Workers Return to Pentagon Offices

The U.S. and Marine Corps flags stood again in the corner of Peter Murphy’s Pentagon office, and the blue and red carpet was immaculate. It was almost as if the clock had been turned back to 9 a.m. Sept. 11, just before the plane hit.

The office on the Pentagon’s outer ring was destroyed in the terrorist attack. On Thursday, Murphy and 21 others became the first to move back into their rebuilt work spaces, as Pentagon renovation officials began making good on their promise to have workers back at their desks at the point of impact by the one-year anniversary of the attack.

“It’s kind of a twilight zone almost,” said Murphy, counsel for the commandant of the Marine Corps, walking into the office. “It’s a strange sensation, coming back to an office you could have been killed in.”

By Sept. 11, when a memorial service attended by President Bush is set, officials expect to have 600 people working in the outer E-ring section where the hijacked jetliner hit. More than 2,000 other workers have already returned to less damaged areas.

Movers wheeled in boxes and furniture Thursday, including Murphy’s antique desk--a gift from a former commandant that somehow survived. In the hallway, workers were adjusting fluorescent lights or waiting to hook up computers and telephones.