Most of us are familiar with the term “Ground Zero,” referring to the site of the former Twin Towers of the World Trade Center where, on that fateful day, Sept. 11, 2001, Islamic terrorists flew commercial airliners into them, destroying the towers and killing thousands of people. But there’s another Ground Zero that was attacked that day. About 30 minutes after the two planes had struck the Twin Towers, a third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, struck the Pentagon. Those who died there — both employees in the building and the passengers on the plane — numbered 189. Intriguingly, the term Ground Zero had been used for decades prior to the 9-11 tragedy to describe a particular feature of this five-sided office space: the courtyard (above) in the center of the largest office building in the world, where 25,000 people work. Mass at the Pentagon’s ‘Ground Zero’ 28 Marian Helper • Summer 2023 • Marian.org United States Geological Survey (USGS), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Fr. Jim McCormack, MIC
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