"The memorial should instill the ideas that patriotism is a moral duty, that freedom comes at a price, and that the victims of this attack have paid the ultimate price...We challenge you to create a memorial that translates this terrible tragedy into a place of solace, peace, and healing."

Family Statement
The Pentagon Memorial Family Steering Committee

On September 11, 2001, terrorists crashed Flight 77 into the Pentagon, killing the 59 passengers on board the aircraft and 125 military and civilian personnel who were working inside the Pentagon.  Shortly after the attack, the United States Congress authorized the Secretary of Defense to create a permanent memorial on the grounds of the Pentagon. 

The Pentagon Memorial park will consist of 184 memorial units, each of which will be dedicated to an individual victim by its unique placement within the collective field. The field will be organized as a timeline of the victims’ ages, spanning from the youngest, three-year-old Dana Falkenberg, to the oldest, 71-year-old John D. Yamnicky. Each memorial unit will be located on its respective age line—thin metal strips that cross the memorial park. This ordering will develop a powerful understanding of the broad range of the lives lost, from the youngest child to the oldest adult.

The “terrazzo” finish of each memorial unit will rise dramatically from the ground on one end, and on the other end will hover over a small pool of lighted water in the surrounding gravel field of the park. Each unit will have a specific directionality to distinguish victims on board Flight 77 from victims within the Pentagon.

The memorial units representing the 59 lives lost on Flight 77 will face so that when reading the name of the victim to whom that unit is dedicated, the visitor to the memorial park faces the sky. When standing at a memorial unit dedicated to a victim who was inside the Pentagon, the visitor will see the victim’s name and the Pentagon in the same view. 

The simple but elegant memorial units will be at once a glowing light pool, a cantilevered bench and a place for permanent inscription of each victim’s name. The interplay between the leaves of surrounding maple trees, light, bark, footpath gravel, grasses, water and the senses will provide an experience in the park that is touching and moving, one that creates a place of peace and remembrance, and allows for individual interpretation by each visitor.   The Pentagon Memorial, therefore, serves a much greater purpose than just remembering the 184 people who were killed that day. This memorial will provide a place for future generations to remember and reflect on September 11, and its significance for us and our nation. This memorial will be a place of solace where visitors can renew their faith in, and commitment to the values that we all share. 

The Pentagon Memorial Fund, Inc. was incorporated in May 2003 as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization to raise the private funds necessary to design, build and maintain the Pentagon Memorial.

Washington Headquarters Service (WHS) holds overall responsibility for the project, with Pentagon Renovation & Construction Program Office (PENREN/C) serving as the construction agent.  Real Estate and Facilities (RE&F) will serve as the project manager to secure, manage and account for funding as the project progresses.  Centex-Lee LLC was awarded the design-build contract to complete the Pentagon Memorial.