will hear archival footage of president ford's address to the nation. >> next on american history >> next, we mark the anniversary of the september 11 terrorist attacks with retired lieutenant colonel robert darling. he talks about his experience inside the white house bunker where he worked alongside vice president dick cheney and national security advisor condoleezza rice. lieutenant colonel darling is the author of "24 hours inside the president's bunker 9-11-01: the white house." this event was hosted by the college of the ozarks and is about an hour. ♪[applause] >> thank you. president davis, students of the

college of the ozarks, it really is my pleasure to be here. when i was invited to come here about eight months ago, i could not give a definitive answer whether i could make it or not. there was a chance i would be invited to ground zero up in new york or back to shanksville, pennsylvania, or maybe even participate in some of the memorial ceremonies over at the pentagon. i'll tell you -- the decision i made to come here to be part of this service in this college with this group of students was the best decision i ever made. having walked around this campus today, meeting many of you visiting classrooms and seeing this college campus there's no doubt i'm going to bring my wife and my family back sometime in the future. and that's a real testament to you. once again, i am very honored and pleased to be here. september 11 two thousand one, was a day that changed my life forever, that changed america's life -- september 11 2001.

i'm going to go through a powerpoint presentation, which is going to outline the historical accounts of the attack as things happened and is things transpired that day. it gets pretty intense. a lot of things happened very quickly. i'm going to do my best not to ramble on and go to fast, but i would ask you to sit back, clear your mind, put yourself in that room, and you'll get a real sense of what it was like to be at the top of the food chain the national command authority as a nation of 300 million americans was attacked by 19 al qaeda terrorists, whose primary mission that day was to kill as many americans as possible. here we are, 11 years later, and we are still at war with this organization. this is no simple feat and we theoretically could be at war with them for a generation to come. so let's get started.

it's important that you know the national command authority of the united states is made up of the president of the united date's and the secretary of defense. those are the only two individuals who can give offense of lethal orders to any military member. anybody can defend themselves. units all over the world can defend themselves. we can scramble fighter jets, intercept airliners, but nobody can pull the trigger and take a life if it did not come from the president of the united states or the secretary of defense. the president was in sarasota florida. he was promoting his agenda on reading. the secretary of defense, donald rumsfeld, was at the national military command center, essentially the war room inside the pentagon right near his office. this is his appointed place of duty in any national catastrophe or even as we turn to the secretary of defense to give those lethal orders down the

chain of command. his national security staff vice president cheney, is in the white house. dr. rice is in the white house. general shelton, united states army, is in the process of turning over to general myers united states air force. general myers was in washington d.c., and general shelton was actually out of town. he was overseas on his way back that day. 8:46 i am in the eisenhower office building adjacent to the west wing. we are getting ready for the presidents returned back to washington d.c. someone walked into the room and told us to turn on cnn the cousin small airplane had just struck the north tower of the world trade center. a bunch of aviators in that room. crystal-clear a, a tuesday not unlike today. -- crystal-clear day. the first comment in the room -- "it's a pretty big hole for a pretty small airplane. how can a pilot strike a target

as big as the world trade center tower? there must have been a heart attack or a story we do not know." the plane had originated out of boston logan airport and was on its way to lax. over albany, new york, it made a hard left turn, came down the hudson river, and at 8:46, it was in the north tower. 09:03 while america watched with the north tower burning we saw united airlines flight 175 come interview. i remember standing in the office asking what that more on was doing, trying to get a look at the tower when suddenly he careened into the south tower. it was at this very moment we knew we had a terrorist event unfolding right before our very eyes up in new york city. everything changed at that point. this aircraft also originated out of boston logan airport. it was on its way to the west coast.

