Geary County Commissioner Larry Hicks remembers September 11, 2001.

He was in the Pentagon in Washington D. C. when a plane hijacked by terrorists slammed into that facility. Hicks was on an opposite site of the building when the plane hit, and he was not harmed.

Hicks said employees were directed to leave the building. “No one knew what was going on, and as we were coming out on the south side of the Pentagon building we saw a huge plume of big black smoke, and people immediately thought someone had tried to bomb the Pentagon.”

Hicks stated it was later that day before he learned that a plane had flown into the Pentagon.

“It turned out to be the most singularly traumatic event in my life because it took me a very long time, almost a year to really seriously recover from having that experience.”

Today Hicks resides in his hometown of Junction City, and serves on the Geary County Commission.