As part of Roll Call’s 70th anniversary, we’ve asked several notable alumni to reflect on their time working for the paper. We’ll run these columns throughout the summer.

My second day at Roll Call was Sept. 11, 2001. I had been hired to help launch what was then Roll Call Daily, the paper’s nascent online platform. Roll Call was the gold standard for congressional reporting, and my dream was to cover Congress, so I was thrilled.

But I was green. 

As we sat in our morning editorial meeting to plot out coverage for the day, we saw the first plane hit the twin towers. Like many, we initially assumed it was a terrible accident. But then came the second crash.

I was immediately sent to the Hill to track down comments from House leadership. I barely knew my way around and clumsily stumbled through the hallways searching for then-Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Dick Armey’s offices. When I got into the alcove, Capitol Police started shouting for everyone to evacuate. I remember running out of the building with scores of others (shoes, purses, sweaters left in their wake) to the Capitol lawn.

Of course, no one knew then that the Capitol was also a target that day.

As I looked around to process what was happening, we heard a resounding bang, which we would later learn was the American Airlines Flight 77 crashing into the Pentagon. More evacuation orders followed; the perimeter expanded. Cellphones overwhelmed the system so no one could communicate. Despite my fear, I saw my new colleagues Paul Kane, Mark Preston and John Bresnahan — three of Washington’s most talented journalists, then and now — working the crowd, interviewing the senators who were among the masses of staffers, reporters and tourists. I followed them, took notes alongside them and learned from them. 

It was a hell of a second day, but the beginning of an incredible chapter of my life.

I spent nearly a decade at Roll Call as a reporter and editor and had the privilege of having a front-row seat to history: 9/11, the Iraq War, the 2008 financial crisis, health care reform, speaker races, budget battles, inaugurations and States of the Union, corruption scandals, senators being elected president. It was a ride. 

Like so many, I grew up at Roll Call — both as a professional and as a human being. I met some of my best friends there, met my mentors there, met some of Washington’s most talented journalists — current and former — there.

But beyond what I learned, who I met and what I experienced, I look back grateful and humbled for the special place I got a chance to be a part of. 

Erin Billings is a Partner at LSG, a Washington-based communications and public affairs firm, where she leads their crisis practice. She was a reporter and editor at Roll Call from 2001 to 2011.