Sept. 11 rescued, William Wayne Sinclair says he was on the ground floor of the Pentagon, about 50 to 75 feet away from the point of impact on Sept. 11 when terrorists crashed a plane into the building. In an instant the 54-year-old computer technician says he was surrounded by fire, darkness and screams.
rescuer to reunite
Isaac Ho'opi'i helped William
Sinclair leave a burning PentagonBy Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.com"The smoke started choking us, the flames were all around and the walls were crumbling down and you thought, this is it," said Sinclair.
But then Sinclair says he heard a man's voice calling out to survivors. Crawling and stumbling in the dark Sinclair says he and seven co-workers made their way toward the direction of the voice and safety.
"He said, 'Head toward my voice, head toward my voice,'" said Sinclair. "Sure enough we followed his voice and we got out."
"He saved a lot of people that day."
Until last week, Sinclair had no idea who his "guardian angel" was.
That's when former Hawaii residents in Washington noticed that a Washington Post story on Sinclair's rescue was similar to a Honolulu Star-Bulletin story on Pentagon police officer Isaac Ho'opi'i, who grew up in Waianae.
In the Star-Bulletin story on Sept. 16, Ho'opi'i said he called out to Pentagon survivors in the same way that Sinclair described.
"Head toward my voice, head toward my voice."
Soon 'Ho'opi'i said his friends were telling him to read the article about the man in the hospital.
"I was like, YES!!!," said Ho'opi'i. "I had a chill down my spine because I knew that was one of the guys I heard calling for help."
On Sept. 11 Ho'opi'i ran into the Pentagon time and time again, helping people get out of the building so they could get medical attention.
But while Sinclair has been thanking and trying to find the unknown voice that saved him, Ho'opi'i says he has been haunted by echoes of voices crying for help.
To Ho'opi'i, they were voices of people he failed, those he could not get to.
"I kept on saying to myself damn it, I know I could have gone and there and help those other ones," said Ho'opi'i during a telephone interview from Washington D.C. "I could hear them but I couldn't get to them because I didn't have enough air."
"The only thing I could do was call out, and now I find out that not only did this guy make it but seven other people. To me that was a gift."
Both men finally talked to each other during a phone conversation last week for about 10 minutes. Sinclair said he recognized Ho'opi'i's pidgin "accent," while Ho'opi'i said he recognized the words that Sinclair repeated to him as his own.
"Head toward my voice, head toward my voice."
"That's when I knew for sure that was him," said Sinclair. "I said there is no way I could ever thank you or repay you for saving my life or saving the others that followed your voice out.
"He went over and above what a person can do. He was definitely a guardian angel that day and a great human being."
"I just said I'm glad you're alive," said Ho'opi'i. "I mean, what do you say? There's no words that can say how glad I was to talk to that guy."
"I had no idea that yelling and calling out would help."
Both men will meet each other in person for the first time since September 11 during NBC's Today Show tomorrow. Because Sinclair is still recovering from 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his arms, Ho'opi'i says he will be cautious to not hug his new friend too hard.
"My wife already told me to be careful," said Ho'opi'i, who stands 6 feet and weighs 200 pounds.
"I don't care," laughs Sinclair. "I'll suffer the pain. We'll hug as long as we want."
