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Carolyn Kaster / AP
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel gestures as he speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon, Friday, May 17, 2013, to discuss sexual assaults in the military and the promotion of Lt. Gen. Curtis "Mike" Scaparrotti to command U.S. troops in South Korea, among other topics.
Defense Intelligence Agency
The Pentagon warned of the Soviet missile threat 30 years ago in its glossy "Soviet Military Power" annual reports.
ISAF
A 16-room school, not subject to Pentagon regulations, under construction in Afghanistan.
GAO
The Pentagon's Strategic Seaports
U.S. Department of Justice / REUTERS
A scale model of a U.S. Navy F-86 Sabre fighter plane, similar to a device constructed by Massachusetts resident Rezwan Ferdaus, 26, who was accused of plotting attacks on the U.S. Pentagon and Capitol by using a remote-controlled aircraft filled with plastic explosives. The pictured aircraft, from a photo released by the U.S. Justice Department, is not the device constructed by the defendant.
Army photo / Sgt. 1st Class Eric Pahon
OFFICIAL PENTAGON CAPTION: PARWAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan - The Creative Arts Dance Team performs to "I Just Can't Give Up Now" by Mary Mary in celebration of Women's Equality Day, Aug. 24, 2012. The 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade celebrated Women's Equality Day on Bagram Airfield, with servicemembers and civilians from all across the large base. Congress designated Aug. 26 as "Women's Equality Day" in 1971, to commemorate the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which granted women the right to vote.
Myron Davis—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
From the private washroom that was part of the suite for the Pentagon's top man. LIFE noted in May 1943: "There is a medicine chest, toilet, and a stall shower but no bathtub."
Navy photo
The Pentagon, headquarters of the Department of Defense since 1943.
Myron Davis–TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
Part of the suite for the highest ranking officer at the Pentagon, circa 1942. As LIFE wrote in a December issue that year, the Secretary of War "has a roomy, carpeted office with comfy overstuffed leather chairs. He sits at the handsome desk which has been inherited by every Secretary of War since Robert Todd Lincoln in 1883. At his right is a direct wire to the White House."
DoD photo / Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jacob N. Bailey
Intrepid Pentagon correspondent checking out possible location of his next cubicle.
Myron Davis—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
Unpublished. The Pentagon was built in a mere 16 months for approximately $83 million.
Myron Davis—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
Unpublished. The Pentagon has 284 rest rooms.
Myron Davis—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
Unpublished. Men at work inside the Pentagon, 1941.
missile defense agency
The Pentagon's quiver of missile-defense arrows.
Myron Davis–TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
Unpublished. Among the more random facts about the Pentagon: the building contains an estimated 4,200 clocks — all running, one presumes, on military time.
Myron Davis—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
Unpublished. Perhaps no other single fact about the Pentagon's construction is more amazing than this: when construction began on September 11, 1941, LIFE reported, the groundbreaking took place "only two weeks after the designing [of the structure] commenced."
Myron Davis—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
Not originally published in LIFE. Sending files via the Pentagon's pneumatic tube system — an old-school delivery mechanism that, as late as the mid-1980s, was still handling more top-secret information than the Defense Department's computers.
Myron Davis—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
Unpublished. Architects and draftsmen work on plans for the Pentagon's construction in the partially completed building in 1942.
Myron Davis—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
Unpublished. Workers would ultimately complete seven floors for the Pentagon: five of them above the ground and two beneath.
Cliff Owen / AP
Pentagon police patrol the Pentagon after a gunman drew a weapon from his pocket and opened fire at the subway entrance to the military complex on Thursday.
Myron Davis—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
In a May 1943 issue, LIFE noted that the exterior of the Pentagon "has a gray limestone façade, although more than half of the building's substance is sand and gravel dredged from the bottom of the Potomac River."
Myron Davis—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
An officer chats with a worker by one of the large exhaust fans at the Pentagon, 1940.
AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
The Pentagon entrances were locked down early Tuesday after a report of possible shots fired near the building.
KENNETH LAMBERT/AP
Pentagon revisited: Defense secretary nominee Donald Rumsfeld
Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo/Department of Defense
General Martin Dempsey at the Pentagon on April 10, 2013
Cliff Owen / AP
Rev. Franklin Graham prepares to leave the Pentagon, May 6, 2010.
Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo / DOD
President Obama at the Pentagon with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defense Department's civilian leaders in January 2012.
DoD photo / Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo
President Obama at the Pentagon with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defense Department's civilian leaders in January 2012.
