of the scarce details from the report, Ruta assumed a small, malfunctioning plane was the culprit. The jazz music continued to play.
President General Linda Tinker Watkins and daughter April Watkins Barrett during the Watkins Administration (2001–2004). Photo courtesy of April Watkins Barrett
April Watkins Barrett photographed at a recent DAR event. Photo courtesy of April Watkins Barrett
Anne Ruta
DAR Museum Collections Manager
Photo by Samantha Chery
Larry Walker
DAR Director of Security
Photo by Samantha Chery
Patrick Sheary
DAR Curator of Furnishings and Manager of Historic Preservation
Photo by Samantha Chery
"GET YOUR PEOPLE OUT ... NOW"
Then, at 9:03 a.m., a second plane crashed into the South Tower. Suddenly, the message became unmistakable: This was no accident.
Barrett had a sinking feeling. “I said, ‘Let’s get going, because there’s stuff going on in New York today. A plane has hit the Trade Towers,’” Barrett told her mother and their two guests. “No sooner than I said those words, the TV that was on downstairs announced a second plane had hit the other Trade Tower. And I looked at my mother, and I said, ‘This is an attack. Something’s wrong. We’ve got to get to the headquarters.’”
They raced from Massachusetts Avenue to the DAR building downtown. As they arrived, Watkins asked for DAR Director of Security Larry Walker to meet her in her office. Department heads began flocking to the President General’s door to figure out what they should do. Then, even more chaos ensued. An explosive blast shook the building’s glass windows, and the screams of terrified people erupted, Barrett said.
Watkins and Walker had to put their emergency protocols into high gear. Watkins instructed the department leaders to secure their staff, close windows, and start storing the DAR’s most valuable artifacts into a basement vault. As she called orders from inside, she sent Barrett and Walker outside to the roof to inspect the building for possible damage.
When the two made it to the roof, they saw billows of smoke and flames rising across the river. Another hijacked plane had hit the Pentagon in Northern Virginia at 9:37 a.m. Unbeknownst to them, the loud boom they heard earlier was the sound of unarmed F-16 fighter jets taking off from Joint Base Andrews to try to intercept the fourth plane.
“We’re evacuating the White House,” a Secret Service agent told Walker through his walkie-talkie in an uncharacteristically panicked voice. “Get your people out of that building right now. Run!”
Barrett and Walker raced across the DAR Library and various offices, shouting for everyone to evacuate the building immediately.
“Our building looks so much like the White House,’” Walker said. “You never know if we are going to be a target.”
Walker’s instincts were right. The last hijacked plane was headed to Washington, D.C., and terrorists intended to target either the U.S. Capitol or the White House, according to the 9/11 Commission Report. It would have proven disastrous for the DAR. The DAR Headquarters, situated just two blocks from the White House, resembles the president’s residence so closely that popular productions set there, including The West Wing, Salt, and Veep, have often filmed episodes at the DAR.
Instead of D.C., the fourth plane crash-landed in a Pennsylvania field at 10:02 a.m. after passengers learned of the suicide mission and diverted it.
Pentagon employees gather in the South Parking Lot area following the September 11, 2001 attack. Photo donated by the Crane Group, Pentagon 9/11 Collection, Navy Archives, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, D.C. Public domain.
Fire crews work to put out the flames minutes after the attack on the Pentagon. Photo by Cpl Jason Ingersoll, USMC, Navy Archives, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, D.C. Public domain.
Pentagon employees walk away from the building along VA-27 S Washington Blvd following the attack. Photo by JO1 Mark Faram, USNR. Pentagon 9/11 Collection, Navy Archives, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, D.C. Public domain.
Fort Meade aerial view of the damage to the Pentagon following the 9/11 attack. Photo by NSA. Public domain.
“Our building looks so much like the White House,” Walker said. “You never know if we are going to be a target.”
Walker’s instincts were right. The last hijacked plane was headed to Washington, D.C., and terrorists intended to target either the U.S. Capitol or the White House, according to the 9/11 Commission Report. It would have proven disastrous for the DAR.
A piece of aircraft lies in the grass while fire crews work to put out the flames in the minutes after the attack, September 11, 2001. Photo taken by JO1 Mark Faram, USNR; NHC Pentagon 9/11 Collection, Navy Archives, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, D.C. Public Domain.
But without the reliance on smartphones, 24/7 news, and emails to which Americans are accustomed in 2026, many of the DAR employees in 2001 were largely unaware of the immense danger they could have faced in the building.
