What Happened in the 6 Weeks After 9/11 Changed How Military Families Were Supported

Published Sep 7, 2026, 3:00 AM EDT

Inside the 6 Weeks After 9/11 That Changed How America Cared for Military Families

For six weeks after 9/11, Pentagon families waited for answers as a support system emerged that would remain with them for the next 25 years.

In the days after terrorists attacked the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, families began arriving at a hotel in Crystal City, Virginia, carrying questions that often had no answers. Some still hoped their loved ones might have survived. The FBI was collecting toothbrushes, hairbrushes and other personal items that could provide DNA. A hotel ballroom became a briefing room. Families waited as victims were identified. And Bonnie Carroll was there. Carroll, founder and president of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS, had been in Alaska when the attacks occurred. An Air Force reservist assigned to the Pentagon's Office of National Security and Emergency Preparedness, she returned to Washington as quickly as she could. When she reported for duty, her colonel asked a simple question: Where could she do the most good?

I said, I need to be with the families, Carroll recalled in an interview with Military.com.