it came down just like the other aircraft and struck the south tower. our first responders, the heroes of the day, started closing bridges and tunnels to and from manhattan. the faa started doing ground stop in laguardia jfk, and logan. those heroes of the day already started doing their jobs to try to contain the event that was unfolding before our eyes. 09:05, the white house chief of staff down at booker elementary school whispered in the president's ear, "mr. president a second airliner has just struck the south tower of the world trade center. america is under attack." everybody remembers if you saw the video, the president's face went stoic. he was looking out over students in the classroom, and you could see everybody getting news reports, all the press corps that travels with him. he decided to remain calm and stay in that classroom because

he knew his national security staff behind the scenes was doing everything they could to get the president options to respond. by 9:30, he made his comments from the school. they got him in the motorcade and whisk him back to sarasota as fast as they could and got him back on air force one. anytime we have a national emergency in america, we want to get our president to a safe location. we decided to get him airborne because that was the safest for him to be. 09:37, again, we are still in our office in the eisenhower building when something overflow the white house. the white house is a living fortress with prohibited airspace over the top of it. nothing overflies the white house. the aircraft was so large and so low, it drowned us out in our conversation we were trying to have. when someone ran to the window and saw a big white jet in a hard left turn heading west, we just froze and stared at each other. breaking news -- fire and explosions over at the pentagon.

as it turned out the pentagon was struck by american airlines flight 77, which originated out of dulles, just 15 miles to the west of washington d.c. it also was headed to the west coast. it went as far as ohio, came back in to washington, d.c., made a hard right turn and crashed into the west side of the pentagon. this aircraft was none other than the air force e4b, a command and control aircraft probably at andrews air force base just to the east of the white house. it scrambled trying to get close to the president down in florida in case the president wants to get to this operation, this battle station, and for whatever reason, it made a left turn out of andrews and broke white house airspace rather than a right-hand turn. this is what got vice president cheney literally picked up out of his seat by secret service and they rushed him down to the bunker complex.

again, now everybody at 9:40 5 -- the loudspeakers came to life unbelievably "even you would the white house. secure your spaces. lock up classified material. everybody to the alternate sites." i grabbed my boss and told him i could not leave. president bush is not coming back to washington, d.c. washington, d.c. is on fire. the pentagon is burning. we need to get first responders. i need to get limos helicopters, phone, secret service, medical team. he said, "i want you to respond down to the bunker complex called the president's emergency operations center. the rest of us are out of here." i grabbed my kit and out the door i went. the last time the white house was evacuated was august of 1814 when the british were burning down washington, d.c. here it is, 170 four years later, and we are evacuating the

white house for the second time in our history -- 174 years later. facing the oneok the west wing i had to stop for a minute because the white house is a living fortress -- facing the honoring -- facing me aw -- f acing the awning on the west wing. literally, the gates to the south were wide open. the gates to the north were wide open. the secret service -- everybody had automatic weapons and were yelling in bullhorns for staffers to take off their shoes and run. seeing these professional young men and women, who i had dealt with on a daily basis, sprinting for their very lives to get off the white house complex to save their life because supposedly, there was another plane inbound -- it was really a severe moment for me. i showed my military credentials, and the secret service let me in. before long, i got down deep under the white house. a big steel door opened and then a big steel door closes.

i am in the president's bunker. the first person i run into was the vice president's military aid, a good friend of mine. i am carrying the planning kit for the president to get logistics, to get all the air force to carry the package out to subordinates. i said i would stay out of his way because i was there to do logistics. he said, "forget logistics. answer the phones. they are ringing off the hook." we are on the worker bee side. the other side of the hall is the executive table. everybody is manning the phones taking all the information they could. normally, all these calls would go to the upstairs situation room. you will see on tv the west wing the panel room. it is a secure communication hub. all the calls are scrambled under secure lines. it is not a hardened facility. because the pentagon was hit washington was under attack, new york was under attack, everything was being forced underground. my first phone call -- as the phone was ringing, i dropped the

kit and picked it up -- was this. "major darling, this is the situation room. we have another plane south of pittsburgh inbound, washington d.c." i turned to my right to reach out to the vice president's military aid. standing beside me was vice president cheney his wife, dr. rice national security adviser. everyone was piling into the bunker complex coming to my console to hear about the latest news of another hijacked plane. "15 miles south of pittsburgh we got another one coming at us>" behind and, virginia, command center for the faa. "mr. vice president, i understand we have another hijacked plane south of pittsburgh. can you confirm that?" "we are checking." >> that aircraft is not talking. it's way off course.

