Barstow sheriff's captain recalls 9/11 in Washington

“The time for mourning is past. It’s time to go forward, being uplifted and inspired by the courage that was shown that day by so many people.”
Barstow Fire Protection District Chief Darrell Jauss, speaking at the annual 9-11 memorial ceremony at Barstow Community College.

BARSTOW — Capt. Cliff Raynolds and his wife climbed onto the roof of a Washington, D.C., hotel on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and saw the Pentagon burning.

Many police and firefighters feel a personal connection to the day of the terrorist attacks, but for Raynolds, who heads up the Barstow sheriff’s station, the impact was deeper.

“To say that 9/11 is something I’ll never forget is an understatement,” he said.

Raynolds, who was then assigned to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department criminal intelligence unit, was in the nation’s capitol for a threat assessment training when hijacked planes smashed into the north and south tower of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He and his fellow law enforcement officials at the United States Secret Service Memorial Building stared at a television set in shock as first one plane and then another slammed into the towers in New York.

Raynolds called his boss in California and his wife at the hotel to alert them to the attacks. Shortly after that, he and the other law enforcement officials were booted out of the Secret Service building so that an unnamed high-up government official could use it as a command center. Raynolds walked back to his hotel, passing gridlocked traffic on the streets.

But it wasn’t until he and his wife ascended to the roof and saw the flaming Pentagon that Raynolds realized Washington had also been attacked.

Fearing an attack on the White House, which was only blocks away, Raynolds and his wife left the hotel and spent the day walking through the capitol as fighter jets flew overhead and humvees patrolled the streets. The scenes of chaos left a powerful impression on Raynolds.

“It was a real eerie feeling to see business people ... running out of these high rise buildings, in tears,” he said. “A lot of them it didn’t even look like they knew where they were going.”

At the same time, the madness brought people together in unlikely groups, trying to make sense of what had happened.

“People were talking to homeless people on the streets,” Raynolds recalled. “Everyone was asking if everyone was okay.”

Unsure what else to do, the couple found a fire station and asked if they could volunteer their services. The firefighters let them in, but in the madness, no one could figure out how to put the unexpected visitors to work, Raynolds said.

The next day, he and his wife, along with a group of fellow law enforcement officials boarded one of only five planes in the sky on September 12 and made their way back to California.

“When we got back to San Bernardino County and landed, I felt like I wanted to kiss the ground,” Raynolds said.

The lessons of that day stayed with him, reminding him how vulnerable America’s communities can be and driving home his responsibility to be vigilant, Raynolds said.

“It was definitely a different level, something that is so traumatic to the entire country,” he said. “... It’s something I hope we never have to ever witness again.”

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