Editing American Airlines Flight 77 (section)

===Continuity of operations===

At the moment of impact, [[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]] [[Donald Rumsfeld]] was in his office on the other side of the Pentagon, away from the crash site. He ran to the site and assisted the injured.<ref>{{cite news |last=Vobejda |first=Barbara |title='Extensive Casualties' in Wake of Pentagon Attack |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/daily/sep01/attack.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=September 11, 2001 |access-date=June 20, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110425115144/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/daily/sep01/attack.html |archive-date=April 25, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> Rumsfeld returned to his office, and went to a conference room in the Executive Support Center where he joined a secure videoteleconference with Vice President [[Dick Cheney]] and other officials.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Creed, Patrick |author2=Rick Newman |title=Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11 |year=2008 |publisher=Presidio Press |isbn=978-0891419051 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/firefightinsideb00cree/page/276 276–277] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/firefightinsideb00cree/page/276}}</ref> On the day of the attacks, DoD officials considered moving their command operations to [[Site R]], a backup facility in [[Pennsylvania]]. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld insisted he remain at the Pentagon, and sent Deputy Secretary [[Paul Wolfowitz]] to Site R. The [[National Military Command Center]] (NMCC) continued to operate at the Pentagon, even as smoke entered the facility.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90696597&ft=1&f=1012 |title=Battling the Pentagon Blaze After 9/11 |publisher=NPR/WHYY – Fresh Air |date=May 22, 2008 |access-date=June 24, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227180849/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90696597&ft=1&f=1012 |archive-date=February 27, 2014}}</ref> Engineers and building managers manipulated the ventilation and other building systems that still functioned to draw smoke out of the NMCC and bring in fresh air.<ref>Creed and Newman, p. 278</ref>

During a press conference held inside the Pentagon at 18:42, Rumsfeld announced, "The Pentagon's functioning. It will be in business tomorrow."<ref>{{cite web |title=DoD News Briefing on Pentagon Attack |url=http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=1613 |publisher=United States Department of Defense |date=September 11, 2001 |access-date=June 24, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080607170533/http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=1613 |archive-date=June 7, 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> Pentagon employees returned the next day to offices in mostly unaffected areas of the building. By the end of September, more workers returned to the lightly damaged areas of the Pentagon.<ref name="Wash-oct01">{{cite news |author=Vogel, Steve |title=Search for Remains Ends at Pentagon |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=October 3, 2001}}</ref>