meg falk was the dirtor of the office of family policy at the time, and was working in the pentagon whenn the military, that whenever we have multiple fatalities we set up a place where families can go to get accurate information, to get support, to have childcare, so that the surviving family members can deal with the a horrible time in their lives. >> the next morning, the family assistance center was up and running at a nearby hotel. for the next 30 days, the pentagon operated the center around the clock, providing families with meals, suppoport, and most importantly, information. >> bernard salamone: it was wonderful. i mean, if we asked for something, it was made available to us. calling cards; howow many timess did we get calling cards? they must have loaded us up with calling cards. they just didn't know what elsee to do for us. the american people were just extremely kind to us... extremely kikind to us. >> it was during the course of those daily family briefings that an idea began to circulate: to build something good on top of the evil they had experienced; to lay down the foun