The Only Plane in the Sky

by Garrett M Graff

  Natalia Jones-Pinkney, student, Emma Booker Elementary: Everyone had their hair done and new bows and everything.

  Sandra Kay Daniels, second-grade teacher, Emma Booker Elementary: Our principal introduced him to the children, and he shook a couple of the kids’ hands and introduced himself, tried to lighten the room up a little because the kids were in awe. They were like little soldiers, quiet, struck by the sight of the president. He said, “Let’s get started with reading.” The story was My Pet Goat from our reading series.

  Brian Montgomery: The president was very gracious and greeted them, and then said, “I need to go take an important telephone call.” He went into the holding room and went directly to the STU-III, the secure telephone.

  Ari Fleischer, press secretary, White House: There’s always a secure telephone waiting for the president, but in the nine months he’d been president, I don’t think we’d ever used one before an event like that.

  Dave Wilkinson: We’re asking ourselves, Is there any direction of interest toward the president? That’s the phrase, “direction of interest.” Or is this just an attack on New York?

  Sandy Kress, senior education advisor, White House: I was back in the media room. There was some buzz about the first plane, people were watching it on a TV. Then there was a stampede across the media room as they saw the second plane hit.

  Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Florida): I was brand new—a freshman congressman. We’d gone into the media center to wait for the president and the children to read together in the other room. We were clustered around the TV and watched the second plane hit.

  Col. Mark Tillman, presidential pilot, Air Force One: We were all getting ready, based on the estimated departure time. All of us had already shown up at the plane.

  Master Sgt. Dana Lark, superintendent of communications, Air Force One: There were two TV tuners, worldwide television tuners at my workspace on Air Force One. They were like old-school rabbit ears—UHF and VHF frequencies. We didn’t have the ability to tune into CNN, Fox, or anything else. It was the Today Show, the strongest signal that day, and they’re showing pictures of the Towers, smoke billowing out. I saw the second airplane strike. Oh shit. I dropped everything and ran downstairs to get Colonel Tillman: “You’ve got to come see this.”

  Col. Mark Tillman: It didn’t make any sense. It’s a clear-and-a-million day.

  Staff Sgt. William “Buzz” Buzinski, security, Air Force One: We protect the plane 24 hours a day, even after the president has left. One of the advance Secret Service agents had told us about the first plane. Then, about 17 minutes later, I saw the same guy sprinting across the tarmac. He said, “Another plane hit the Towers.” I knew instantly it was terrorism. We started to increase security around the plane—made it a tighter bubble.

  Staff Sgt. Paul Germain, airborne communications system operator, Air Force One: Big airplanes just don’t hit little buildings. Then, as soon as that second plane hit, that switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree.

  Col. Mark Tillman: Everything started coming alive. We were hooked into the PEOC—the White House bunker—and the JOC—the Joint Operations Center—for the Secret Service. They’re all in the link now.

  Andy Card: I was thinking that we had White House people there—my deputy, Joe Hagin, and a team were in New York preparing for the UN General Assembly. I was thinking that Joe was probably at the World Trade Center—that’s where the Secret Service office was, in the basement.

  Mike Morell, presidential briefer, Central Intelligence Agency: I was really worried that someone was going to fly a plane into that school. This event had been on the schedule for weeks, anyone could have known about it. Eddie Marinzel, the lead Secret Service agent, wanted to get the hell out of there as fast as possible.

  Rep. Adam Putnam: There’s some debate within the staff that I can hear about how the president needs to address the nation. They’re saying, “We can’t do it here. You can’t do it in front of fifth-graders.” The Secret Service is saying, “You’re doing it here or you’re not doing it at all. We’re not taking the time to do it somewhere else.”

  Dave Wilkinson: We’re beginning to get the motorcade up and running, getting the motorcycle cops back, we’re ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice. All of a sudden it hits me: The president’s the only one who doesn’t know that this plane has hit the second building. It was a discomfort to all of us that the president didn’t know. The event was dragging on, and that’s when Andy Card came out.

