Laura Joss, Superintendent, Fort McHenry National Monument and Shrine
Interviewed by Chuck Smythe, Ph.D., Cultural Anthropologist
May 10, 2002 - Telephone Interview.

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CHUCK SMYTHE: Thanks a lot for talking to me about the aftermath of the September 11th attacks. I'm just going to kind of walk you through that day and the days after and then maybe ask you to kind of expand or go into certain areas that come up in the course of our discussion. Did that day start as kind of a normal day for you?

LAURA JOSS: It did. I was at Hampton [National Historic Site] that day with our division chiefs from both Fort McHenry and Hampton [National Historic Site]. We were holding a 9:00 squad meeting and in the middle of that meeting the Law Enforcement Ranger on site, Bill Curtis, came in and said that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. And he was asking if they needed to bring in the rangers from Fort McHenry. He made some reference to an action with the other rangers at the Fort. And I said, "Why would we need to do something like that just because a plane hit the building?" And he said, "Well, it's not clear but it may not have been an accident." We tried to continue our squad meeting. Then we heard that the second plane had hit and we immediately disbanded the squad meeting and we also received word from region and they had indicated that we should close the Park. So, we had an 11:30 closure of both Parks [Fort McHenry and Hampton].

CHUCK SMYTHE: Did you have any requests for ranger assistance or protection assistance at any of the sites? In New York or anywhere?

LAURA JOSS: Not that day…the first offer that we made was that our maintenance division chief offered to help bring in heavy equipment. He sent that offer quite shortly after the 11th once we realized we would be open on the 12th and I think he started making those contacts to offer both personnel and heavy equipment to help out. …

CHUCK SMYTHE: Going back to that morning what kind of thoughts went through your mind?

LAURA JOSS: Well, I felt a little handicapped being at Hampton because I was worried about Fort McHenry. I was very concerned that this might be one in a series of events that would threaten more areas than just New York. And we in Baltimore, as we heard about the D.C. crash at the Pentagon, we felt very vulnerable because we're…close to D.C. and there was the real fear that the flag at Fort McHenry would have drawn negative attention… So, we were worried about that. And we were very surprised when we heard President Bush's speech the night of the 11th and then got called from the Regional Office very late that night that we needed to be open on Wednesday, the 12th. And, we were kind of surprised about that because we…we, being the Division Chiefs…I think we all still felt kind of vulnerable and we weren't sure if we'd be getting any other land based attacks or even air. It was kind of scary to open right back up. But once we did, we realized that the people in the area appreciated so much that we were open and they could come in and walk around the grounds. One guy wrote me a note…he said I just come here to meditate...

...Other people said they feel - they come here as a place of solace. They come and just look at the flag and it's a relief for them to come to the quiet area and just feel safe and calm and look at the flag and what it means to them.

CHUCK SMYTHE: So, you noticed that happening right - beginning on the 12th.

LAURA JOSS: Yes, pretty much… One personal encounter I had was I was out at the visitor desk … I had seen a van out in the parking lot that was labeled something like response recovery and these few folks were in sort of grubby uniforms… They said they were on their way back from the World Trade Center recovery zone and they had stopped here because they wanted to see the flag. They said it really meant a lot to them. That was great and that got us thinking. Again, the staff felt so much frustration that we just couldn't do something for the recovery efforts. [Then one Ranger recalled that Senator Barbara Mikulski] likes to come to the site and walk around right at closing sometimes. She does this maybe once every couple of months on a Saturday evening and one of the rangers on site, who I had been talking about this to, I was saying to him earlier it would be great if we could do something for the people of New York. Couldn't we just at least fly a flag for them and give it to them. So, he mentioned this to Senator Mikulski. And flying a flag is a tradition at Fort McHenry where we…fly a flag for people or people bring in a flag and have it flown for them[selves] over the fort for a special occasion, like to mark a wedding or an anniversary. I had one flown for my daughter the day she was born a couple of months ago here. We give [the flag along] with a nice certificate to whomever it was flown for.

