Lake Fork resident Nelson Eaton was on call at Arlington County, Va. Fire Station No. One the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

The first word that it would not be a normal day came with news that an airplane had hit the World Trade Center in New York. When the second plane hit, it became evident this was no accident.

Then his fellow firemen at Station No. Five, just south of the Pentagon, frantically called to say that a plane had just flown over very low to the ground, followed shortly by an alarm from the Pentagon.

As the Pentagon is in the Arlington County fire service territory, Eaton had made many fire and medical calls there before – including a rash of fires during a remodeling project that turned out to be arson.

He had also manned the Pentagon helipad where he got to meet many dignitaries, including President Ronald Reagan, who stopped to greet the firemen.

One of the firemen on duty at the helipad that day was injured in the explosion.

As one of the first on the scene, Eaton soon became a part of the most historic event in American history in recent decades.

Now retired along the shores of Lake Fork, Eaton and his wife, Diane, maintain a collection of memorabilia from his career, including numerous mementos of that day.

Twenty years later Eaton still carries the challenge coin he was presented by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld just a week after the incident.

He proudly carries a large sticker on the back of his pickup for the commemorative shield awarded to the first responders at the Pentagon that was dubbed Operation Noble Eagle, with smaller versions on Diane’s SUV and their motorcycle.

Because it was the Pentagon, the fire service response was considered to be part of a military operation.

A keepsake badge and pin of that medallion were also presented to the first responders, as well as a plaque with an aerial photo taken of the west side of the country’s military headquarters where the terrorists crashed that plane.

He was also presented an American flag that had been flown over the Pentagon.

Eaton talks almost matter-of-factly of what transpired after they rolled onto the scene.

It was considered a high-rise fire, as the Pentagon sits five stories tall. It was also a search operation, which was hampered by unstable areas at risk of collapse that had to be shored up.

It took three days to extinguish, primarily due to the fire spreading into hard-to-reach places in the ceiling.

In the early days of the operation, the firemen stayed on site, sleeping in the parking lot and later in tents. A security detail was assigned to them, as it was not known whether there could be more attacks.

Eaton said he didn’t pay for any food for about a month, as church groups, fast food restaurants and others set up to take care of them.

Some of the best food came from a church in North Carolina, he recalled.

The emergency response included fire departments from all over the region.

Eaton stayed onsite three weeks, after having to get his security clearance updated.

He is restricted from discussing some aspects of the operation.

Included in the recovery operation was hauling off truckloads of airplane parts.

Eaton stresses that point for anyone who thinks something other than an airplane hit the Pentagon that day.

It was also a harrowing day for Diane, who was on a plane to a corporate meeting in Columbus, Ohio.

She was unable at first to get in touch with Nelson or her daughter, who was living in the D.C. area. Once she learned they were OK, she went to work helping her co-workers – and herself – find ways to return home, with all air traffic grounded.

Eaton, who hails from West Virginia, served his country in the Vietnam War and drove trucks and did high-rise construction before joining the fire service in 1983.

During his tenure he was responsible for establishing a licensed air-pack shop that serviced breathing apparatus for many area fire departments.

After he retired from ACFD in 2007, Nelson and Diane came to Texas, where she had lived prior to moving to Virginia after the death of her first husband.

They have recently completed a remodeling job of their home and look forward to the day when the storage unit can be moved and restore their beautiful view of the lake.

American Airlines Flight 77 took off from Dulles Airport, just north of Washington, at 8:10 a.m. (Eastern time) with 58 passengers (of a possible 243), a crew of six and 11,466 pounds of jet fuel on board the Boeing 757, headed for Los Angeles. It flew west across Virginia and West Virginia, making an unscheduled left turn at the Ohio-Kentucky border. Traffic controllers lost contact at 9:03, estimated to be 9-12 minutes after it was hijacked. It crashed into the Pentagon at 9:38 at an estimated speed of 400 miles per hour and weight of 270,000 pounds. It penetrated three of the building’s five rings. No one on board survived. Another 125 were killed in the Pentagon, mostly members or civilian employees of the U.S. Army and Navy. Many more were injured. A memorial was constructed near the crash site, dedicated on Sept. 11, 2008. Reconstruction of the Pentagon damage took less than a year.