Local men help repair Pentagon roof
Spending a week putting old-fashioned slate tiles on a roof in 90-to-97 degree weather sounds like some form of punishment. For two local men, it was just the opposite.
Don Miller II, who owns a Uniontown-based roofing company, and Jim Asthon, one of his long-time workers, in April helped restore part of the roof of the Pentagon, the military headquarters that was damaged in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks last year.
They gave their time, energy, a lot of perspiration in a week they will never forget.
“I never thought I’d ever get to see the Pentagon, let alone work on it,’ Ashton said, smiling.
Miller, a Vietnam veteran who enjoys participating in the community, said the pair got the commission through his membership in the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA).
“I’m a member of the board of directors,’ Miller said. “We had talked about how so many people were donating money to the Red Cross and supplies after the attacks last September. One of our members came up with the idea of volunteering our time to help rebuild the Pentagon roof.’
Miller said Bill Good, NRCA executive director, began talking to lawmakers about how the suggestion could be translated into action. The lawmakers spoke to military officials at the Department of Defense.
“You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to give the government something,’ Miller quipped.
In the end, however, the government accepted the offer.
“We went to suppliers in the building industry and asked them to donate materials like (roof) felt, ice shield, lumber, nails and slate.
“The project was unique in that it involved using new slate and slate that had been salvaged from the roof,’ Miller said.
He explained the section he, Ashton, and about 20 to 25 other volunteers worked on was 550 feet long and 28 feet from the edge to the peak on either side of the sloped roof.
“The Pentagon has five sides but it is also built in rings. The outer ring has slate on its roof and the inner ring has it, too,’ Miller said in his best roofing-to-layman explanation.
“There are also connecting corridors that have slate. So we needed to replace what had been damaged and cover things of value before the roof was rebuilt.’
Miller visited Washington, D.C., in October, shortly after a passenger airliner had been flown into the Pentagon by terrorists, killing all on board and several hundred people inside the building.
“I saw the devastation. The white limestone on the outside of the building had been blackened, scorched by the jet fuel. I was amazed when we returned in April to see it had been replaced and cleaned.’
But that is part of the government’s mission, he added.
“They have a large digital clock there, almost as big as this room,’ he said, stretching out his arms in his office. “That clock is ticking off the hours to Sept. 11 this year when they plan to have the work done and hold a rededication of the building,’ an event Miller, Ashton and other volunteers will likely be invited to attend.
Miller’s motivation for volunteering his time and services was his way of giving back to a country he clearly loves.
“I wanted to do something other than give money. If I donated my own time it would be my way of saying thanks to those people who died and the others who didn’t come back from Vietnam.’
Their wives also acquiesced. Miller and his wife Rush, who operates Second Time Around in downtown Uniontown, live on Ben Lomond Street while Ashton and his wife, Mary, live on Elma Avenue.
While about 50 to 100 roofing contractors across the country sent workers, Miller, who owns his firm, decided he would go. He dubbed Ashton, 72, to join him.
“Jim’s been with us since 1948. He’s worked on every kind of roof there is,’ including slate. “Working on a slate roof is part of a dying art. It’s a skill. If you hit that nail one time too many you can crack the slate and ruin it,’ Miller said.
The first thing the local duo did was fill out government forms “for security purposes. When we got there, we had to go through four or five more hours of clearance work before we could even get on the roof.
“I asked if we could go in April figuring the weather would be nice, cool. But we picked the hottest week of the year. It was 90 to 97 degrees every day. And when you are working on a roof, you can add 10 degrees to that.
“After the first day I wondered what I gotten myself into,’ Miller joked. He hasn’t done “that kind of work’ for about a decade. He manages the business, handling the office work, while his two sons, Doug and Don supervise the labor.
“We reported for work at 6 a.m. every day and we quit around 2 or 3 in the afternoon,’ Ashton said. “Donnie was soaking wet every day,’ he added.
“We did everything from carry slate to drive in slate to nail it,’ Miller said.
“It’s a difficult job because the slate is different sizes, weights and shapes.’
Fortunately, the volunteers were hosted at a hotel in Pentagon City so they could walk to work each of the five days they were there.
For both men, the job was not the biggest in their careers. “But it certainly was the most important,’ they agreed.
“They sent us a per diem check for $200 but we signed them and sent them back,’ Miller said.
“I want to state that what this shows is volunteerism is not dead in the United States,’ he added.
“The work we did might just be one small section of the whole project to rebuild the roof. But we did it,’ he said.
Ashton, who still plays softball in the Senior Citizen League, his face cracking into a broad, heavily tanned grin, added one more thing.
“I wanted to make sure they knew we were there. So we wrote our initials and date on the backs of some of those tiles. That way they will know for sure we were there.’