So, [the Ranger] mentioned to the Senator that it would be nice to fly a flag for the people of New York, but how would we get it there? And she said, "Oh well, I would be happy to present it to their Senators on the floor." She said, "Just fly the flag and have it sent over to my office on Monday." So, we did that and we didn't think much of it. In fact, we had thought she just gave it to them quietly or, you know, we didn't hear too much about it for a couple of weeks. But then her office called and said, We're going to have a flag presentation at the Capitol, on the steps of the Capitol, on October …" - let me get my dates right here - oh, October "… 2nd we're going to have the presentation and we'd like you to be there. We'd like the Superintendent and two Rangers to come down to help present it." So, we were really thrilled that she did that for us and we, Charlie Strickfaden and Scott Sheads and I went down with the flag and we went to what they called the Senate pond [Reflecting Pool]. …And I stood with Senator Mikulski and we had Senator Sarbanes from Maryland and Congressman Cardin [and Cummings] and many others.

Senator Mikulski used some text that we had written up about why we wanted the flag presented and then she had each of the Senators from New York speak. Senator Clinton and [Senator Schumer] really spoke eloquently about how important Fort McHenry was. And, in fact, Senator Clinton had been here and … so she even knew one of the important things about Fort McHenry that I should have mentioned earlier the Battle of Baltimore from the War of 1812 was fought here September 13th and 14th in 1814 and it was the last time that the United States Capitol had ever been attacked by a foreign power. Britain had invaded the Capitol, …and burned the Capitol building. And so, it was ironic that the September 11th event occurred so close to that September 14th battle and it was kind of the next most recent time that the United States Capitol had been attacked. So, she mentioned that irony and I was glad that she had been aware of that history. And then Senator [Schumer] said that when they put up the World Trade Center Memorial that our flag would be the first one to fly over it.

We thought that was very thoughtful of them and it really helped the staff to show that we [could] do something for New York. But, we also wanted to do something for the people in our area who had helped with the recovery - with the World Trade Center and the Pentagon recovery.

CHUCK SMYTHE: Meaning - what did they do?

LAURA JOSS: Oh, the people that had gone to the World Trade Center to help with the - help try to recover bodies and people from this area had gone to the Pentagon. And, one group in particular was a search dog team and they had - it's a volunteer crew and they had worked at the Pentagon for a couple of weeks doing body recovery. And, many of them are from the Baltimore, Maryland area. So, we decided to do a version of another thing that Fort McHenry does annually [tattoo ceremony] … for some of these folks and we called it a special recognition and remembrance ceremony. We held it October 7th and we invited representatives from the police and fire departments who had helped with the World Trade Center recovery efforts. We also - we tied it into Pearl Harbor because that was another time that our nation was attacked and our liberty was threatened and we invited a Pearl Harbor survivor - veteran who had been at the Battle of Pearl Harbor and survived it. And so, we started off - we worked with giving one to him and then we honored a captain with the Baltimore Fire Company, Baltimore City Fire Department rather. Another member of the, oh, Baltimore County Fire Department - and then another firefighter from Prince George's and Montgomery counties.

And then we had - what I was really excited about this - the Metro D.C. Police Canine coordinator brought the Chesapeake search dogs. That's the name of their group, who were working on the Pentagon recovery effort and we had them bring - each team brought their dogs. So, we had all the dogs go out into the center - the parade ground - and be recognized.

With all the honorary colonels we do what's called trooping the line. We walk around and look at the groups that are there playing music or, in this case, we had the John F. Nicoll Pipe Band play music. And we had the Fort McHenry guard, a living history crew, and they come out for all of our events and they demonstrated and so they were included. And, we also had the Navy Ceremonial Guard Drill Team and Color Guard perform. So, we trooped the line - went passed all of those. It's the first time - I've only been here two years - but the first time trooping the line where citizens were just very emotional and outgoing about speaking to the honorary colonels as we walked passed. And, they were saying thank you, thank you so much and it was really touching.

September 11, 2001 Oral History Documentation Project
Northeast Region, National Park Service

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