ANNAPOLIS – Twenty more Maryland residents are among the 84 people added Friday to the joyless list of those missing from the Pentagon after hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 catastrophically hit the northwest side of the building Tuesday morning.
Teresa Russell, of Oxon Hill, was on the phone with her daughter when they heard about the crash on the radio.
“She started crying – ‘Oh my God. Oh my God. My daddy works at the Pentagon!'” said Russell. “We thought it was Armageddon.”
Russell’s husband, Robert Russell, was a budget analyst working in the wing of the Pentagon directly beneath where the plane hit.
“In my wildest dreams I never thought he would be involved in the fire, because, you know, the Pentagon is so huge,” Teresa Russell said.
Since the disaster, Russell said she and her family have received calls from as far away as Belgium and Germany asking about Robert.
“Everybody knew him and loved him,” she said. Robert Russell was a leader in his Pentagon office, where he’d been for five years. “He always used to bake pies and take them into the office . . . He made homemade pineapple ice cream.”
Robert Russell, 52, retired from the Army in the early `90s. The Russells celebrated their 30th anniversary last April. They have three children, the youngest 14.
In Capitol Heights, 39-year-old Sonya Rush is still waiting for word on her mother-in-law, Brenda Kegler of Washington. Kegler, 49, was also an Army budget analyst at the Pentagon.
“She’s not the type not to call,” Rush said of Kegler. Rush started to worry that Kegler had been in the crash when she hadn’t called by 7 p.m. Tuesday.
“We made all kinds of calls, went to all the hospitals, we never heard a thing,” said Rush. Rush and Kegler grew close when Kegler helped her through her 3-day labor 20 years ago.
“She gives of herself all the time,” Rush said.
Also missing from the Army: Samantha Allen, 36, of Hillside; Master Sgt. Max Beilke, 69, of Laurel; Carrie Blagburn, 48, of Temple Hills; Angelene Carter, 51, of Forestville; Sharon Carver, 38; Ada Davis, 57, of Camp Springs; Cortz Ghee, 54, of Reisterstown; Ron Golinski, 60, of Columbia; Sheila Hein, 51, of University Park; Jimmie Holley, 54, of Lanham; Odessa Morris, 54, of Upper Marlboro; Ted Moy, 48, of Silver Spring; Cecelia Richard, 41, of Fort Washington; Chief Warrant Officer, 4th Class, William Ruth, 57; Pat Statz, 41, of Takoma Park; Willie Troy, 51, of Aberdeen Proving Ground; and Lisa Young, 36, of Germantown.
Sandra Foster, 41, of Clinton and Shelley Marshall, of Marbury, were listed as missing on other defense agency lists.
The Pentagon estimates 126 people are unaccounted for in all, and 190 dead as a result of Tuesday’s crash.
Thursday, the Navy released a list of missing that included six Marylanders: Kris Romeo Bishundat, 24, of Waldorf; Lt. j.g. Darin Howard Pontell, 26, of Columbia; Angela Houtz, 27, of La Plata; Julian Cooper, 39, of Springdale; Jerry Moran, 39, of Upper Marlboro; and Marvin Woods, 58, of Great Mills.