Changing Worldviews

Intro Voiceover: Exposing the changing world views behind the issues that are fundamentally changing our nation and world. The Sharon Hughes Show starts now.

Guest (Male): 9/11 victims are calling for New York City Mayor Zoran Mondani to be banned from the 25th anniversary ceremony in September. His failure to meaningfully acknowledge the horror of that day and his employment of, support for, or association with individuals who have minimized 9/11, defended terrorists, or even suggested America deserved the attacks.

First, Hassan Piker, wherein he says, "America deserved 9/11."

Hassan Piker: America deserved 9/11, dude. I'm saying it.

Lt. Col. Linda Herbert: And of course, the fuselage exploded. And so there were 10,000 gallons of jet fuel that were immediately burst on fire. And there were subsequent explosions of course that it caused through the building. So when the plane exploded, it exploded right up into the area where I would have been.

Frank Siller: I am here today to honor my 76-year-old mother, Frances, on the solemn anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. "Some people did something," said a freshman congresswoman from Minnesota. Today, I am here to respond to you exactly who did what to whom.

Madam, objectively speaking, we know who and what was done. There is no uncertainty about that. On that day, 19 Islamic terrorists, members of al-Qaeda, killed over 3,000 people. Is that clear? That's what some people did. Got that now?

We are here today, Congresswoman, to tell you and the Squad just who did what to whom. Show respect in honoring them, please. American patriotism and your position demands it, for God and country. Amen.

Donald Trump: No age will erase from the memory of time. It will never, ever be forgotten. It will never be forgotten, and we can never forget. God bless our 9/11 families. God bless our unbelievable, brave, and beautiful first responders. God bless the United States military, and God bless America.

Sharon Hughes: Thank you everyone for tuning into our show today. This is our 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America of 9/11, 2001. I feel like we want to re-air my interview with Lieutenant Colonel Linda Herbert, who was at the Pentagon and, miraculously, in her words, escaped.

As in the opening clips, President Trump said that we cannot forget. There has been a whole generation that was born after the horrific event of 9/11, 2001. So they don't have any personal memories of it all. It's up to us that do, that remember seeing the horrifying images of the jihadists flying airplanes into the Twin Towers, and then the Pentagon, and crashed, killing all those on board in Pennsylvania.

And not only to remember but to be the necessary contradiction to the rhetoric such as you also heard in the opening clips of what now we're seeing the uprise of Democrat Socialists running for office, many of them Muslim, who, such as the mayor of New York City, Mondani, refuses to condemn Hassan Piker over saying that America deserved 9/11.

And as you also heard in the opening clips, over 10,000 people signed a petition for New York Mayor Mondani to not attend the memorial service of the 25th anniversary of 9/11. I think it's important to say for the record that not only were 3,000 people killed because of the terrorist attacks on America, but there has been, as USA Today reported, a trail of sickness and death since then.

Three times as much, actually, 9,677 people have died from September 11th-related illnesses since the 2001 attacks. So we want to do our part to make sure that not only we pause and remember, and I am confident that the vast majority of Americans do not believe that America deserved those attacks.

I also believe that the vast majority of Americans do not want Democrat Socialists or communists to take over our nation via public office. But that's a subject for another show. Today, we are remembering.

To help those that were not born to personally have remembered the horrific events of September 11th, 2001, my guest, who I was privileged to interview after she wrote a book detailing her personal experience on that day, an eyewitness account, *The Pentagon Miracle*, by Lieutenant Colonel Linda Herbert, there's no better way than a firsthand account and their testimony to remember so that this history doesn't repeat itself. Stay with me, that up next.

Intro Voiceover: You're listening to Changing Worldviews with Sharon Hughes. We'll be right back.

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Sharon Hughes: This month's special offer is the book *How to Overcome the Most Frightening Issues You Will Face This Century*. This book has 20 experts in fields of science, politics, warfare, finance, ethics, theology, and much more, who offer experienced advice. You can order online at our website changingworldviews.com. Just go to the store donate page and you'll be able to order it there. We'll get it right out to you.

Thanks for staying with me. Okay, if you're just tuning in, we are now going to air for you my interview with Lieutenant Colonel Linda Herbert, who was at the Pentagon on that horrible day of the terrorist attacks on America. For the record and for history's sake, here it is.