  Andy Card: A thousand times a day, a chief of staff has to ask, “Does the president need to know?” This was an easy test to pass. As strange as it sounds, as I was standing there waiting to talk to the president, I was reflecting on another time that I’d had to be the calm one: I’d been acting chief of staff to President George H. W. Bush when he threw up on the Japanese prime minister. I was all business in that moment. He’d refused to get in the ambulance—he didn’t want anyone to see the president get in the ambulance—and in the limo, he’s still sick and he’s getting sick on me. In the hotel, I take out my laminated “in case of emergency” card. I went down my checklist. I was telling people, “He’s not dying, he’s still the president.” My job that day was to be calm, cool, and collected. Not the same magnitude, of course, but I knew my job on 9/11 was to be calm, cool, and collected.

  Karl Rove: I remember Andy Card pausing at the door, before he went in, it seemed like forever, but it was probably just a couple heartbeats. I never understood why, but he told me, years later, that he needed to spend a moment formulating the words he wanted to use.

  Ellen Eckert, stenographer, White House: There are six stenographers who work for the White House Press Office. One of us always travels with the president. I always said I typed fast for a living all over the world. That morning was uneventful until Andy walked in.

  Andy Card: I knew I was delivering a message that no president would want to hear. I decided to pass on two facts and an editorial comment. I didn’t want to invite a conversation because the president was sitting in front of the classroom. The teacher asked the students to take out their books, so I took that opportunity to approach the president. I whispered in his ear, “A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.” I took a couple steps back so he couldn’t ask any questions.

  Mariah Williams, student, Emma Booker Elementary: I remember him being all happy and joyful. Then his expression changing to very serious and concerned.

  Lazaro Dubrocq, student, Emma Booker Elementary: I can remember seeing his expression change dramatically.

  Andy Card: I was pleased with how the president reacted—he didn’t do anything to create fear.

  Gordon Johndroe, assistant press secretary, White House: Having been in that room—and it wasn’t an issue until the Michael Moore documentary [Fahrenheit 9/11]—it would have been odd if he’d jumped up and ran from the room. It didn’t seem like an eternity in the room. He finished the book and went back into the hold room.

  Karl Rove: When the president walked back into the staff hold, he said, “We’re at war—give me the FBI director and the vice president.”

  Ellen Eckert: As we walked out of the classroom, everyone’s pager started going off.

  Rep. Adam Putnam: Matt Kirk, our White House liaison, said to Rep. Dan Miller, the other congressman traveling with the presidential party, and me, “We might be the only plane back to D.C. today.” We went and got in our vehicle in the motorcade. You could see the windows and hatches of the motorcade open up, the visible expression of the armaments that are always around the president.

  Karl Rove: Eddie Marinzel came up to the president—he was sitting in one of those tiny elementary school chairs—and Eddie said, “We need to get you to Air Force One and get you airborne.” They’d determined this might be an effort to decapitate the government.

  Dave Wilkinson: We ended up with a compromise—Andy Card said we have a whole auditorium full, waiting for the next event. There was no imminent threat ther
e in Sarasota, so we agreed the president could give a statement before we left.

  Brian Montgomery: He went to the auditorium. I remember looking at the students when he said, “America is under attack,” and these girls, their faces were saying, What’s he telling us?

  David Sanger, White House correspondent, New York Times : I’ll never forget the look on his face. He was ashen. He must have known his presidency had changed forever, that it would be measured from that moment forward by what he said, how he said it, and how well he could calm the nation.

  Andy Card: He gave a very brief statement, he started off and I cringed right away. He said, “I’m going back to Washington, D.C.” I thought, You don’t know that. We don’t know that. We don’t know where we’re going.

  Gordon Johndroe: I told the press we’d be leaving right for the motorcade. We had this joke, mostly with the photographers—no running. No running to catch the president. This time, I told them, “Guys, we’re going to have to run. We’re going to have to run to the motorcade.” Going down the highway, our 15-passenger van was barely keeping up.

