As the United States pauses today to remember the lives lost on September 11, 2001, many of us who remember that day and the days that followed also remember the desire to do something, anything, to help. This is one of those stories.

On the Saturday following that terrible Tuesday, some public events were beginning to resume as planned. Stephen Anderson, then Vice President of Engineering at Transition Networks, now part of Lantronix, was driving with his wife to a cross-country meet for one of their children.

The Call

Stephen’s mobile phone rang, and his wife answered. She explained that Stephen was driving. The caller identified himself as a lieutenant at the Pentagon and said he urgently needed to speak with Steve. The Andersons pulled over immediately.

The lieutenant explained that the U.S. government had an immediate need for specific Transition Networks media converters and that he could not leave his desk until he had them.

With the nation’s aviation system only beginning to return to service, Steve mentioned that getting the equipment to Washington would be difficult.

The lieutenant replied, “For this, a plane will fly.”

The media converters were taken to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport for a counter-to-counter shipment to Washington, D.C. They were then picked up and delivered to the Pentagon.

Twenty-five years ago, these E-100BTX-FX-04 media converters were used to help establish a temporary network at the damaged Pentagon and restore communications for the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense.

A Legacy That Still Serves

It’s a testament to the lasting power of fiber technology that the E-100BTX-FX media converters are still sold today under the Lantronix brand. And our commitment hasn’t changed. Twenty-five years later, Lantronix continues to support secure communications and networking for the U.S. Department of Defense and civilian government agencies, with solutions spanning networking, IoT, and edge AI embedded compute.

Pictured above is the the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial. It incorporates 184 benches with victim names and ages from both those working in the Pentagon and American Airlines Flight 77 passengers.