For Carol Varner of Moody, Veterans Day isn’t just a day on the calendar in November. It’s not about taking an hour out of her day to watch a parade, say a prayer, or shake a hand to thank someone for service.

Varner, a veteran and survivor of the Sept. 11, 2001 Pentagon attack, treats every day like it’s Veterans Day. Whether it consists of helping a World War II soldier arrange to get his medications, or firing off a shot of the 21-gun salute during a military funeral, Varner works every day to make sure that the sacrifices of those who serve our country do not go unrewarded.

Becoming a guardswoman

When her family moved to the Birmingham area in 1968, Varner had enough credits to graduate from Autauga County (now Prattville) High School after 11th grade and go on to Jefferson State Community College to pursue a nursing degree.

While she enjoyed nursing, she also had a love for aviation.

Varner received her pilot’s license on her own accord and enlisted in the Army National Guard in 1976 when her aunt, a Guardswoman, suggested she join to be a pilot.

“I came through [the National Guard] when there weren’t very favorable conditions for women,” Varner said. “I was the last state Women’s Army Corps officer, because while I was serving at headquarters in Montgomery, they deleted the WAC and made it all one army.”

Because of her knowledge of nursing, Varner was put in an evacuation hospital unit rather than being used as a pilot. If she had gotten her wish, Varner would have been the first female National Guard pilot in Alabama.

“I tried for years to be a pilot, but I kept being turned down for strange reasons,” Varner said. “The last time, I was told I was too old to be a pilot.”

After joining the National Guard solely to be a pilot, Varner intended to leave, but a friend who had recently left the Army Reserves told her there was a 60 to 80 percent chance that she could go to flight school if she transferred to the Reserves.

“I transferred that day, and they had me in flight school within 30 days,” Varner said with a smile.

She excelled in pilot’s positions, and was quickly promoted into an officer position.

“When I joined, I could have taken a direct commission, but I chose to be enlisted,” Varner said. “It was a great decision for me in officer’s school, because I knew what it was like to be enlisted, so it affected how I related to the enlisted officers.”

She kept excelling throughout her career, and while she was promoted out of a position where she could continue to fly, she spent the last 10 years of her career working as a senior adviser for mobilization for the Army National Guard and the Reserves.

This line of work brought Varner to the Pentagon in March 2000.

Sept. 11, 2001

As the Chief of Mobilization for the Army National Guard and Reserves, Varner was preparing to brief her general officer personnel. Her unit monitored television, radio and newspapers to keep abreast of any worldwide situations that may need military attention from the United States, so she was aware that the World Trade Center in New York had been hit by an airplane.

Varner had a time and location scheduled to meet the general. She had her briefing books in tow, and even had two employees along, which she was training to fill her position when she was scheduled to rotate out of the Pentagon the next month.

Right as she was about to leave, Varner said her normally-calm general stopped her, and asked how a pilot could possibly not see a Twin Tower in enough time to avoid a collision.

“Aviators are Prima Donnas,” Varner said. “We know how to deal with emergencies on our aircraft, and there is almost nothing that you can’t do to avoid impact with a building.

“My personal opinion was that it was a deliberate hit, knowing aviators the way that I do.”

When the second plane hit, there was no doubt in her general’s mind that the mishaps were deliberate attacks, and ordered activation of the Crisis Action Team. The CAT, of which Varner was a member, brought together key point people from the military, the surgeon general’s office, and many other agencies to help manage crises.

Because of the activation, Varner had to cancel her briefing appointment.

“I called the G1’s office, told him to send his [CAT] person down now, and to tell the general that I can’t make the briefing,” Varner said.

“Before their person even arrived, there was a noise like thunder, like the shaking of a sheet of tin that you’d hear in the movies.”

Before she knew it, the building’s alert systems had engaged.

“We didn’t know at the time that we were hit, but it didn’t take long,” she said.

If the question from Varner’s general hadn’t been asked, she would have been at her appointment with the personnel general, the only officer of his rank that was killed in the attack. His office was the direct impact point of the airplane that crashed into their facility.

With the shock of the events still fresh, Varner said she and her colleagues on the CAT quickly got to work.

