WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- For years , retired Air Force Col. John Leech has had no desire to return to the Pentagon . Retired Col. John Leech narrowly escaped death at the Pentagon on September 11 , 2001 . Leech narrowly escaped death September 11 , 2001 , when a hijacked American Airlines jetliner hit the building . He will attend Thursday 's dedication of the Pentagon memorial honoring the 184 people killed in the terror attack . In an earlier visit to the memorial , Leech left a note for his friend Navy Capt . Jack Punches : `` Thanks Jack for serving and dying for our nation . '' Leech could barely contain his sadness recently as he watched a Department of Defense videotape showing the burned interior of the area in the building where he was that fateful morning . `` Wow . My God . ... It makes you weak in the knees to see these pictures , '' Leech said . Leech , 54 , recently took CNN into an office not far from the conference room where he was that morning . He has avoided touring the building since the attack but finally decided he was ready to `` re-engage '' with the past . In 2001 , Leech was working as a Defense Department liaison officer to the White House Drug Policy office . He worked primarily out of the White House but attended meetings at the Pentagon every Tuesday and Thursday morning . Watch as he returns to the crash site » . As he walked the now-renovated halls where he spent the morning of September 11 , he recalled the horror of the day . The shock , he said , was indescribable . `` It hit with such force . I had never experienced anything like it in my life . It rattled you right down to the bone , '' Leech said . Flight 77 slammed into the west wall of the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m . ET . Among the 184 people killed in the building and on the plane were a 3-year-old girl and a 71-year-old retired Navy captain , the youngest and oldest victims , who were both passengers on Flight 77 . A closer look at the new Pentagon memorial » . Several people were killed or severely burned not far from where Leech took cover . He remembers people screaming , `` bloodcurdling screams . '' `` I was so lucky . ... It was almost like we were in a protective cocoon , '' Leech recalled . `` I mean , I inhaled a lot of jet fuel vapors , and I got dusted up , but that was the extent of my injuries . '' The married father of a 26-year-old woman remembers snaking his way outside the burning building , where in a stupor he noticed a comb that appeared to belong to a small child . `` A little girl 's comb that was untouched . It was not scorched ; it did n't have smut on it , '' Leech remembered . `` It was a pristine red comb sitting off the side , and next to it was a tattered suitcase , and I can remember looking at that and thinking , who did that belong to ? What little girl did that belong to ? '' Leech served 28 years in the military and now works for the Department of Homeland Security but hopes to return one day to the Defense Department . Seven years after that horrible day , Leech visited the chapel at the new Pentagon Memorial , a two-acre park , which opens to the public Thursday . It was built at the spot where Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon and will be open 24 hours a day , seven days a week . Thumbing through a condolence book in the chapel , he found the friend whom he was with that day , Navy Capt . Jack Punches . He wrote , `` Thanks Jack for serving and dying for our nation -- John Leech . '' `` I 've avoided ... anything to do with 9/11 , so it feels good to be here , '' he said . `` I mean , a lot happened that day . A lot of good people died . A lot of very good people . '' CNN senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre contributed to this story .
Army Col . John Leech narrowly escaped death on September 11 , 2001 . Pentagon survivor , shock , terror of that terrible day . Fleeing for safety , he saw a little girl 's red dress untouched near a tattered suitcase . See 9/11 memorials in New York and coverage on CNN.com below .