The Pentagon — Symbol of Continual War

The Pentagon — U.S. Military Headquarters

(Photo: Ken Hammond/defenselink.mil).

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed”

                                                                     — Dwight Eisenhower — Supreme Allied Commander

Eisenhower, a military man at the highest level — had warned us.

In President Eisenhower’s farewell address, he cautioned us:

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.  The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.[i]

Eisenhower was frustrated with the inability to control the Department of Defense (DoD), and the revolving door that existed between the personnel of the Pentagon and the defense contractors.  He also realized how the media could shape our image of war (Pearl Harbor effect).  This powerful combination of the defense industry with the media’s ability to control how people will perceive/react to a “catastrophic and catalyzing event” — would have immense consequence to humankind.

Eisenhower addressing Congress

(Photo: The Bettmann Archive).

Could only another war save the Pentagon?

It had been proposed that the “small city” — be slated for a warehouse to store records after World War II.  Who would have thought that after the second Great War — the United States would still need the massive facility.  The war was over, right?  But as long as great profits could be extolled by world arms-financiers, there would be no end to war.  Thus, we moved from World War II, to the “Red Scare”, and now to the current “War on Terror”.  The Pentagon would be the symbol of this new military-industrial complex and there would be no turning back…

Imagine what President Eisenhower would think today — if he saw the massive spending, and corruption surrounding our military establishment.  They were totally unchecked for more than 40 years.  But even worse than Eisenhower had predicted, this military-industrial complex found itself in cahoots with other clandestine agencies, like the CIA.  They, along with powerful world financiers and corrupt politicians, would orchestrate and carryout treasonous incomprehensible actions against the American people — mostly for personal wealth.

“It’s not a matter of whether the war is not real, or if it is, Victory is not possible.  The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. …  The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory…”

 — George Orwell, author of 1984

Pentagon Construction

By the summer of 1941, the War Department work force in the Washington, D.C. area numbered more than 24,000 civilian and military personnel housed in 17 buildings and was expected to reach 30,000 by 1942, struggling to cope with the vast mobilization underway before the United States entered World War II.[ii] All they were lacking was the “catalyzing event” — that would soon come in December of that year.

General Somervell, an engineering officer who headed the construction division, proposed to his staff, to design an office building to house 40,000 workers with four million square feet of space.  Days later, after the War Department approved the building’s basic concept — Congress and the president moved quickly to appropriate $35 million in funding for the construction of the proposed War Department headquarters.⁴

Architectural design proceeded swiftly.  Architects, Bergstrom and Witmer, developed plans for a unique reinforced concrete building in which the upper 3 floors would consist of five concentric pentagons separated by light wells and connected by radiating spoke-like corridors.  It would have five stories and include a six-acre interior court.⁴

Construction commenced on 11 September 1941, and the building was completed by 15 January 1943.  It was completed in an astounding 16 months.  Like all government projects, the final cost was nearly three times higher than first estimates — $83 million!⁴

It is very telling; that no one believed there would be a need for 40,000 defense department workers after the War.  That was because no one foresaw that war was soon to become a way of life — in one form or another, for Americans.

Pentagon construction (Photo: Army Corp of Engineers).

Construction Details

The Pentagon was built of cast-in-place reinforced concrete, and the floors consisted of a slab, beam, and girder system supported by ingenious spiral-steel-reinforced columns.  The columns have both spiral and long-run steel reinforcement, while the beams only have long-run reinforcement.  Because of WWII steel shortages, reinforced concrete was used instead of steel in most of the building’s structure.⁶  (See Appendix for more Pentagon maps and construction details.)

Detail of a column showing the spiral reinforcing

(Photo: Army Corp of Engineers).

The Pentagon Renovation Project

In 1993, the Clinton administration decided to upgrade the Pentagon, due in part to the growing concern over terrorist attacks.  Upgrades included heavy duty fireproofing in the walls, thus reinforced the walls, and improved its general security.  The renovation strategy called for dividing the work into five “wedges”, each wedge is a corner and a rectangle of the building  (each covers 1.2 million square feet).  The first wedge renovated was the one facing west (Wedge 1).

Wedge 1, was completely vacated by January 1999 and more than 5,000 personnel were relocated to leased office space or elsewhere in the Pentagon.  Demolition was completed by mid-1999.  Tenants were moving back into the wedge as early as the summer of 2000.  Construction in Wedge I was essentially completed in December 2000.[iii]

The renovation work involved the demolition and removal of everything but the basic structural system.  All electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems were replaced and a modernized telecommunication infrastructure was installed.  Elevators were also to be installed.[iv]

Among the improvements made to Wedge 1, were blast resistant windows and brick backup walls behind the building’s limestone outer facade.  Upgrades to inner walls, consisted of installing a metal fabric mesh.  This mesh was designed specifically to contain debris fragments in the event of a blast.⁶

The first tenants began to move into the renovated office space of Wedge 1 in February 2001.  The majority of the new occupants will come from Wedge 2.  Approximately 5,000 people will be moved into Wedge 1 through phases.  The first move-in occurred in February 2001 and Wedge 1 was to be entirely occupied in early February 2003.[v] 

Where was everyone on September 11, 2001?  If Wedge 1 was being filled with Wedge 2 workers, as the Pentagon Renovation Program specified, then Wedge 1 and 2 should have had more than 5,000 workers between the two of them!  Actually there were more, since some workers were moving back into Wedge 1 from their temporary offices elsewhere.  Were Department of Defense (DoD) employees purposefully delayed from reentry into the finished Wedge 1?  Were they sent on assignments or given time off on that fateful day?  What about an exercise or evacuation drill?  Why were there only 124 deaths out of more than 5,000 workers?  (Outside of the Navy Command Center this number drops to 95.)  After the attack, 4,600 Pentagon workers had to be temporarily relocated.[vi]

Upper images show that tenets were reoccupying Wedge 1 in March 2001.  Lower image shows that Wedge 2 occupants were moving into Wedge 1

(Photo: Pentagon Renovation Project).