By Lani Kass, PhD
STARRS Board of Advisors
I was on sabbatical at the Pentagon, working for then LTG John Abizaid, Director, J-5. In August 2001, as my year-long sabbatical was coming to an end, we were briefed by an IC team which has been working on “bringing the Taliban back into the family of nations”. I remember how far-fetched it seemed to me at the time—and how tragically misguided it would become just a few weeks later.
On 9/11, I was at the National War College (Ft McNair), preparing to give a lecture. I was going over my notes when my office mate, a USMC combat veteran, exclaimed: “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Lani you have to see this”. I walked into his room only to see the first plane hitting the WTC playing on a loop on his TV.
I said: “Bulldog, this can’t possibly be an accident”. Then the second plane hit. I was sure now. We were under attack. We stayed glued to the TV for a bit and, tired of the speculations, I bummed a cigarette (having quit for the 5th time a couple of years earlier), and stepped outside Roosevelt Hall.
Several colleagues and students soon gathered, bumming cigarettes too. At 09:37 the ground shook and a huge fire ball/plume of smoke rose from across the Anacostia. Someone said: “it must be National Airport.” I said: “no, I think it’s the Pentagon”. I run back to my office and tried to call Norm and our middle son, Lee. Both were in the Building. The lines were down. I tried again and again to no avail. I was somewhere between paralysis and sheer panic.
Fort McNair was put on lockdown, as rumors swirled about the State Department, the White House, and Congress being hit. A giant projection screen was placed on the lawn and everyone was just staring at the unforgettable images. We were locked in for hours.
The lockdown was finally lifted at 1700 and, still unable to reach anyone, I numbly drove home in horrendous traffic. Some bright-light decided to sent the entire federal government home at the same time. I tried calling Norm and Lee and failed—again and again.
I didn’t find out till late in the evening, as we all got safely home, that, as the most junior person on the Army Staff, our son was sent to pick up a classified package at Fort Belvoir. Nine of his office mates weren’t that fortunate. All perished. The Army Staff and the Navy Staff side of the Building was demolished. All the casualties were there.
Norm had a meeting in Crystal City—just across the highway. God was watching over us.
None of us slept that night. On Wednesday morning, we were all back at the Pentagon. I’ll never forget the gaping wound in the building’s side, the giant American flag unfurled over River Entrance and the horrific smell of fumes and burned jet fuel.
I remember smoking with several GO/FO’s among the smoldering ruins of the collapsed side—the easiest egress from the Joint Staff E-Ring. All of us were reformed smokers. I’ll remember their faces for ever. Angry. Determined. Composed. But mostly furious. Actions were planned quickly and efficiently. The code name will stay with me for ever: “CRUCIBLE”.
In late Oct, I returned to my teaching duties—still working every free hour and weekends at the Pentagon. I had 150 students who all wanted to get back to their units and into the fight. Having nothing but time and brain cells, we organized a Student Task Force and developed the first ever National Security Strategy for Combatting Terrorism. President G.W. Bush signed it out in May. I still have the pen.
The only change to our proposed strategy was the term we coined—“Pansurgency”—an Islamist insurgency of global proportions. Thus, we failed to name the enemy and galvanize the Nation around a single, clear objective—abolishing terrorism like we’ve abolished other evils.
The military went to war. The Nation went to the Mall. The rest is history.
STARRS Board of Advisors member Lani Kass, PhD served as Senior Vice President and Corporate Strategic Advisor for CACI International Inc and prior to that, as Senior Policy Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff where she was responsible for the high-level assessments and analyses supporting the creation and execution of integrated strategies, programs, and plans essential to America’s security. She is a recipient of the Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award.
Dr. Kass also served as the Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force (CSAF), Senior Mentor to USAF Project CHECKMATE, and Director of the Cyber Task Force.
Dr. Kass was the first woman to serve as Professor of Military Strategy and Operations at the National War College and has authored two books and 30 scholarly articles. She developed, directed, and taught graduate-level courses on a wide variety of national security subjects.
She received a doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Kaplan School of Economics and Political Science and Columbia University’s School of International Affairs.
In 2014, Dr. Kass was elected to the Board of Women in Aerospace. In 2016, she was sworn in as a member of the Air University Board of Visitors’ Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) Subcommittee. In 2019, Dr Kass was elected to join the prestigious Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs (WIFA) and the Board of Directors of Women in Defense.
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