Limestone, Recovered

On September 11, 2001, Thomas Cleary III was a Lieutenant Colonel and Chief of the Program Budget Analysis Branch in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel/Department of Army, headquartered at the Pentagon. When hijacked Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon’s western façade at the first-floor level, the aircraft penetrated into the building’s three outermost rings before disintegrating. Colonel Cleary, who survived the attack, became immersed in the ensuing rescue efforts. He returned to work the next day. For his lifesaving acts and for placing the safety of others above his own, Lt. Col. Cleary was awarded the Soldier’s Medal for Heroism.

During the aftermath of the attack, Cleary spearheaded a plan to preserve some of the exterior limestone rubble and create tokens of remembrance from them for distribution to his fellow Army G-1 survivors, in tribute to 24 division colleagues who had perished. The stone offered to the Museum is the largest of these retrieved fragments. The alphanumerical marking on it is likely a placement code for stonemasons when the Pentagon was first built.