  Dave Wilkinson: The motorcade left there, and in a very aggressive fashion we got to the aircraft. Intelligence information is always sketchy. When we were riding was the first time we hear there’s something vague about a threat to the president. That ratcheted things up.

  Rep. Adam Putnam: On the motorcade back, there are all these protesters—it was still all about the recount—signs like, “Shrub stole the election.”

  Andy Card: In the limo, we were both on our cell phones—he was frustrated because he couldn’t reach Don Rumsfeld. It was a very fast limo ride.

  Dave Wilkinson: We asked for double motorcade blocks at the intersection. Double and triple blocks. Not just motorcycle officers standing there with their arms up, but vehicles actually blocking the road. Now we’re worried about a car bomb. The whole way back, we were using the limos as a shell game, to keep the president safe.

  Col. Mark Tillman: As the motorcade’s coming in, I’ve got the 3 and 4 engines already running.

  Andy Card: When the limo door opened, I was struck that the engines on Air Force One were running. That’s normally a protocol no-no.

  Buzz Buzinski: I was on the back stairs watching as they pull up, wondering, What’s the president thinking? What’s Andy thinking? You could feel the tension. We’d been attacked on our soil. You could see it on their faces—Andy Card, Ari Fleischer, the president.

  Mike Morell: They re-searched everyone before we could reboard, not just the press. They searched Andy Card’s briefcase, he was standing right in front of me in line. They went through my briefcase—which was filled with all these classified materials—but I wasn’t going to object that day.

  Eric Draper, presidential photographer: Andy Card said at the top of the stairs, “Take the batteries out of your cell phone. We don’t want to be tracked.” That brought up: “Are we a target?” I wasn’t thinking of that.

  Col. Mark Tillman: President Bush comes up the stairs in Sarasota. We watched him come up the stairs every day with that famous Texas swagger. That day, no swagger. He was trucking up the stairs. As soon as the passengers are on board, I fired engines 1 and 2.

  Rep. Adam Putnam: There was one van, maybe a press van, that was parked too close to the plane’s wing. I remember a Secret Service agent running down the aisle; they opened the back stairs, and he ran down to move the truck. He never made it back on board. They didn’t wait for him.

  Andy Card: We were starting to roll almost before the president gets into the suite.

  Arshad Mohammed, White House correspondent, Reuters: My notes say we took off at 9:54 a.m.

  Gordon Johndroe: That thing took off like a rocket. The lamps were shaking because they’d fired up the engines so much.

  Karl Rove: The pilot stood that thing on its tail—nose up, tail down, like we were on a roller coaster.

  Ellen Eckert: We were climbing so high and so fast I started to wonder if we’d need oxygen masks.

  Staff Sgt. William “Buzz” Buzinski: You could see fear and shock. People couldn’t believe what they had seen.

  Col. Dr. Richard Tubb, presidential physician, White House Medical Unit: The people who are the permanent, apolitical staff—the medical unit, the flight crew, the military aide—they were all well-versed in their emergency action plans, irrespective of who the president was, but we didn’t have the relationship yet with the political staff. Over time, you build those relationships, and there hadn’t been that much time. That particular transition was so abbreviated, and ugly as the 2000 campaign was, it was even harder. Those guys were still trying to put their government together.

  Andy Card: President Bush took office on January 20, 2001—but the responsibility of being president became a reality when I whispered in his ear. I honestly believe as he contemplated what I said, he realized, “I took an oath: Preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. It’s not cutting taxes, it’s not No Child Left Behind, it’s not immigration, it’s the oath.” When you pick a president, you want to pick a president who can handle the unexpected. This was the unexpected.

  Eric Draper: Soon after we got on board, I see the president pop out of the cabin. He’s heading down the aisle. He says, “OK, boys, this is what they pay us for.”

  “That’s a strange accident”

  * * *

  First Reactions in D.C.

  The attacks in New York interrupted business across Washington, D.C., as officials at the White House, on Capitol Hill, and elsewhere puzzled over what to make of the odd events unfolding up the East Coast.