that's a hijacked aircraft." he's looking for the secretary of defense the second member of the national command authority someone who can give lethal orders to those pilots that were going to scramble to intersect -- intercept the aircraft before it reaches washington, d.c. he's not there in the national military command center. he's outside in the parking lot assisting with the wounded from the impact of american flight 77. a very honorable thing to do but his appointed place of duty needed to be at the helm of the national military command center. a brigadier general comes on the line and says, "mr. vice president, how can i help you, sir?" i'm still holding onto the receiver. he says to let me know when the airborne stood by to shoot the aircraft down. my first phone call. i fully expected the vice president to start asking questions. what do we know? how fast? how far? he people?

where do you think it is going? instead, he inserted himself back in the chain of command and ordered our fighters and military action and gave them lethal instructions to shoot the aircraft down. i 9:58, they were supersonic somewhere around 1400 miles per hour over long island, new york, heading for pennsylvania. they are five minutes out. "you are clear to shoot it down." by 10:05, all the radios came to life. "aircraft down. aircraft down. 68 miles south of pittsburgh. no survivors." everybody could not believe it. the air was sucked out of the military complex. we just shot down a civilian airliner. we took american lives to save american lives. the vice president just stared

at the speaker boxes up on the wall. nobody made a sound. he took a deep breath, spun around and walked white -- right over to my console and said, "for the congressional inquiry state your full name. the vice president at the national military command center, we just shot a plane down. i really need to talk to the president." now everyone is scrambling to reach president bush. was going through my mind as i'm being subpoenaed by congress. i inserted myself in the process, and now i'm in it for keeps. two minutes later literally though same radios blared back to life. the f-15s never fired. as it turned out, the passengers , talking to love ones on the ground realized that this aircraft is on a one-way mission. it is going to go kill a target on the ground. it's not going to land. they are not interested in ransom. it is a tomahawk cruise missile

at 500 miles an hour headed to kill americans somewhere. they overcame their fear, those passengers -- those 44 passengers on board. united they debated. some want to to do nothing. some wanted to do something. they overcame those odds stormed the topic fought with the terrorists, and ultimately defeated them. these were the heroes of 9/11. they won the first battle against radical islam. they prevented al qaeda from succeeding. now, we have president bush on air force one. the vice president was talking to him for the first time that morning, and they put to classify programs into effect. continuity of presidency and continuity of government. we do not go into the details of those programs but continuity of presidency is the president, vice president and speaker of the house, third in succession to the presidency, can no longer be in the same location. the three branches of government, the principles from

those three branches need to go to separate facilities and that and down the hatches. no matter what happens in the world, our president must survive, and our government must continue to function. as a leader of the free world we cannot afford to let anything happen to the presidency or to the functioning democracy around the world, the largest economy the strongest military -- everybody looks to us for stability. those things have to survive no matter what. the white house was reported sealed. nobody getting in, nobody getting out. secret service pulls out automatic weapons. nobody is getting in or out of the white house anymore. on the bottom, the executive side of the bunker, you can see karen hughes, who is an aide to the president. down below is white house communicator david addington, an aide to condoleezza rice. mary matalin -- you guys think you are having a bad day. she is married to james

carville. every day is a bad day for her. [laughter] there is the vice president himself on the phone probably talking to the president. i'm sorry i bored you with that. things are going to get really hectic and happen really fast from here on out. one minute later, they get a situation report from cnn on tv that says the south tower of the world trade center just collapsed, 9:59. we were all in disbelief. that could not be right. maybe the top couple of floors melted and pancaked on each other. there's no way that 110-story building is on the ground. no it's on the ground. vice president cheney yelled out to all of us in the room -- "does anyone know how many people work there?" someone said there were seven buildings in the square. 50,000 people work there on any given day. he literally flipped over a sheet of paper and started punching numbers. he gets the president on the horn goes, "mr. president, the

south tower is on the ground. it's our best guess we have 20,000 dead americans. mr. president, while i've got you on the phone, a portion of the pentagon has just collapsed. it's our best guess we have 802 1000 dead over at the pentagon -- 800 to 1000 dead over at the pentagon."\ we have an unidentified aircraft coming down the potomac river. standby. the vice president eight miles out, a bogey and down to the white house. donald rumsfeld is in the national camilla terry mann center -- national military command center. he asks if anybody can take a shot. we're looking into it. in the meantime i'm going 7, 6, 5, 4 -- we are counting down. all i can do is say, "

