TRANSCRIPT TONY TERRONEZ

[Ruby Gray]

TONY TERRONEZ TESTIMONY

Around 9:40 a.m. I reached the heliport area (beside the Pentagon). So I got about 100 yards or so past the heliport and then all of the sudden I heard this loud screeching sound that just came out of nowhere and it intensified. This huge WHOOSH! And something made me look in my rearview mirror and by the time I looked up I saw the side of the Pentagon explode. I was stunned. It was just so surreal, like something out of a movie, like Die Hard. The side of a building just exploded! As the fireball got higher and higher, you saw this debris go up in the air. I am watching this in my rearview mirror, and then I thought, Oh my God, there is debris coming toward me! So my reaction was, I ducked into my passenger seat and I heard the pitter-patter of pebbles and concrete bouncing off my car. And the next thing you know, I heard this big crash come from somewhere. It sounded like glass being shattered and I thought maybe, at first, it was one of my windows so I popped up to look but everything was fine. But when I looked to the car next to me I realized that something went through (the driver's) rear windshield and shattered it. There was a hole where you could see that something went through it. I put the car in park - it is amazing how instinct takes over because I will never know how it is I kept my foot on the brake when I ducked at the same time. I should have rammed right into the guy in front of me. I got out of the car and the guy in front of me, he and I just looked at each other. It seemed like everybody who was on the road got out of their cars and just looked in disbelief as the fireball just kept getting bigger and bigger. My jaw was dropped, his jaw was dropped, and then, at that point, something about trying to make sure people were OK overtook me and I started going around to the people in the other cars to see if they were all right. I and the guy in front of me went to the car next to me and asked the driver if he was all right and if he was OK to drive. He was in shock, you could tell. He just kept looking straight ahead. He didn't even look back, he was so fixated on looking north. He didn't want to look south at the Pentagon. And it took a couple of times for me and the other guy to say, Can you drive? Hello? Are you OK? Are you OK? And he said, Yeah, I think I can drive. We asked him again, Can you drive? and that time he was more sure and said, Yes, yes, I can drive. Then both I and the guy in front of me looked at his rear windshield and saw what was about a four-inch hole in it and the rest of the window was shattered as if someone took a baseball bat to it. At that point I realized - you see at that point I didn't know it was a plane, I thought it was a missile strike - how dangerous things were. And I just started yelling, We gotta get out of here, to the guy in front of me - and he agreed - and we started yelling at people, Get back in your cars! We gotta get the f--- out of here! And I just kept repeating, Get in your cars! Let's go, let's go! Get the f--- out of here. Go! Go! Go! And people must have listened because down the road you heard more people telling everyone to get in their cars and go. Cars were going over the median on Route 27 because there wasn't any traffic coming southbound toward the Pentagon. People were hopping over it any way they could, on the grass, anything. It was a little scary at that point. Pulling away from the Pentagon there was tons of stuff on the ground, big pieces of metal, concrete, everything. We got up to a certain point and there was this huge piece of something - I mean it was big, it looked like a piece of an engine or something - in the road. And there was somebody, definitely a security guard or maybe a military person, with his car in front of it making sure no one touched it. (...) I looked back and I saw the fire, it was just huge and just incredible. I still cannot believe it. At that point in time, I remembered I had a camera in my trunk. I got off an off-ramp beside the Pentagon and parked my car in the grass and started taking pictures. The whole time I was taking pictures it was so detailed. I could see this huge piece of a wheel on fire through the black smoke, but I could not see into the Pentagon itself.​

 

[Ruby Gray]

The above is a slightly abbreviated version of Terronez's account.

He gave a fuller account apparently, to a journalist.