“Our general told us, ‘OK guys and girls, this is what you’re paid the big bucks for, let’s get to work,’” she said. “So, we evacuated non-essential personnel, we rolled up our sleeves, and we got to work.”

From mobilizing the National Guard to secure their building within three hours, to organizing a crew to sift through the rubble and retrieve any body parts left to give families closure, Varner worked literally day and night for her country.

“Most people in key positions were there for three days without leaving,” she said. “We were in 24-7 operations. We had a special blacked-out room, because we were now under top secret orders, and I only left that room to try to catch a catnap under my desk.”

A stash of foods in Varner’s desk helped sustain employees until local restaurants started bringing food for them free of charge while they dealt with the emergency.

For months after, Varner worked tirelessly to meet the needs of the country as the War on Terror sprang forward.

“It added tenfold to the amount of work I had to do. I often spent not less than 12 hours in the office, once we got to a point where we could leave,” she said. “The president had declared a Select Reserve Call-Up, which was my job, so it was non-stop, around-the-clock work. It was no rest for the weary, all to the point of near exhaustion, much like front-line soldiers experience, but mine was more mental,” Varner explained.

“The mechanics of me being able to help my country didn’t require carrying a heavy rucksack or ammunition. I was blessed to be able to contribute, but I did have some guilt that the front-line veterans were paying the ultimate price.”

But a lack of a gun didn’t make her job any less important.

“What America doesn’t seem to understand is, it’s not just those troops that are deployed. Someone has to support them. It takes the entire military to make it happen,” she said. “Those who work behind the scenes often times are not thanked or rewarded for their services.”

After seven months of tireless work, Varner said the workload lightened, even though they were still in 24-7 operations.

On the one-year anniversary of the attacks, just weeks before Varner was finally allowed to rotate out of the Pentagon, she and the rest of her team were awarded numbered pieces of the rubble from the part of the Pentagon that was destroyed, as well as a flag that had been flown that day.

“It was awesome,” Varner said. “Just… wow. I have a piece of history to remind me of a great building that was destroyed by terrorist, but you know what? We rebuilt it in one year, and we were up and running the whole time.”

After leaving the Pentagon, she rotated to Ft. Rucker, where she was able to be close to her family in Birmingham before she retired in August 2006.

Caring for veterans at home

Even in the face of her own trauma, Varner has been acutely aware of the issues facing veterans young and old who have rotated out of active duty and back into a “normal” life.

“While I went through the trauma of being in the attack, a situation like this doesn’t even measure up to the sacrifices paid by our veterans that have seen actual combat,” Varner said.  “When the crisis was over, I did realize that had the general not asked me that question, I’d have been at the impact point. It’s given me great reflection that my life was spared. God had other plans for me, so I found ways to get myself involved with caring for veterans.”

She began with her father, a U.S. Navy veteran from World War II.

Around the time of her retirement, Varner’s father developed lung and brain cancer, so she returned to the area to help care for him until he passed away in 2008.

While she cared for her father, she started getting involved with the Leeds American Legion, even just stopping by to pick up a Boston Butt that they were selling as a fundraiser.

“So many people knew me from 30 years earlier, and they kept saying, ‘Come down and see us,’ so I did, and I ended up getting involved kind of on accident.”

Her own experience with her father fueled her fire for supporting veterans.

“I couldn’t help but wonder what do families do now? With society having fewer children per family than in the past, who is going to be there? What about veterans without children,” Varner asked. “I may be a disabled veteran, but I’m still able to do a lot for them.”

While she began helping out “a veteran here and a veteran there,” she quickly became active in local military organizations as a way to help even more veterans across the area and the state.

Currently, Varner serves as commander for the A. L. McLaughlan Post of Disabled American Veterans. She’s also the senior vice commander for the Ragland VFW Post 665, the senior vice commander for the Alabama VFW District 4, adjutant for the American Legion Post 109 in Pell City, a member of the Combined Arms Honor Guard team, and the women veterans chairperson for the Alabama chapter of Disabled American Veterans.

While the work keeps her busy, the work she does is crucial and needs many more hands to participate than just her own.

“Our vets are coming back to a struggling economy, the places they worked may not be in business anymore or they find that they have no jobs,” Varner said. “I’d like to plead with the public to reach out and help a veteran. Get involved in those organizations that help veterans.”