After serving as a soldier in the U.S. Army, Terp is now a military consultant for the government. On the morning of September 11, he had gone to the Pentagon's gym for an early- morning jog. After showering and changing clothes, he went to his office, where he was seated at his desk when he began to hear murmurs about an attack on the World Trade Center. He told me that while watching- "in disbelief,” the televised broadcasts of what was occurring in New York City, he began to contemplate the possibility that the Pentagon too could be attacked.

A few minutes later, he heard the roar of an engine, felt the building shake, and saw the windows implode. According to Terp, "Debris was flying everywhere; we thought it was a bomb," he said. While making his way out of the building and to his car, he decided to drive home. "It didn't really hit me until the next day," he said, “when I realized that if it [the airplane] had come in a little more to the left, we would have gotten toasted. It was by the grace of God, or whatever, that we made it."

More than anything, Terp recalled his intense feelings of anger following the event; even today, he is still very angry. "You just feel like you'd like to go after some of these people yourself and wring their necks ... then there are things that make me angrier. I still have anger about how this country perceives all of this ... we've got very short memories. Ironically, Terp’s anger is equally divided: Some at the perpetrators, and some at Americans, whom he says, “have gotten a bit too complacent.” According to him, the latter is one of his greatest fears.