Today, we have a very special guest with us, Lieutenant Colonel Linda Herbert, who was at the Pentagon on September 11th and escaped the plane crashing into that facility. She is here to tell us her firsthand account of that day, which is detailed in her book, *The Pentagon Miracle*.

Lieutenant Colonel Herbert is a United States Army officer who is a survivor of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon. She is assigned to the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel and was at the Pentagon on the day of the attack. Linda holds four degrees, three of which are master's degrees in administration, program management, and counseling. Welcome, Colonel, to Changing Worldviews. Thank you so much for being with us today.

Lt. Col. Linda Herbert: Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you.

Sharon Hughes: So, first of all, tell us about your duties there at the Pentagon before we get into that fateful day.

Lt. Col. Linda Herbert: My duties consisted of basically being the subject matter expert, what we call, of a certain core or group of people, and they are called the acquisition corps. In the particular division that I was assigned to, there were subject matter experts for different types of cores.

My responsibility consisted of tracking the promotion rates and knowing all of the Title 10 law that pertained to all of the people in my corps that I was assigned to. As part of my duties, I had to frequently interact with Lieutenant General Maude, who's a three-star general, who was one of my immediate bosses.

I would have to interact with him on somewhat of a frequent basis to inform him concerning personnel issues that would arise with respect to the group of people that I was accountable for. As part of those duties, I would also have to inform the Secretary of the Army, the Chief of Staff of the Army, Vice Chief of Staff, and various high-ranking officials concerning the board status. People would be selected through a board process for promotions and for command positions.

Sharon Hughes: Great. Now, I would like for you to tell us about September 11, 2001, there at the Pentagon. Did you know about the attack on the World Trade Center when the plane struck the Pentagon?

Lt. Col. Linda Herbert: Yes. As a matter of fact, we had, it's kind of a normal process in the Pentagon, most of the higher-ranking people try to stay in tune with the news because, of course, it's going to affect the military probably at some point or the other. So it's kind of a standard process that we would check CNN first thing in the morning when we come to our desk and check the headlines on the news.

It just happened that my colleague seated right alongside of me happened to be watching a live update on what was going on with the World Trade Center. I was sitting alongside of him and all of a sudden I heard him say, "Hey, there are planes going into the World Trade Center." We immediately gathered around his desk because we were thinking this is a spoof or something or some kind of trick. We didn't really believe that it was real.

As we stood near his desk and we were watching CNN, we could see that obviously it was very real. So we were just engrossed like everyone else as to what was going on here. Of course, everyone was thinking that this was just a fluke and that the pilot of the aircraft had a heart attack or something. We were thinking that it was just an accident that was taking place.

Sharon Hughes: And I'm sure everyone did until the second one hit. Tell us what was going on at the Pentagon then. At what point did you know something was happening to the Pentagon, or did it just happen and everybody was shocked?

Lt. Col. Linda Herbert: It just happened to us, and of course, we were shocked. We couldn't imagine. First of all, no one really knew what was going on with the plane going into the World Trade Center. As I said, we were thinking that a pilot had a heart attack or something. We couldn't imagine it would be any kind of a terrorist-type attack.

We had returned to our desk, and what had happened was one of my seniors came to get me and had pulled me out of my desk and told me to report to a special operations center because I was part of this team that they were standing up. If there was any type of emergency that was taking place, there was a group of individuals who would go to this special ops center and we would be running the military from that point.

I was in route to go to that special location, and I happened to be about 50 feet from my desk at the time of the impact. So it was really God's grace that I was not in my desk. The plane hit the World Trade Center at approximately 8:30 and the plane hit the Pentagon at approximately 9:17. So it wasn't very long, and there was not a lot of reaction time. Of course, we had no idea that there would actually be a plane going to impact the side of our building. It's just an absurd thought that something like that could even take place.

Sharon Hughes: Yes, we were all shocked of what was going on. What happened next on that tragic day at the Pentagon? You said it was God's grace that you were not sitting at your desk. Tell us what happened.

Lt. Col. Linda Herbert: Oh, absolutely. There were, I counted about seven different what I call miracles, and I attribute that all to God because had He not led me out of that building and had me out of my seat at just the right time, I definitely would have died.