  Gary Walters, chief usher, White House: It was a little bit before 9:00 a.m. when Mrs. Bush came downstairs—I met her at the elevator. As we were walking out, I remember we were talking about Christmas decorations.

  Laura Bush, first lady: My Secret Service agent, the head of my detail, Ron Sprinkle, leaned over to me as I got into the car and said, “A plane has hit the World Trade Center.”

  Brian Gunderson, chief of staff for House Majority Leader Richard Armey (R-Texas): As we walked into our morning staff meeting, I could see on the TV screen—like any congressional office, there were a lot of TV screens around—that a plane had struck one of the World Trade Center towers. We assumed it was a small plane. I thought it was going to be more along the level of like a bad school shooting somewhere—the kind of event that dominates national news, but it doesn’t really change what Congress does that day.

  Condoleezza Rice, national security adviser, White House: I thought, Well, that’s a strange accident. I called the president. We talked about how odd it was. Then I went down for my staff meeting.

  Adm. James Loy, commandant, U.S. Coast Guard: There was almost a hopeful tone in the early broadcasting, “We’re not exactly sure how this happened or why this happened, but, boy, it happened, and it’s tragic.”

  Ted Olson, solicitor general, U.S. Department of Justice: I heard of the disaster occurring at the World Trade Center. There’s a television in the back of my office. I turned it on and watched with horror the film being replayed, the airplanes crashing into the World Trade Center. Barbara’s plane, could that be one of those planes? I made a mental calculation. Oh, thank goodness, it can’t be her plane. There wasn’t enough time for that airplane to have gotten to New York.

  Sen. Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota), Senate Majority Leader: Sen. John Glenn, a dear friend, came by. I said, “Did you see that? A pilot flew into the World Trade Center.” He said, “Pilots don’t fly into buildings. That wasn’t a pilot.”

  Matthew Waxman, staff member, National Security Council, White House: I had started about six weeks earlier as Condi Rice’s executive assistant. At about nine o’clock, we would have a daily Situation Room meeting for the national security adviser and all the senior directors. It was during that meeting that the second plane hit.

  Mary Matalin, aide to Vice President Dick Cheney: I was with the vice president when the second plane
hit, and we knew instantly that this was not an accident.

  Condoleezza Rice: It was the moment that changed everything.

  Matthew Waxman: We went into full crisis response mode.

  Rep. Porter Goss (R-Florida), chair, House Intelligence Committee: I was upstairs in the committee room, which was then up in the House attic, with a few senators and congressmen. Sen. Bob Graham and I were hosting a breakfast meeting for Mahmud Ahmed, the head of the Pakistan intelligence service. We’d been in Pakistan the week before and had invited him to Washington to continue the conversation. He was actually sitting there in our inner sanctum when my staff handed me a note saying a plane hit the Trade Towers. Then we got the second report. Ahmed turned absolutely ashen and was escorted out of the room. I think before we even left the room, the words “al-Qaeda” had appeared in our discussion.

  Mary Matalin: We went right into work mode. While we were in his office making calls to New York, making calls to the president, making calls wherever they needed to be made, the Secret Service barged into his office.

  Dick Cheney, vice president: Radar caught sight of an airliner heading toward the White House at 500 miles an hour.

  Lewis “Scooter” Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney: We learn that a plane is five miles out and has dropped below 500 feet and can’t be found; it’s missing. You look at your watch and think, Hmmm, five miles out, 500 miles an hour. Tick, tick, tick.

  Dick Cheney: My Secret Service agent said, “Sir, we have to leave now.” He grabbed me and propelled me out of my office, down the hall, and into the underground shelter in the White House.

  Mary Matalin: My jaw dropped and the jaws of my colleagues dropped because we had never seen anything like that.

  Condoleezza Rice: The Secret Service came in and they said, “You have got to go to the bunker.” I remember being driven along, almost propelled along. We had no idea where it was safe and where it wasn’t. We didn’t think the bunker of the White House was safe at that point.