'The Country Really Came Together': Red Crosser Recounts Resilience in Nation's Darkest Days

“I’m very proud of the Red Cross.”

Charles Blake has been with the American Red Cross for almost 40 years, so it’s not surprising he would have pride in the organization. In this case, however, the Southwest and Rocky Mountain Division Disaster Executive is talking about a specific event from 20 years ago.

The then-Senior Director of Emergency Services and International Services for the National Capital Region started the morning of September 11, 2001, meeting with the Chief of the Metro Police, talking about a contract to provide first aid training and other services to the department. That meeting ended when an employee rushed in saying that a plane had crashed into a World Trade Center tower. They rushed around the corner in time to see the second plane hit the second tower on live TV.

“We didn’t realize it was a second plane,” Blake remembers. “We thought it was a replay.”

Shaken, Blake went on with his day, which involved an event away from the K-Street office in DC. He was carpooling with an FBI agent also scheduled to attend that event, talking about the incidents earlier that morning in NYC.

“The FBI agent said, ‘You know, if this is terrorist activity, the next target will likely be the Pentagon,’” Blake said. Four minutes later, he received a call saying a plane had in fact crashed into the Pentagon. They immediately turned the car around to return to the Red Cross office and saw thousands of people running out of office buildings in chaos.

“When I first got to the office, we still weren’t sure what we were dealing with,” Blake said. With a line of people outside Red Cross Square looking to donate blood, he began working to set up a larger donation center, until the Disaster Operation Center called and said they needed him at the Pentagon. Blake began on what he calls a “life changing experience,” working with partners to stand up a respite center for first responders and families who had lost loved ones in the tragedy. Volunteers provided food and emotional support, and helped coordinate the distribution of the many donations that came in to help.

“I felt a huge responsibility to get this off on the right foot,” Blake says. “The country really came together, supporting us with their dollars and their prayers. For 30 days, you could walk down the street wearing the logo and people would come up and donate cash or checks. It was a very scary time for us, but we came through. Folks did a spectacular job taking care of first responders and families.”

A photo of Blake on a cell phone in front of the Pentagon still hangs on the wall of the Red Cross Disaster Operations Center, and the emotions from responding to terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA, remain as well.

“I still have emails I haven’t opened from that time, burned on a CD,” Blake said. “We survived it. We came back. We’re resilient.”

As Division Disaster Executive, Blake has responded to a lot of disasters, and is currently supporting the Hurricane Ida relief efforts in the Gulf. However, he will make time this week to help represent the Red Cross at a private wreath-laying ceremony for select agencies at the Pentagon as we remember those tragic events that took the lives nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA, 20 years ago.

“We’ve always been here to help for 140 years, hope to continue for 140 more,” Blake says. “It’s people coming together. We all have ownership in the Red Cross.”

-Jay Bonafede, American Red Cross