When the plane came in, we were on the second floor near what's called the E Ring, which is the outer perimeter ring of the building. When the plane came in on the first floor right underneath the office space where I sat, of course it chopped a hole five stories tall, and of course the fuselage exploded.

There were 10,000 gallons of jet fuel that were immediately burst on fire, and there were subsequent explosions of course that it caused through the building. So when the plane exploded, it exploded right up into the area where I would have been. In fact, there were five of my colleagues that they could not even identify them through DNA testing because when jet fuel explodes, the scientists were able to learn that the heat that was generated from the jet fuel explosions was approximately 3,000 degrees of heat. Of course, that just melts you.

There were definitely five people that were not even, there was nothing left. They were just completely obliterated. I was about 50 feet from my desk when the impact came and my boss had pulled me out of my seat and said, "Go to the special operations center and take care of business." So I was about 50 feet away from my desk.

I recall that what happened was there was a second senior boss that stopped me right about that 50-foot spot from the desk. He stopped me and he began to talk to me, which also was the grace of God because there were some windows about another 20 feet from me. When the impact came, all of the windows imploded. They did not explode out, but they imploded into the bay where we were all standing.

I was standing just, again, at the right place at the right moment in time that when the all of the glass imploded, it was just like shrapnel and the force of it was of such a magnitude that it just embedded into skin. People had glass all over their face. I was standing behind a beam and that beam sheltered me.

The next thing that I remember hearing was someone yelled, "Get down." Of course, I was thinking that bombs were going off. No one would think that a plane had come through the side of the building, but we were thinking based on the World Trade Center, and again we didn't know it was terrorists, but I'm thinking maybe there's a subsequent attack going on or something. We didn't really know.

Now we're all on the floor, and again I'm about 50 feet from the point of impact. There were about 3,000 people in that entire wedge that could have instantly been killed. There were only a total of 125 that actually died, which we don't even want one lost, but when you think about it from a proportional basis, percentage basis, that's relatively very, very few for that amount of fuel being exploded.

Anyway, so I was on the floor, and my personal experience was, being a Christian, I began to audibly pray. Of course, no one knew what was going on. Now minutes are ticking by, perhaps seconds, and time in your mind becomes very distorted, but it was just minutes. I began to audibly pray and I said, "Lord, what's going on here? Get me out of here. What's happening?"

At that moment, I just had this urgency come over me, and I believe that I heard within myself, "Get out right now. Get out right now." I also had a visual image come to my mind of a certain set of doors. You see, there were choices of doors that I could have gone through. I believe that the Lord gave me the image of the right set because I later found out that had I not gone through that set, in fact, that was the only set that led to a safe way out.

The other set of doors, had I gone out those doors, I definitely would have died because people, I later found out, tried to get out the other set of doors and they died. When the plane impacted, it shifted the doorjambs and those type of things, so doors were all jammed. But the door set that I went through was not jammed. I got up off the floor because I believe that God was telling me, "Get out now." I went out that double set of doors and I entered into the corridor.

Now by this time, now I'm realizing there's a really serious problem here because I get into the corridor and it's filled with really black soot. You literally could not breathe. The visibility was zero, and I thought that I was going to suffocate. I was trying to make a decision, should I make a right turn or should I make a left. Logically, I should have made a right turn because making a right turn would have put me out of the building quicker.

But again, I was doing this audible praying and I kept hearing within myself, "Go left, go left, go left," which did not logically make sense. But being a Christian, I've been trained to be obedient to God's ways, so I thought, okay, this is God, I'm going to make a left. Again, that saved my life because I later found out if I had made a right turn, I would have literally, and it was so dark that you couldn't see, but I would have literally fallen into the fire.

So I made that left turn and now I'm running into the interior of the building, which is just the opposite of natural logic. Why would you, in a building is on fire, you don't run towards the interior. But I believe God was telling me, run, keep running towards the interior, so I did. I'm running and it turns out that there were other people who saw me get up and they followed me out and they later told me, and I just got to share this with you, it was so funny, they had said, "Linda, we knew that you were a Jesus freak and so we were going to follow you."

