Retired colonel reflects on 9-11 Published Sept. 9, 2003 By Rudi Williams American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Col. Diana Fleek sat alone on the Pentagon parade field among hundreds of gray metal chairs left empty by people who had just attended the Oct. 11, 2001, one-month anniversary of the terrorist attack on the nation.At the time, Fleek said she was pondering the evil of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed and wounded thousands of innocent people at New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and in a plane crash in Pennsylvania.“(Remaining in my seat after everyone left was my way of showing) the utmost respect and reflection for the lives lost, their families, the hundreds of friends, (and) the incredible acts of bravery, heroism and compassion that followed," Fleek said.She said she was thinking about how appreciative she is of the people who lost their lives in the attack. "Not just in the Pentagon," said Fleek, "but in the Twin Towers World Trade Center in New York, and the airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania, too."By appreciative, I mean that an entire act is hope to the rest of the world," she said. Fleek said she now has a little bit of a different take on the tragedy that galvanized the nation. She retired from the Air Force in February 2002."I feel very spiritual about the folks who died in the Pentagon," she said."I think that the people whose lives were lost that day were people (who) knew there was a destiny and purpose for their lives," Fleek said. Fleek said memorial services should celebrate people's lives, not mourn their deaths. They did not die because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, Fleek said. "They were in the right place at the right time," she said. "That's what I think we should celebrate for them. They were exactly where they wanted to be."All of humanity understands the good of the whole," she said. "When we stay very narrow-minded, life and death are not a continuum, but a finality. Then we don't appreciate the fact that there was a great sacrifice that these people made for the good of the whole."(Secretary of Defense Donald H.) Rumsfeld said out of great evil comes great good. That's a wake-up call for the world," she said.When the airliner crashed into the Pentagon, Fleek was on the phone with her daughter, who was at their new home in Texas. Fleek and people on her former office staff were lucky. They had moved out of harm's way shortly before Sept. 11."We'd moved to the second wedge of the Pentagon four weeks earlier," she said. "As a matter of fact, the airplane's cockpit took the place of our former offices."We knew we had been hit, but we didn't know what it was -- we just knew there was an explosion,” Fleek said. “We all felt it quite literally. The building shook, and the windows rattled. Thousands were evacuated. It was done very quickly and very orderly."As we looked over our shoulders, all we could see was a huge black ball of smoke, moving eastward, coming at us," she said. "Then we heard the rumble of a jet above us, and looked up to see an F-16 (Fighting Falcon) pass over the Pentagon. Those fighters up there brought a rush of emotions in our hearts and had a tremendous effect on everyone. I couldn't have been prouder to be an Air Force officer. It was an incredible moment in time, and I'll never forget it."(I was in) complete disbelief that someone would be so naive to think that they could penetrate the structure of the building or the will of the people housed in it," Fleek said.Sitting alone among hundreds of empty chairs "was an opportune time to make a personal pledge -- never forget the destructive power of hatred and prejudice and to move forward with a greater determination to create value, every day, somehow," Fleek said."I wanted to deeply internalize my feelings," she said. "Those people's lives were not wasted. Our nation now had the opportunity to be the phoenix rising up out of the ashes."Fleek has since reunited with her daughter and family, as well as friends around the world. She has taken up scuba diving and snow skiing again, and said she is loving the new business of breaking, training and showing quarter horse colts in Texas.She said she has also been appointed to a leadership position in a group serving as a nongovernmental organization of the United Nations. Fleek has spoken several times at local American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars events.Fleek said her thoughts have not changed during the past two years."The revolution of a nation begins with individuals,” she said. “That's the law of cause and effect."