GWINNETT COUNTY, GA — Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Gwinnett County District 3 Commissioner Jasper Watkins remembers how a delayed meeting kept him from the area of the Pentagon where a plane struck.

Watkins was stationed at the Pentagon at the time and said he was supposed to attend a meeting there that morning.

“On that morning, we were supposed to be personnel command at the Pentagon, that’s exactly where the aircraft hit,” Watkins said.

Watkins said the commander delayed the meeting, leaving him on a Metro train headed to the Pentagon when the attack happened.

“It was like a jolt in the train,” Watkins said.

Watkins and his team rushed toward the west side of the Pentagon after arriving.

“We started running to the west side of the Pentagon, and that’s when we saw everything. It was like the smell, the fire, had just happened, and so immediately we went into crisis mode,” Watkins said.

He said they began helping people who were injured and leaving the building.

“And so immediately we went into crisis mode and we started to assist with all of the walking wounded coming out,” Watkins said.

Watkins said the experience taught him to remain prepared for potential disasters, a lesson he has carried with him to Gwinnett County.

“I’m always the one that says ‘what if,’” Watkins said.

Watkins is joining Gwinnett County firefighters to remember those who lost their lives in the attacks.

WSB Radio’s Ashley Simmons & Keith Cromwell contributed to this story.