unbelievable. the largest military superpower in the world does not have an asset to take a shot at this guy." 3, 2. the vice president waves his hand in front of my face and says "stop. if the secret service cannot deal with it on the roof standby for impact." i put my hand on the console and think about all those people who are still upstairs. i did not even know if i would feel it where i was. yet, we have cooks and secret service agents and everybody that maintains the white house people in the situation room giving intel reports all vulnerable. "stand by for impact." at the last minute, those radios blared a life. "that's not a bogey. that's a medical helicopter headed for the pentagon. they are not talking on the right frequency." here was a medical aircrew racing down the potomac to get to the pentagon to respond to those burn victims and injured people. for some reason in the fog of war, they were not on the right

frequency. we were trying to kill them. we just did not have an asset, a plane, or a missile that could take a shot at this guy, but we would have killed friendly's -- friendlies that day. the faa ordered the skies cleared. we started that morning with 4000 500 aircraft over the continental united states. all those airliners general aviation, commercial aviation, private jets, military -- 4500 aircraft over the united states, and we want them all on the ground now. the secretaries working the phones, clearing the skies. norad, the north american era space defense command -- they are out there in colorado. they run the air spores -- the air force and offenses. they assume control. the faa is overwhelmed.

you cannot go to the faa and say clear 4500 planes out of the sky and think they can handle it. everything we could get to do command and control, and we ordered every airliner to land at the next suitable landing field. try to imagine professional pilots with 300 people sitting behind you. you are responsible for those people. you think you are going to san diego, and someone tells you you are going to land in missouri. that's a big deal. they have to land safely on the ground and worry about those people. we cleared the skies of 4500 aircraft. we did not have one jet run off the runway. nobody clipped a wing. there were no diabetic coma's, no lost kids, no ground or air in emergencies clearing the skies over america. that is a testament to professionalism of our air traffic control and our commercial airline pilots. 10:17, just to add a little more

to the mix the report of two explosions. a car bomb at the state department and a car bomb on capitol hill. cheney turned to dr. rice and told her to figure out what happened. she called capitol hill police. "that's an erroneous report. we've had no explosion here. we are evacuating. everything is calm as can be." the state department has had a massive explosion. a backup generator system exploded, just to add more confusion to what was already happening on the ground. that it was not a car bomb. -- but it was not a car bomb. minutes later, after everyone else, i get another phone call -- "we have a credible source in the sarasota florida, area and that angel" -- which is the president on air force one -- "is the next target." i turned to dr. rice and tell her that a credible source in sarasota, florida, says angel is

the next target. she turns to me and says, "who the heck is angel?" [laughter] you would think the national security adviser of the united states would know the code word for the president when he is on air force one. so off she goes, and she is running out to find the vice president. there's no time to figure out what the threat is. is it next an ultra air force one, or is it internal to air force one? do we have a rogue press crewmember? do we have someone on air force one and wants to do harm to the president of the united dates -- president of the united states? they call the pilot of air force one. "we have a threat against the president, do not know if it's internal or external." the press corps goes to a complete communication blackout. 747, they pull back the nose and go 55 thousand feet heading west. air traffic control is no longer allowed to report on the position of air force one.

if there is a rogue jet out there trying to ram this aircraft, we do not want to give its position away to the bad guys. it is flying black. high above air traffic control or normal air traffic at 55,000 feet heading west. they scrambled two f-16s at ellington air national guard base in texas to join air force one. these pilots did not even know what mission they had. they just told them to get airborne and that they would get their mission when they were up there. they go pulling back. they end up pulling up on the wings of air force one escorting the aircraft out to the west. it just so happens that unit that was activated to go escort air force one was the same unit that president george bush flew when he was in the air national guard. kind of ironic. he was looking out the window and could not be more proud of the unit he used to serve with. 10:20 4 -- 14 minutes, 14

minutes after the vice president order to clear the skies over america, he gave the military the authority to shoot down any inbound aircraft to washington d.c. if you were still flying, and you were in your daddy's cessna on the wrong side of the potomac pointed toward washington, d.c., you were a clear, authorized target to be shot at. he was serious about protecting washington at this point. there was a navy guided missile destroyer, a big navy ship off the coast of new york that reported back in saying they were tracking 60 targets. those were 60 airliners off the coast of newark, jfk, and laguardia airports. people seemed to land at those airports for the last time. the vice president's response was, "i want a firing solution for every one of them. if somebody is not complying, i want them shot down sooner than rather -- sooner rather than later." he inserted himself in the chain