U.S. Navy
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory helps the Pentagon with many weapons, including missile-defense programs, like this Standard missile launch from the Aegis-class destroyer USS Hopper, which succeeded in destroying its target missile over the Pacific.
Marine photo / Lance Cpl. Grant T. Walker
Troops don't pull K.P. -- kitchen patrol -- like they used to. Instead, the Pentagon hires companies like KBR to run chow halls staffed with Iraqi workers like at this one in Fallujah.
REUTERS / Kevin Lamarque
President Obama shakes hands with Chuck Hagel Jan. 7 after nominating him to run the Pentagon.
Mark Wilson / Getty Images
President Obama nominates former senator Chuck Hagel to serve as his third Pentagon chief.
Thomas D. McAvoy—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
A serviceman talks to a receptionist in the newly constructed Pentagon in 1941. There is a private sector at the Pentagon: for instance, the restaurant service is handled by a privately run civilian operation that is under contract to the Pentagon.
Navy photo / Photographer’s Mate 1st Class Jim Hampshire
The Navy will take the lead in the Pentagon's looming "Pacific pivot."
Thomas D. McAvoy—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
A view showing one of the five sides of the then-War Building. Today the Pentagon is surrounded by 200 acres of lawn.
Myron Davis—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
Not originally published in LIFE. Paper has long been an important part of the Pentagon culture; the Department of Defense Post Office deals with about 1.2 million pieces of mail monthly.
DOD photo / Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley
Former defense secretary Robert Gates at the unveiling of his official portrait at the Pentagon on Monday.
Myron Davis—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
A private kitchen built to serve the highest ranking Pentagon officials and their guests, should they wish to avoid one of the building's six cafeterias.
Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta takes questions from the press at the Pentagon, Nov. 10, 2011.
Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images
US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta listens to questions during a press conference at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, August 4, 2011.
Mike Theiler / Reuters
Shoppers at the Pentagon City mall in Arlington, Va.
Phil Sandlin / AP
A new Pentagon proposal would convert Trident nuclear missiles like this one to more conventional weapons.
Alex Wong / Getty Images
McChrystal speaks during a news briefing at the Pentagon May 13, 2010 in Arlington, Virginia.
AFP / Getty
Stewart David Nozette at a 1996 Pentagon press briefing about the discovery of water on the moon
BROOKS KRAFT / CORBIS FOR TIME
Some Bush aides sniff that her shuffle diplomacy in the Middle East has no attainable goal. But the State Department often outmaneuvers the Pentagon
The computerized parental images envisioned by the Pentagon are not as sophisticated as the holograms from "Star Wars," but they will help reassure little ones whose parents have been called overseas
ROMEO GACAD/AFP
HARDER THAN THE PENTAGON HAD HOPED: The U.S. is sending more troops into Iraq as it meets Iraqi resistance on the way to Baghdad
WILLIAM PHILPOTT/REUTERS
Rumsfeld talks missile defense at the Pentagon
LUKE FRAZZA/AFP
Donald Rumsfeld hosts Ariel Sharon at the Pentagon
MICHAEL J.N. BOWLES FOR TIME
Lt. General GREGORY NEWBOLD, Retired director of operations at the Pentagon's military joint staff.
CEDRIC H. RUDISILL / GETTY
FBI agents, firefighters, rescue workers and engineers work at the Pentagon crash site on September 14, 2001, after a hijacked American Airlines flight slammed into the building on September 11.
AIJAZ RAHI / AP
DEMAND FOR ACTION:
For more than a week, the Pentagon didn't complain about the Newsweek allegation of Koran abuse until protests, like this one in Bombay, began to spread throughout the Islamic world
BROOKS KRAFT/CORBIS FOR TIME
Bush speaks to military leaders during a visit to the Pentagon on March 25
Christian Science Monitor
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, detailed some of what he calls the Pentagon's "bad habits" over lunch Tuesday.
DoD photo / Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel shares a crystal globe, and a laugh, with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, at the Pentagon March 5.
DoD photo / Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, unveil the Pentagon's 2014 budget request Wednesday.
DoD photo / Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo
Army General Martin Dempsey declined to answer Thursday when asked if he felt DIA were right when the Pentagon intelligence agency suggested North Korea could put a nuclear warhead atop one of its missiles.
DoD photo / Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo
Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, discusses the proposed 2014 military budget Wednesday at the Pentagon.
Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo/DoD
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announces a change in the U.S. missile defense deployment during a Pentagon press briefing on March 15, 2013.
