WASHINGTON — Etched in Christine Owen's mind, is that beautiful morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
"It was a stunningly beautiful day. I drive from Annapolis to work so I go down Route 50 and there was not a car on the road. There’s no traffic, there was a beautiful blue sky, not a cloud.
Owen knew two planes had hit the World Trade Center, and another had just hit the Pentagon.
"I could see a plume of smoke in the distance, and I just kind of trekked into the city," said Owen.
She pulled up to the chaotic scene at MedStar Washington Hospital Center where she worked as a nurse.
"It was something I had never seen before. People moving fast, IV pulls, IVs being hung and strung," she recalled.
Ten burn victims were brought to MedStar that day. Many of them were suffering from burn and smoke inhalation injuries.
Sept. 11 was Dr. Jack Sava's first day at work as the hospital's newest trauma surgeon.
"I had been hired, but my D.C. license hadn't come through. I was kind of wandering around trying to be useful but wasn't allowed to touch patients. But then 9/11 happened and all of that was taken care of on an emergency basis and I was off to the races," said Dr. Sava.
Dr. Sava, who is now Chief of Surgery at MedStar, recalls the smell that overwhelmed the hospital that day. It's a smell he said he will carry with him the rest of his life.
"The most obvious thing about this event and what everybody remembers is it smelled like jet fuel. That was a smell that was associated with the event that everybody took home with them," said Dr. Sava.
Christine Owen, now an acute care nurse practitioner, also still works at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. She remembers when things at the hospital took an eerie turn that day 20 years ago.
"It was crazy radio silence. The chaos had settled down and we were all outside on the ambulance ramp and it was such an amazing day and we were like where are these people?" said Owen.
She tells WUSA9 that people started to panic, realizing that more victims likely weren't coming, because they either couldn't get to the hospital or were dead.
A total of 189 people died in the attack on the Pentagon that day, including the 64 people on board American Airlines flight 77. Those who made it to the hospital were lucky to be alive.
"The thing that struck me both about the victims and the team there was sort of an attitude of absolutely not, no one's going to die here," said Dr. Sava.
Nine of the 10 victims at MedStar survived. And 20 years later, Owen wonders what happened to those who got a second chance.
"What did you do with that gift? I would want to know what they're up to and what they've been doing with their lives," said said.