Sharon Hughes: Very interesting. Yes, well, thank God for that.

Lt. Col. Linda Herbert: All of those who followed me got out. Every one of them that followed me up that corridor got out safely.

Sharon Hughes: And I just want to say that for those that are questioning and wondering, "Why Linda and why not others?" If you cry out to God, He'll help you. It's just a matter of tuning in and being able to hear His voice so that you can have those same kinds of directions that Linda heard. Well, we're going to take a break here, and when we come back, I do want to ask Linda about some conspiracies around 9/11, such as there wasn't an airplane that actually hit the Pentagon. We're going to let the Colonel clear this up for us when we come back.

Intro Voiceover: You're listening to the Sharon Hughes Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Just follow the links at the bottom of the page at changingworldviews.com.

Sharon Hughes: When we talk about wars and rumors of wars and the infiltration of our enemies, we can't not think about our troops. I don't know if you're aware of it or not, but there are 22 suicides a day committed by our troops back from war. Now, there's an organization called Mission 22 that is working to help prevent that from happening, working with our troops back from Afghanistan and Iraq here. Take a listen.

Guest (Male): For a veteran, the flash of a firework can be a flashback to war. While you're looking for the cereal, he's looking for an ambush. Our soldiers are leaving one battle and coming home to another. We're fighting a war against veteran suicide, and we're losing. In fact, 22 veterans take their own life each day. I know because I was almost one of them.

I was US Army paratrooper, Green Beret, eventually in Delta Force. I did 40 months of direct action combat, but I didn't come back the same man who had left two decades before. Everyone says, "We're glad you're home safe." I wasn't. And many of our veterans are not. They're still at war.

So this is your mission. Help us claim the 22. You can give our vets the hope and encouragement they need to get well, and it's as simple as a post or a tweet. Let's turn every 22 into a show of support. When you do, you're letting our vets know they have an army behind them. Let's win the war against veteran suicide. Your mission begins at mission22.com.

Sharon Hughes: So I hope you will help Mission 22 or any organizations in your local community or just personally reach out to those who are back from war that you know of and be a part of saving the lives of our troops who fought to help protect us.

Intro Voiceover: I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free.

Sharon Hughes: Well, welcome back. I'm Sharon Hughes and I'm talking with Lieutenant Colonel Linda Herbert, a 9/11 survivor of the Pentagon attack. Well, Colonel, I want to ask you to clear up for us the controversy on whether an airplane actually did hit the Pentagon.

Lt. Col. Linda Herbert: Well, I can tell you matter-of-factly that I know people who saw the plane hit the building. It was an incredibly sight. There were people that actually saw it flying low because it came into the side of the building where there's a parking lot. There were people coming and going right in the parking lot.

So that's a matter of fact, that it was definitely a plane and it did impact the side of the building. We have film footage from cameras that are positioned outside of the Pentagon. So that's a fact. Definitely a plane. Also given the fact that the residue from the jet fuel was found right in the building. There's no place else that we would have jet fuel. But just the eyewitness account of people actually seeing it solves that.

Sharon Hughes: I just wanted you to say that because there is some crazy thinking out there. One thing I find interesting is the far left and the far right seem to be saying the same thing, such as George Bush knew about this, he even helped plan it as a globalist.

Lt. Col. Linda Herbert: I want to tell you that I think that's the most absurd line of thinking. Excuse me, but we saw President Bush and Mr. Rumsfeld walking the ground and surveying the whole in this beautiful building. They were angry. There was visible emotion. It was genuine. No, I do not believe that President Bush knew anything about it.

I believe that's just an absurd line of thinking, especially being a military person. Even if you look at it from that standpoint, military are trained to help their team members to take care of their people. That would violate every principle of leadership that there ever was. President Bush is a definite patriot. He loves this country. He loves his people. I can tell you from seeing them walk the grounds that I just don't believe that.

Sharon Hughes: Well, let me ask you, you were there after the attacks. How did the attacks of 9/11 change lives there at the Pentagon? And how about the way that we wage war, especially now on terrorists?

Lt. Col. Linda Herbert: I would say that in terms of how we react within the building right now, and I use the term "the building" meaning the Pentagon, that's what we call it. People are much more alert now. There are gas masks that are positioned at various places through the building.