 

[Ruby Gray]

FULL ACCOUNT :

Tony Terronez was getting ready for work at The National Theater in downtown Washington, D.C. when he saw the news showing Tower 2 of the World Trade Center on fire. As the events of the morning unfolded, he either watched or listened on the radio to the news of the attack. Because he was not going to his usual job where he is the assistant treasurer for the Eisenhower and Terrace Theaters at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, he would have to drive past the Pentagon and he was running late.​

“The whole time I was thinking I was going to be late for work because I have to drive past the Pentagon on Washington Boulevard, and I knew they would try to do something like shut down the roads or maybe restrict a lane for security reasons,” Terronez said. “But I was just like, ‘Let’s go there and see what happens, and if I get stuck in traffic, no big deal.’

“I was listening to a lot of the coverage on the radio, and as soon as I got off on Washington Boulevard toward the Pentagon, sure enough there was traffic. I just kept inching forward and as time went by, I heard the reports on the radio saying that it was a plane. It was a terrorist attack. And I heard President (George W. Bush) go on the air and do his speech about the attacks on the World Trade Center buildings and, of course, we’re inching closer to the Pentagon. And at that point I kept trying to call my boss at the National Theater to let him know I was stuck in traffic by the Pentagon. It was a beautiful day, too. Not too hot, just cool and sunny and I had my windows down.

“Around 9:40 a.m. I reached the heliport area (beside the Pentagon) and was just listening to more of the testimonials on the radio. And this whole time it didn’t even connect that right next to me was a possible target. You think to yourself, ‘That’s New York all the way up there and, we’re here.’ You would think that the terrorists were done.

“So I got about 100 yards or so past the heliport and then all of the sudden I heard this loud screeching sound that just came out of nowhere and it intensified. This huge WHOOSH! And something made me look in my rearview mirror and by the time I looked up I saw the side of the Pentagon explode.

“I was stunned. It was just so surreal, like something out of a movie, like ‘Die Hard.’ The side of a building just exploded! As the fireball got higher and higher, you saw this debris go up in the air. I’m watching this in my rearview mirror, and then I thought, ‘Oh my God, there’s debris coming toward me!’

"So my reaction was, I ducked into my passenger seat and I heard the pitter-patter of pebbles and concrete bouncing off my car.

"And the next thing you know, I heard this big crash come from somewhere. It sounded like glass being shattered and I thought maybe, at first, it was one of my windows so I popped up to look but everything was fine.

"But when I looked to the car next to me I realized that something went through (the driver’s) rear windshield and shattered it. There was a hole where you could see that something went through it.

“I put the car in park - it’s amazing how instinct takes over because I will never know how it is I kept my foot on the brake when I ducked at the same time. I should have rammed right into the guy in front of me. I got out of the car and the guy in front of me, he and I just looked at each other. It seemed like everybody who was on the road got out of their cars and just looked in disbelief as the fireball just kept getting bigger and bigger. My jaw was dropped, his jaw was dropped, and then, at that point, something about trying to make sure people were OK overtook me and I started going around to the people in the other cars to see if they were all right.

“I and the guy in front of me went to the car next to me and asked the driver if he was all right and if he was OK to drive. He was in shock, you could tell. He just kept looking straight ahead. He didn’t even look back, he was so fixated on looking north. He didn’t want to look south at the Pentagon.

"And it took a couple of times for me and the other guy to say,
‘Can you drive? Hello? Are you OK? Are you OK?’
"And he said, ‘Yeah, I think I can drive.’
"We asked him again, ‘Can you drive?’ and that time he was more sure and said, ‘Yes, yes, I can drive.’

"Then both I and the guy in front of me looked at his rear windshield and saw what was about a four-inch hole in it and the rest of the window was shattered as if someone took a baseball bat to it.

“At that point I realized - you see at that point I didn’t know it was a plane, I thought it was a missile strike - how dangerous things were. And I just started yelling, ‘We gotta get out of here,’ to the guy in front of me - and he agreed - and we started yelling at people, ‘Get back in your cars! We gotta get the f--- out of here!’ And I just kept repeating, ‘Get in your cars! Let’s go, let’s go! Get the f--- out of here. Go! Go! Go!’ And people must have listened because down the road you heard more people telling everyone to get in their cars and go.

