Topeka ? When the second hijacked plane flew into the World Trade Center, Dan Stanley recalled, “The first words out of my mouth were ‘bin Laden.'”

Stanley, a former Cabinet secretary under Gov. Bill Graves, had been at his new job in the Pentagon for a week when the terrorists launched their attack.

As Stanley and others began to mobilize the Army command center, he stepped outside his office and into the hallway.

“The building shook and I felt the pressure change on my face,” the former Navy submariner said. The next thing he knew he was on the floor watching debris blow past him  “things like ‘Meeting in Progress’ signs.”

Then he saw people running out of the smoke.

“The first thing I thought was, ‘Bomb. That was a really big bomb. How did they get a bomb in here?'” Then he got up and started helping people evacuate the building.

American Airlines Flight 77 had slammed into the Pentagon about 75 yards from his office.

At the time, Stanley was responsible for mobilization of National Guard and reserve units and training programs for the military.

“In those early days, you are sending people off to a situation that you don’t fully understand,” he said.

Now Stanley is a deputy assistant secretary and works for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with the Senate on the defense budget and war on terrorism.

Stanley has high praise for President Bush and Rumsfeld in prosecuting the war on terrorism. He said that before Sept. 11, most office pools had Rumsfeld down as the first Cabinet secretary to leave.

“I don’t think he was really in jeopardy, but after 9-11, he has become a commanding and visionary figure. He doesn’t waver in his views,” he said.

Stanley said the U.S. military had accomplished its first task of routing the Taliban and helping rebuild Afghanistan.

But, he said, that has driven the terrorists further underground. “Now you have to root them out in onesies and twosies. They are quite aware that people are after them,” he said.

Stanley said he would never forget the day of the attack. He remembered looking at the rows of graves at nearby Arlington National Cemetery, and the huge fireball coming from the Pentagon.

Now, he said, “Your eyes look every time you hear a plane coming down the river. There is a sensitivity and greater awareness that we are under attack and there is more to come.”