There's a brand new intercom system now because one of the things that we learned through this was the building is so huge. There's 25,000 people that are in this building. I mean, it's the world's largest office building. It's so huge, the footprint of it is just huge, that people on one side of the building don't know what's going on the other side of the building.

So they put in an intercom system now that can touch everyone in the building, so we all know what is going on. But I would say overall people are much more alert now. The security in the building, as you can imagine, has really increased. We saw there are civil police actually walk the halls with Uzis and Mark 4s like weapons. They have dogs in the building, so the whole security of the building has really tightened and really increased.

The security around the building, outside of the building, has really increased and feel much safer now in the building. But there were people that were traumatized going through this, so there were some people that just could not, some of the civilians just could not handle going back into the building. Some of them changed jobs.

One thing that I thought that the Department of Defense did that was very caring and very good, they're very responsive, was they brought in professional counselors. So even right now in the building, there is a counseling team, several of them, that are there even now.

In terms of how the military is reacting to the terrorist threat, I would say we are much more aware of it. We are very aggressive now towards stomping it out, as can be seen with our global war on terrorism. So we are very responsive, and we don't overlook anything. If something previously that might have seemed little or something, we take note of every single thing going on now.

Sharon Hughes: Well, we are out of time, Colonel. I really want to thank you for being with us today. I think that what you brought out today is very important for everyone in America to hear. I'd like for you to give our audience your website address where they can get your book.

Lt. Col. Linda Herbert: Yes, the book can be ordered through CIMN.net. I just wanted to encourage the listeners that the most important thing is to invite Jesus into their heart. Thank you for this time.

Guest (Male): This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace.

George W. Bush: Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

I want you all to know that America today, America today is on bended knee in prayer for the people whose lives were lost here, for the workers who work here, for the families who mourn. This nation stands with the good people of New York City and New Jersey and Connecticut as we mourn the loss of thousands of our citizens.

I can hear you. I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.

Donald Trump: No one can ever prepare for a day like 9/11, but we can always choose to be the kind of nation the world saw in those days after. We can build families, we can raise our children to know that their country is good, that their fathers are brave, and that our flag is a symbol of justice and freedom.

And we can be a nation whose heroes are not fanatics for an abstract cause. They don't even know really what they're doing. But the kind who race into buildings and give their lives on a Tuesday morning for strangers they've never met, people they didn't know, gave their lives.

And we can fill the lives of our children with light and love that will sustain them against any trial and transcend any darkness whenever that darkness may come. As scripture tells us, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

September 11th reminded us of the terrible power of hate. The 25 years since have shown us the even greater power of the American spirit to endure and prevail and to win. And today our country is stronger than it has ever been before. It has never been as strong as it is right now.

Because of that spirit, when future generations come here in 25, 100, or 250 years from now, they will stand in a nation that is free and unyielding in the face of evil. And they will still honor the heroes of 9/11, 2001, who no age will erase from the memory of time. It will never, ever be forgotten. It will never be forgotten, and we can never forget.

God bless our 9/11 families. God bless our unbelievable, brave, and beautiful first responders. God bless the United States military, and God bless America. Thank you very much.

Sharon Hughes: Well, of course, there are never words good enough to express our gratitude, our sorrow, that we're all feeling as we remember that faithful day of September 11, 2001. But remember we must, as the President said. And while we are not a perfect country, there is no perfect country, no perfect nation. It's our nation.

And just like our family, each one of us, our individual families, none of our families are perfect, but they're our family. And that means that we love them. We love our family, we love our nation. That's what a patriot is, one who loves his nation, really loves their nation. And to wrap up, the song we all love, all of us Americans, is our national anthem. And this rendition by Trace Adkins. Here it is.

Trace Adkins: [Sings The Star-Spangled Banner]

Sharon Hughes: Well, that's it for now. I look forward to our next time together, and until then, I encourage you: stand strong. This is Sharon Hughes from California, saying it like it is.

Intro Voiceover: Thank you for tuning into this episode of Changing Worldviews. You can follow Sharon on social media or listen to her on many online platforms. Just go to our website, changingworldviews.com, for all the links. And until next time, stay informed, stay alert, because we are, indeed, living in a changing world.