"Cars were going over the median on Route 27 because there wasn’t any traffic coming southbound toward the Pentagon. People were hopping over it any way they could, on the grass, anything. It was a little scary at that point.

“Pulling away from the Pentagon there was tons of stuff on the ground, big pieces of metal, concrete, everything. We got up to a certain point and there was this huge piece of something - I mean it was big, it looked like a piece of an engine or something - in the road. And there was somebody, definitely a security guard or maybe a military person, with his car in front of it making sure no one touched it.”

Terronez was trying to call 911 and also his fellow employees at The Kennedy Center to tell them to evacuate the building, but no one was answering. When he finally got in touch with his supervisor, he was panicking.​

“She probably thought I was a raving lunatic. I was saying ‘Oh my God! Oh my God! You won’t believe what happened. The Pentagon’s been blown up! It’s been attacked.’ And the next thing you know the line was cut off. I can’t imagine how scary that was for her, to just have the line go dead after everything I’d been saying.

“I looked back and I saw the fire, it was just huge and just incredible. I still can’t believe it. At that point in time, I remembered I had a camera in my trunk. I got off an off-ramp beside the Pentagon and parked my car in the grass and started taking pictures. The whole time I was taking pictures it was so detailed. I could see this huge piece of a wheel on fire through the black smoke, but I couldn’t see into the Pentagon itself.

"As I was taking pictures the press corps came and started setting up shop. Some military person told us we had to just get out of there. Of course, some people listened, some people didn’t. I listened.

“I went up the road toward Columbia Pike going westbound, and then I stopped one more time. I took one last picture and it was the first chance I had to think about anything. Up until then I was just reacting. This was probably about 10 minutes after the strike and all of the sudden I just realized that I was lucky. I was so lucky.

“At that point I just started to cry. I thought ‘I can’t believe what I’ve just been through.’ Then I started thinking about all the people who were inside the Pentagon, and I had this terrible feeling because I survived. Oh God … all those people. I felt guilty because I survived, but what about those poor people?

“That was the first time I started thinking that I should have done more. I don’t know what, but I should’ve stopped taking pictures. I should have run across the street and tried to help people, but you know, in hindsight I don’t know what I could have done. So instead, I just drove off Columbia Pike and drove home. And that was about it. That was the incident in 10 minutes - something that changed my life forever.”

 

[Jerry Russell]

I was going to ask a bunch of questions, but then I looked in this old thread...

https://postflaviana.org/community/index.php?threads/terry-terronez.2797/

where I found that (1) we only know of one photo attributed to Tony Terronez; (2) it seems likely that the car next to Terronez with the rear windshield blown out was probably Lloyd England's taxi, although it's odd that Terronez didn't correctly identify that it was the front windshield blown out; and if so, this tends to confirm Lloyd's story that his car was hit near the heliport & the cemetery.

I still have one question left:

We got up to a certain point and there was this huge piece of something - I mean it was big, it looked like a piece of an engine or something - in the road. And there was somebody, definitely a security guard or maybe a military person, with his car in front of it making sure no one touched it.”

Any idea what this is about? I don't recall anyone else mentioning anything about a "huge piece... of an engine or something" in the road.

 

[Ruby Gray]

Any idea what this is about?

Absolutely!!
Hopefully I won't get that error code when trying to upload images.

There was a young lady driving north, far beyond the Pentagon, whose front passenger door was suddenly smashed by a large chunk of metal.

She was hysterical after this happened. She was so far out of view of what was happening at the Pentagon, that it would have been even more terrifying than if she had seen the explosion, which would at least have been a rational explanation.

Courtney Platt took 2 photos, of the smashed car door, and the metal chunk responsible for the damage.

It was determined to be a plane wing actuator motor.

Courtney (*he?? she??) provided a marked aerial photo to identify all the vantage points from which the photos were taken.