of command and was going to take america away from the terrorists . they were no longer going to strike. 10:27, they finally got the president on the phone. the secretary of defense is in the national military command center. they have what they call an air threat conference. if you have something to say to the president, now's the time to say it. dr. rice is with us. there's vice president cheney. they are talking to the president. secretary rumsfeld recommends to the president of the united states that we move up strategic nuclear forces from devcon 4 -- defense condition for -- down to defense condition three. five is peace, one is imminent nuclear war. the reason why he did it -- it was the quickest way to get america offense it. it got everybody back to work worldwide. bombers get loaded. submarines dive. soldiers and up reporting for duty.

with a devcon -- defcon change, defense conditions change in any direction, everybody gets phone calls and gets back to work. the president and said to the secretary of defense, "that's a great idea. have them stand by for defcon 2." they had not been to defcon 2 since the cube will miss it -- the cuban missile crisis. she was just as impressed as i was when the vice president interrupted her and said, "make it happen." she grabbed my phone and called the pentagon. by executive order of the united eights, move strategic nuclear forces from defcon 4 down to defcon 3, have them stand by for defcon 2."

cheyenne colorado echoes that to our forces around the world. pacific command, atlantic command, joint forces command southern command, european command -- everybody in the united states is at war. we are an offense of lethal force. we are at defcon 3 standing by for defcon 2. it took about 10 minutes for my phone to ring. i pick it up. they go, "i have resident putin" -- the president of russia -- "holding for the president of the united states. would you take the call?" i'm just an air lift operator who came down to do logistics for the president, and now they are asking me to take a call for president putin. i don't even know if i can tell the president of russia to hold on. now i'm trying to get cheney tossed attention in the bunker. he's not listening to me.

it's all chaos. i yell out as loud as i can. "i have president clinton holding for the president of the united states -- i have president putin holding for the president of the united states. would you take the call?" cheney, being the leader that he was, says "condi, you take the call." [laughter] that's leadership. we do not know the size and scope of the attack yet. our president is in motion. he'll call you the first chance he gets. by the way, thank you for standing down your nuclear forces." then she hung up. all of us in the bunker complex, mid-level officers, were now going those air force guys must have taken the covers off of icmbbm's, scared russia have to

death, and they are calling to see who those things are parting at. as it turned out part of the strategic alliance treaty we have with russia, whenever we go defcon anything, russia has a right to match our defcon condition. i guess when icbm's pass each other, it's there in the game of nuclear weapons. not very fair for people who want to live on this planet, but fair in the game of nuclear warfare. they stayed at defcon 4 while we went to defcon 3. we're watching tv when the north tower collapsed. they get the president on the phone. i was so surprised. the vice president was speaking to him on the speaker box. "mr. president, we just got a report the north tower is also on the ground up there in new york. our best estimate is we have 40,000 dead americans."

40,000. the president did not even make a sound. we did not know he was still on the phone. finally, president bush came back and said, "where's mayor giuliani?" "we have not been able to get a hold of him. nobody has talked to him." no reports from the hospitals. "where is fema? are they on the ground in new york?" "no, sir, they have not left yet." "what are we doing for the people of new york right now?" nobody had an answer. we were doing nothing. we were telling the leader of the free world at 40,000 citizens were just killed. the vice president turned away from us, took him off the speaker box, and they had a private conversation at that point. 10:45, as a result of continuity of government, we got all the

federal buildings evacuated. sure enough, dr. rice came over to me and asked where they were supposed to take the speaker of the house. i got a little overzealous. i thought i knew everything at that point. i was on my game. i did not know jack, and i inadvertently said, "yes, ma'am i do." she said that he was not there so find out where he was. i needed to put some distance between dr. rice and myself until i figured my way out of this. i walk around the bunker complex trying to get away from her. i get to the other side, i turn around, she is right there going, "hey, where are we going?" i call the air force. i am a major need a kernel. i just need a simple yes or no -- there are no secure lines left in washington d.c. did you drop the speaker of the house off? he says he will not discuss it with me on an unclassified phone.

