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Workers Return to Rebuilt Offices in Pentagon

By a Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, August 15, 2002; 2:42 PM

The first Pentagon workers began returning to offices destroyed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack today as about two dozen Marine Corps employees moved back into their old spaces.

By Sept. 11, when a memorial service attended by President Bush is to be held, Pentagon officials expect to make good on their promise to have 600 people working in the outer E-ring section where the plane hit.

Movers in blue T-shirts wheeled in boxes and furniture this morning. In the hallway, workers were adjusting fluorescent lights, and other stood by waiting to hook up computers and telephones.

Some admitted to mixed feelings about moving back to an area where 125 of their colleagues were killed, as well as all 64 people aboard the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77.

"There's a general feeling of unease, but nothing that's overwhelming anyone," said Sgt. Timothy Garofola, an administrative clerk.

"There was some apprehension," Peter M. Murphy, counsel for the Commandant of the Marine Corps. "Not whether we should, but in the emotional sense of the people who died here who don't get to come back. It's a reminder of that. But at the same time, all of us felt it was important to come back and carry on, the idea that we aren't going to have our future dictated by terrorists."

It was from Murphy's office, hanging on an abyss after portions of the Pentagon collapsed, that workers rescued a Marine Corps flag that was still standing after the attack.

© 2002 The Washington Post Company