A chance to heal at scarred site

The benches, which appear to float above illuminated reflecting pools, are positioned along age lines from the youngest victim, who was 3 years old, to the oldest, who was 71, with the names engraved on one end. Visitors facing the building will read the names of the 125 civilian and military employees who died at the Pentagon. To see the names of the 59 passengers and crew members on the plane, visitors face the other way, toward the open sky.

The first bench Petrovich approached bore the name of Craig Amundson. The two had car-pooled to work together and sat across the room from each other. On Sept. 11, 2001, they had driven to work as usual, then watched on TV as two of the hijacked jets were flown into the World Trade Center towers.

"I turned to Craig and said, 'Well, we better go call home; we're going to be working late tonight,' " Petrovich said. "So we went back to our desks to make a couple of phone calls, and I had just gotten off the phone when the room shook, the air rippled and a fireball shot over my head."

Petrovich, who suffered second-degree burns on his face and hands, was able to locate survivors and help lead them to safety through a second-floor window.

On Tuesday, he hesitated in front of the bench honoring his friend. "At first I didn't want to walk on the gravel or sit on the benches," he said.

Then he overcame his emotions. "I sat there and told my wife the stories of when we used to go to work together and about his family and children," he said.

Two months after the attack, family members of the victims formed a committee to work with the Army Corps of Engineers on the memorial project. Despite security concerns, the family members insisted that the site be as close as possible to where their loved ones had died.

Unlike Pentagon tours, which can only be booked by groups through reservations made at least two weeks in advance, the memorial will be open to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week, starting at 7 tonight.

William R. Stout, deputy chief of operations for the Pentagon Police Department, acknowledged that, from a security standpoint, the location was not ideal. "It would have been nice to have it somewhere else, but it is only logical that it is there," he said. "We are going to have our eyes on it. We are going to make sure it is secure."

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cynthia.dizikes@latimes.com