Honoring Duty and Legacy: A 9/11 Story of Service at the Pentagon
In the days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, initial recovery at the Pentagon was supported by a mix of firefighters, first responders and military personnel. Among them was current College of Law student Jared Hansbrough L’29, at the time a U.S. Marine Corps captain, who volunteered to join fellow Marines in casualty recovery efforts over the ensuing week.
On Sept. 13, the group recovered a Marine Corps flag that was standing in the wreckage, perched on the edge of a 4th floor office that had been split in half by the gaping hole left in the Pentagon. The flag had somehow survived the attack unscathed. The group returned the flag to the Marine Corps, where it would symbolically become a reminder of the events of that week.
What began as a quiet act of service became a symbol of resilience and commitment to country—and a story that continues to inspire more than two decades later.
The Hon. James E. Baker, professor of law, director of the Institute for Security Policy and Law and professor of public administration in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, also knows that flag. It once stood behind the desk of his mentor and close friend, Peter Murphy, his son’s godfather and longtime counsel to the commandant of the Marine Corps.
At 9:37 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, Murphy was standing in front of it when Flight 77 struck the Pentagon. Though injured, he returned to work the next day, determined that the law was as present on Sept. 12 as it had been on Sept. 10 and Sept. 11. The flag was subsequently carried to Afghanistan and into space on the shuttle Endeavor before being returned to Murphy.
Today, it is displayed at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, a lasting tribute to Murphy’s service (Murphy passed away in 2015), the service of Marines and most of all to the victims of 9/11.
“Peter, who was from New York, would have loved knowing that Jared had found his way to the law and to Syracuse, or as he might have put it, that Jared had chosen to continue to support and defend the Constitution as a lawyer,” Baker says.
After more than two decades of military service followed by public service at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Hansbrough is now pursuing his law degree through the online hybrid JDinteractive program, preparing for a career in private practice. Today, we honor Hansbrough’s story, and the courage, sacrifice and service of all who responded in the wake of that tragic day.