Astoundingly, this chunk of metal had apparently travelled almost 600 feet to hit her car!!
How unlikely is it that any plane crash could project debris that far?
Nobody seems to have asked that question.

I find it compatible with the interior explosion of plane parts out of that construction trailer, though.


** When uploading these photos, my usual technique did nothing at all, and there wasn't even an error message.
So I went back to where I was selecting photos to add to the box, then clicked on "Browse," checked a photo, and it uploaded right away.

 

[Ruby Gray]

I looked in this old thread...

https://postflaviana.org/community/index.php?threads/terry-terronez.2797/

Ah yes - I meant to ask - could you please wield your admin super-powers and correct his name in the title of that thread?
It's Tony, not Terry.

 

[Jerry Russell]

It was determined to be a plane wing actuator motor.

OK, I've seen that picture before. I agree that it looks like an airfoil actuator, not a "piece of an engine". It appears to have been ripped from the wing by some powerful force. Either it was blown out by the explosive force of an airplane crash, or else by an explosion of parts out of the construction trailer; I can't think of any other explanations.

Ah yes - I meant to ask - could you please wield your admin super-powers and correct his name in the title of that thread?
It's Tony, not Terry.

Done.

 

[Ruby Gray]

(2) it seems likely that the car next to Terronez with the rear windshield blown out was probably Lloyd England's taxi, although it's odd that Terronez didn't correctly identify that it was the front windshield blown out; and if so, this tends to confirm Lloyd's story that his car was hit near the heliport & the cemetery.

I suspect that "rear" was an addition to his story by the journalist.
There are several other instances where witnesses have later objected, when asked, to the published accounts of their testimonies.

The witnesses have made comments such as,

"That's what THEY said."

Here, we clearly see her interjections in italics, so this may well have been another of them.

I find it highly unlikely that a second motorist close to Terronez, should have had the identical damage to his rear windshield as Lloyde England had to his front windshield.
Surely, had that happened, we would have had his published testimony as well.

"And the next thing you know, I heard this big crash come from somewhere. It sounded like glass being shattered and I thought maybe, at first, it was one of my windows so I popped up to look but everything was fine. ​

​

"But when I looked to the car next to me I realized that something went through (the driver's) rear windshield and shattered it. There was a hole where you could see that something went through it."​

...​

"Then both I and the guy in front of me looked at his  rear windshield and saw what was about a four-inch hole in it and the rest of the window was shattered as if someone took a baseball bat to it."​

I've only just recently found this photo which was taken by Shirley after the cab was brought hone on 9/12.
Of all views, this one best shows the perfectly circular shape of the 4 inch entry hole.

 

[Jerry Russell]

I suspect that "rear" was an addition to his story by the journalist.

Excellent point. It's more likely that Terronez was misquoted, than that he was mistaken about this.

 

[Ruby Gray]

Excellent point. It's more likely that Terronez was misquoted, than that he was mistaken about this.

It's certainly a valid suggestion. Reporters notoriously put their own spin on eyewitnesses' accounts.
We even find the identical, highly emotive stock phrases being used by reporters, as though they had been supplied with a list of acceptable words to use in their 3rd person reports.

It's worth considering that the press was indeed coached and influenced to support the official narrative, and that the word "rear" could well have been inserted in Terronez's testimony, twice, for the explicit purpose of dissociating his description from the identical appearance of Lloyde England's taxi windshield, which was required to have been damaged 1,200 feet further south.

I wonder that he was never interviewed again after this testimony. One might think that a rather high profile witness with such an extraordinary story to tell, would be newsworthy, and ought to appear in TV interviews.

But as with so many witnesses whose stories have the potential to damage the official line, we never heard from him again.

The brick wall I've encountered while trying to call him, raises my suspicions.
I've noticed that witnesses who seem to have sunk without trace, or are hostile when approached, or whose later accounts vary from their initial ones, seem to have something to hide.