DoD Photo / Glenn Fawcett
Japanese Minister of Defense Satoshi Morimoto and his entourage board a V-22 Osprey to fly to Patuxent Naval Air Station from the Pentagon last Friday. The tilt-rotor aircraft have been deployed to Japan but despite a good safety record in recent years, they will remain grounded there until the Pentagon can explain why two of them recently crashed.
Myron Davis–TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
Unpublished. The people who actually worked inside the Pentagon were initially underwhelmed by the building, LIFE wrote in December 1942. Both employees and visitors "resent the eight and two-fifths miles of barren corridors, the jammed ramps, the pile-up at entrances and exits, the parking and transportation problems, the six overcrowded cafeterias, the staggered working hours."
Myron Davis–TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
Unpublished. Standing guard in a still-under-construction corridor. The Pentagon boasts 17.5 miles of hallways.
Myron Davis—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
Unpublished. A massive map provides an overview of the Pentagon highway network. With a complex housing roughly 23,000 workers and 16 parking lots for over 8,000 cars, new roads to accommodate the traffic were a necessary part of the construction.
Alex Wong / Getty Images
Afghan President Hamid Karzai (L) reviews the honor guards during a full military honors ceremony welcoming Karzai to the Pentagon on Jan. 10, 2013 in Arlington, Virginia.
Army photo / Staff Sgt. Marcus J. Quarterman
The rate of malaria among U.S. troops in Afghanistan, like these, has dropped sharply since the Pentagon stopped routinely giving them an Army-developed medicine, a former Army doctor says.
Myron Davis—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
A man presses a button in the elevator reserved for the highest ranking officer at the Pentagon and his guests. The Pentagon boasts 13 elevators, 19 escalators, and 131 stairwells.
Air Force photo / Airman 1st Class Christopher Griffin
An MQ-1 Predator like this one safely returned to its base last week after Iranian aircraft shot at it and missed, the Pentagon said Thursday.
Pentagon photo
General John Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, talking with reporters at the Pentagon via a video link on Thursday.
Myron Davis—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images
The official War Office seal on the china used in a private dining room at the Pentagon.
Jim Wells / AP
The New York Times resumed publication of its series of articles based on the secret Pentagon papers in its July 1, 1971 edition, after it was given the green light by the U.S. Supreme Court
Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty
The US Army's new XM1203 Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C) is seen on the National Mall in Washington on June 11, 2008. The new cannon is part of the Manned Ground Vehicle family of the Pentagon's Future Combat Systems Brigade Combat Team.
Dima Gavrysh for Time
Sarah Palin, former GOP vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor, mingles with bikers at the Pentagon parking lot in Washington, D.C., on May 29, 2011.
Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images
US President Barack Obama speaks about the Defense Strategic Review, outlining Defense budget priorities and cuts, during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, DC on January 5, 2012.
Charles Dharapak / AP
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama lay a wreath as the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks are observed at the Pentagon in Washington, Sunday, September 11, 2011.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Defense Secretary Robert Gates announces a plan to close U.S. Joint Forces Command during a press conference at the Pentagon
WJLA-TV / AP
In this image from video provided by WJLA-TV, a person on a stretcher is loaded into an ambulance outside the Pentagon Metro Station after a gunman opened fire at the subway entrance, March 4, 2010
MANDEL NGAN / AFP / GETTY
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld leaves the stage after a briefing 26 October 2006 at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
Paul Sakuma / AP
Gay veterans and gay-rights activists hold a parade to honor the contributions of gays and lesbians in the military and to protest the Pentagon's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy
Paul J. Richards / AFP / Getty
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates delivers remarks regarding his Defense Department budget recomendation for 2010, on April 6, 2009 at the Pentagon.
Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (R) escorts Poland's Defense Minister Bogdan Klich through a Military Honor Cordon at the Pentagon in Washington, DC
Lawrence Jackson / AP
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, left, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Peter Pace, brief the media at the Pentagon in Washington, April 11, 2007.
ALEX WONG / GETTY
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace pauses as he speaks during a news conference November 29, 2006 at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
ALEX WONG / GETTY
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace pauses as he speaks during a news conference November 29, 2006 at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
Photo Essays
Been There, Done That: Pentagon Formally Opens Combat to Women
While Pentagon rules have long barred women from close-in combat, like infantry and armor units, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is ending those rules on...
Building the Pentagon: Rare Photos
The Pentagon — and, by extension, the U.S. military — has become such a prominent and obvious symbol of American might over the years that it’s easy to forget...
