Carolyn B. Halmon

Carolyn Halmon, 49, worked the day shift as a budget analyst for the Army at the Pentagon. Herman Halmon, her husband of nearly 30 years, worked evenings. But he managed to drag himself out of bed every morning to drive her to the Benning Road Metro station before 7:00 a.m., making sure to get a goodbye kiss from the girl he’d met in junior high in Bowman, South Carolina. 

Now Herman Halmon, 49, wants to remember his wife the way she was when he dropped her off that Tuesday morning. 

“She just said, ‘Hey baby, I know you’re going back to bed,’ ” he recalled. “I said, ‘That’s right.’ She said, ‘Okay, rest good. I’ll call you later.’ ” 

But by the time later came, a hijacked American Airlines flight had hit the Pentagon near the newly renovated office where Carolyn Halmon worked; Herman Halmon was calling his wife’s number, over and over, and getting no answer. 

Carolyn Halmon was “definitely a churchgoing person,” her husband said, dedicated to her charity work at the National Church of God in Fort Washington. She also loved gardening at her home in the 5300 block of East Capitol Street, NE, growing tomatoes, peppers, greens and flowers. 

The couple raised a son, Stan, 30, and a daughter, Alisha, 26, and became grandparents five years ago. Halmon and her husband were starting to look forward to retiring in Hilton Head, South Carolina, where they had purchased a vacation condominium. Herman Halmon said he had been attending the twice-daily briefings for families of the missing; not quite ready to give up hope. 

“I knew it was just a small chance, but I still had my faith,” Halmon said. “I hoped that little angel will come past and tell me she was all right.”