WASHINGTON D.C. – For six hours on Sept. 11, Lt. Col. William T. McKinnon’s family assumed the worst and hoped for the best.

His parents, from their home in Bangor, began mentally preparing for their son’s funeral and various other arrangements.

“A friend of ours also works at the Pentagon and he knows exactly where my son’s office was located,” said McKinnon’s mother, Carolyn McKinnon. “He said the whole area of my son’s office was in flames. I started to write his obituary in my head and think of the other arrangements that had to be made.”

Even McKinnon’s wife of 12 years, Deborah, found it hard to maintain hope. She had been heading out the door of their Virginia home with the couple’s 3-year-old son, William T. McKinnon Jr., to go to the library when she heard the news.

“I was hysterical, but then I saw my son and knew I had to pull it together,” she recalled Tuesday. “When I put my son down for a nap, I prepared for the worst.”

McKinnon worked in Section One of the Pentagon where American Airlines Flight 11 crashed. But while everyone was assuming the worst, he was helping to save the life of a fellow officer. For his efforts, the 39-year-old Bangor native recently was awarded the Soldier’s Medal for heroism involving the risk of his life.

The Army man of 17 years is the chief of analysis and strength management, a job that involves working with Army personnel policies. His office was located in ring D of the Pentagon, one ring away from the outside wall where Flight 11 had its initial impact.

With the Pentagon divided into rings A through E, with E being the outermost ring, McKinnon’s office was mere yards away from the initial impact site.

Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell was in ring E when the plane hit. The fireball that ensued as thousands of gallons of jet fuel exploded severely burned Birdwell. McKinnon said it was on mere adrenaline that Birdwell dragged himself to ring D where he was found by his friend. The Maine native carried his fallen comrade to ring A to receive medical attention. As they waited, McKinnon did his best to perform first aid on his badly injured fellow officer.

“I couldn’t even recognize him when I first saw him,” said McKinnon, during a telephone interview Tuesday. “His face was black and his skin was hanging in shreds and he was bleeding. He recognized me first.”

Birdwell was taken away for medical attention and remains hospitalized today in serious condition. There is little doubt that Birdwell would have died if not for the efforts of McKinnon. The area where Birdwell had fallen quickly filled “with an incredibly dark, hot, black, toxic smoke,” said McKinnon.

The medal he received Oct. 24 is of little comfort to McKinnon. Of the 12 people in McKinnon’s office, three died Sept. 11 with another four from his department of 20 also dead.

“Bill’s always had a big heart. He has always helped anyone he could,” Deborah McKinnon said. “He would rather have the people here than something he can pin on a uniform.”

McKinnon had gone to work at 7 a.m. Sept. 11, expecting a normal day of “number crunching,” but a little after 9 a.m., his office received word the first plane had struck the World Trade Center. Soon after, McKinnon and several of his office co-workers left the area to find televisions to watch the news unfold in New York City. McKinnon moved to ring C where the brigadier general’s office for his division was located

Years down the road, when people ask McKinnon where he was when the Pentagon was attacked, he will recall with vivid clarity the events that transpired. McKinnon can describe the way he had been exiting the door of the brigadier general’s office to head back to his own office when there was a very loud thud.

“Then everything shook violently and the ceiling tiles and light fixtures started coming down,” McKinnon said. That’s when he began looking to help others.

Even after helping Birdwell, he returned to the building, wetting his shirt to use as a mask against the smoke, but eventually he was forced to leave before he could help anyone else. McKinnon only left the fully engulfed building when word that United Airlines Flight 93 was on a collision course with the capital.

When he received word that the flight had crashed in western Pennsylvania, he was home with his family who were very much relieved to have him there.

“I never want to relive it,” said Deborah McKinnon. “I’m so glad I’m not having to deal with the grief that some of our friends have to. We’re very proud of Bill and know that he did everything he could to help everyone he could.”