Patrick Sheary, Curator of Furnishings and Manager of Historic Preservation, woke up late that morning and didn’t have time to catch the news on TV. On his usual walk to work, he heard sirens, saw sidewalks crowded with people, and noticed a plume of smoke peeking above the buildings. But he thought it was from a downtown office fire. “I had no clue what was going on at all,” he said.
MAKING THE TREK HOME TO SAFETY
Eventually, the DAR staff joined an exodus of thousands of D.C. workers who headed home on foot after the metro and bus systems had shut down. Ruta spent the day with her sister who lived nearby. Others had more complicated commutes home that day.
New Mexico DAR State Registrar Constance Joy, then a staff genealogist, had taken a bus, ridden the Metro, and walked 20 minutes to commute into work from Chevy Chase, Maryland.
“Fortunately, I had tennis shoes because I lived out in Bethesda, and it was a 7-mile walk,” Joy said. “A bunch of people that all lived in Bethesda—we were about four or five gals, some of us had tennis shoes and some of us didn’t—started walking.”
As they made the trek, Joy said she remembered some entrepreneurial-minded men had “set up tennis shoe stands on the sidewalk and TVs so we could watch as we were walking.”
Some older visitors couldn’t leave immediately because they couldn’t walk far enough. Others were too panicked and shocked to leave. So Watkins corralled them into her office, giving them food and drinks from her kitchenette and remaining with them until the last guest was able to leave. Then Watkins and Barrett were dropped off in a military vehicle around 3 p.m.
“When we left that afternoon, there was nobody on the street in D.C. There were no cars, no taxis, no buses, no people walking. There was nobody,” Barrett said. “It was the eeriest feeling.”
Walker left the building around 5 or 6 that evening. A D.C. native who has spent nearly 50 years as a security officer for the DAR, said he “had never seen Washington, D.C., look so empty” and compared it to the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.
The amount of financial and staffing resources necessary to keep the DAR safe largely goes unnoticed, he said. But he’s grateful to the Daughters and Presidents General over the years who have wholeheartedly supported his efforts to continue keeping the DAR Headquarters free from harm.
“I love what I do,” he said. “I’m a human being who cares about other people’s well-being.”
He said sending everyone home on 9/11 felt like the right thing to do, and he has stood by his decision. “It’s what came to mind,” Walker said. “Get them out of this building, no matter what we have to do. Get them out. Get them home to their families.” P
DAR chapters commemorate 9/11 through civic engagement
Sally Holcombe remembers the horror she felt after learning a second plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. She gets chills thinking of how President George W. Bush tried to keep his composure in a Florida elementary school after he was told the U.S. was under attack. But what also stays in Holcombe’s mind from that day was how the nation came together to support one another in the aftermath. Candlelight vigils honored 9/11 victims, community members brought food and messages of encouragement to local police officers and firefighters, and cities built monuments to ensure 9/11 would forever be etched into Americans’ collective consciousness.
“It’s one of those things that happens in our lives that we never forget,” Holcombe said.
As the DAR’s national vice chair for Commemorative Events and the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Holcombe gets to see unity in difficult times displayed once again. To coincide with 25 years since September 11, 2001, and the DAR’s founding day, October 11, President General Ginnie Sebastian Storage has established September 11 to October 11 as the DAR’s month of service. During this month, chapters are encouraged to participate in service projects of their choice.
There are countless ways chapters of all sizes and locations can serve in their communities. One chapter hosted a brunch at a local veterans facility, and a group of women visited the National 9/11 Museum and Memorial in New York, Holcombe said. Holcombe donated a DAR 9/11 flag to her local police chief. Other potential projects include bringing gifts to fire stations, placing wreaths at the gravesites of victims, or creating educational PowerPoint presentations.
“The main thing is to remember those who served so intensely as well as the victims,” she said.
Groups can combine efforts with other DAR chapters or service organizations. The Daughters Online Community gives Daughters access to a list of resources, including books about 9/11 that are suitable for children. The organization 9/11 Day, online at www.911day.org, highlights volunteer opportunities happening across the country. This year, the nonprofit aims to pack 20 million meals for families in need.
“The possibilities now that our President General has created this month of service are just huge,” Holcombe said. “I just am going to be overwhelmed with the creativity on how [chapters] are going to commemorate this.”
Chapters can write reports and send photos from their service projects to their local vice chairs to be entered into the DAR’s Commemorative Events contest. Winners will be awarded at next year’s Continental Congress.
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2026
