911-Victim Schaeffer: Fighter at Commission and in Lawsuit

CNN

9/11 survivor adds personal touch to commission

WASHINGTON (AP) --

"...Of the 30 people on duty in the Pentagon's Navy Command Center the morning of September 11, 2001, only one -- Lt. Kevin Shaeffer --survived the crash of a hijacked airliner.

He is again standing out, now as one of 60 employees of the independent commission studying the events of that day.

His scars testify to the fireball that engulfed his section of the Pentagon. His resolve is a reminder that those most affected by the terrorist attacks hunger for answers.

"He brings a passion for telling the definitive account of what happened," said John Farmer, a former New Jersey attorney general who is working with Shaeffer. "He has a million ideas about everything we're doing and is incredibly focused. He brings sort of a spiritual energy to the work."

During a grueling recovery that included 18 operations and two near-fatal cardiac arrests, Shaeffer set a goal of resuming full-time work this September. He willed himself to get well faster, he said, so he could join the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States when it began work early this year.

Now medically retired from the Navy, he hopes the experience will lead him into a career in homeland security and counterterrorism.

"I think every day of all the co-workers who were killed, my close friends and office mates," said Shaeffer, 31. "They all had families. Two of them had pregnant wives on September 11. I know in this life that I'm not going to have any answers of why I survived the attack, but what I do know is that I can hopefully make a difference in the future."

Shaeffer works on a task force, led by Farmer, which is investigating the emergency response to the plane crashes at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The goal, Farmer said, is to find lessons that will improve the reaction to future attacks, should they come.

The commission has until May to report on topics including intelligence, diplomacy, aviation and the flow of assets to terror organizations. Even as he focuses on his task force, Shaeffer immerses himself in the full scope of the inquiry.

He watched from the audience, quietly and intently, as the commission held a two-day hearing last month on aviation security. The office in his Virginia home, a few miles from the now-repaired Pentagon, includes a shelf of books he has read, including "Report from Ground Zero," "Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why" and "Inside Al Qaeda."

"Being a survivor," he said, "I'm trying to learn every lesson I can.".."

Where CNN is fading out their own backup material on Schaeffer

Kevin Schaeffer's lawsuit

Kevin Schaeffer is also represented in a lawsuit, together with many other 911victims by Motley + Motley (from "911 Skeptics Unite")

Schaeffer, Kevin
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Kevin Schaeffer is the only Pentagon-attack-victim, who survived in the building, who filed a lawsuit (->) against the US Government.

On November 25th, 2002, he said in an interview with CNN:

"Speaking on behalf of the families who Mr. Motley represents and those of us who have filed this suit, that the last thing we're seeking in this fight is a monetary reward. And what, indeed, all of us are seeking is the facts and the truth. We certainly know and are realists that money makes the world go round. And this financial network, as shadowy as it, actually supports and enables global terrorism to happen, and specifically September 11. Those individuals were funded by someone. And that's what we're seeking to prove."

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printed from 911-Victim Schaeffer: Fighter at Commission and in Lawsuit on 2004-03-08 10:58:37