i say i know that, tap once for yes, twice for no. a simple yes or no will do it. dr. rice is saying that she needs an answer right now. he says he will not discuss it with me. finally, dr. rice turns to me and goes, "hang up on that more on." [laughter] when a marine major gets a chance to hang up on a full blood colonel, you take it. i was like, "roger that." just as i did that, the speaker boxes all came to light here he the said karen the house arrived, and everybody things i had something to do with it -- the speaker boxes all came to life. the speaker of the house arrived, and everybody thinks i had something to do with it. [laughter] at 11:00, all those airliners are trying to make it to vegas. for some reason, everybody wants to land at a vegas. we assume those pilots are under

duress. there should be no reason why they want to land at vegas when we tell them they will land at the next suitable landing field. sure enough, we thought they must be hijacked. why else would anybody want to go to vegas? we are scrambled -- scrambling these fighters to find out why these planes are not complying with landing instructions. as soon is we figured out they all wanted to go to vegas to gamble and eat good chow, we started writing them off the list. 11:48 -- the president arrives in louisiana. they picked that location to fly the president in. remember, we are defcon 3 at this point. sure enough, here comes air force one. nobody kicks cnn off base. cnn is filming the arrival of air force one at barksdale, louisiana, so if you are an al qaeda terrorist and lost track of him, just turn on cnn. of course cheney and everybody tends to me, the guy who gets

things done. i took the good with the bad but they were blaming me for that. 11:58 -- secretary of state colin powell, former four-star chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, now secretary of state, a very important person. if something happens to the speaker of the house they are going to want a man like colin powell to assume the presidency. they wanted him back out of lima, peru, and they wanted to know he was safe in the united states. 12:57 -- almost 1:00 in the afternoon, we are still in it, and we get a report that we have a high speed aircraft headed to the president's ranch in crawford texas. i call the pentagon, they scramble to f-16s out of san antonio. they are supersonic. they will run this guy down before he gets to crawford. as it turned out, at 1400 miles an hour, they went by a crop duster. [laughter]

most crop duster pilots do not even have radios. they are dropping on the crops drinking cognac hoping to get through the day went to f-16s -- when two f-16s went by at 1400 miles an hour. we even joked that he landed his airplane, went right over to the sheriff's office and just said "i just saw two ufo's." [laughter] at 1:45 in the afternoon, the president had to refuel air force one and made a statement from barksdale. they got him back on board. he's headed to the brassica, home of strategic command, great bunker complex, hardened facility -- he's headed to nebraska. 1:46 -- the pentagon came back and said as a result of defcon 3, we had two navy battle groups

. 5000 sailors and aircraft carrier, a fast attack submarine, armada of ships pulling out of port. america is going to war, and we have two are modest a --rmad -- armadas. as a marine, you try not to give credit to the navy too much because they get cocky. [laughter] that right there was very impressive. almost 3:00, the president lands in omaha, nebraska. he is down there, and he has a press conference. they call me back again. "we have a confirmed situation on a us airways airliner just departed madrid, spain, headed for philadelphia. this one is confirmed." as it turned out, they said if the aircraft keeps coming toward

america, they wanted it shot down. "roger that, sir." we pass it to the pentagon. the pentagon gives the mission to the navy. the airliner keeps coming to the united states. aircraft turns around and went to madrid because it did not have a hostage situation on board. it had a passenger with a heart attack. once again, the information flow -- that vertical chain of command was completely horizontal and information coming into the bunker complex was just not right. here is the president under ground. he has a four-star general on his right, and there's the president with that white house communicator that goes everywhere with him that can patch the president into secure teleconferencing anywhere in the world. i'm sure he is talking to the cia, fbi and obviously the pentagon. 4:00 in the afternoon, we can all listen in.

they are trying to tell the president not to come back to washington d.c. the vice president is there. the president should not be there. the pentagon is still burning. they do not know if the attack is over. "sir, i do not recommend you come back." dr. rice echoed that sentiment. he said, "continuity of presidency is no longer in effect. you better have information when i get there." i will tell you that this is 9/11. our intel agencies did not share information with our other intel agencies. if the fbi had information on these guys they may have not shared it with the cia. if the national security agency had an intercept, they may have not given it to the fbi or cia. we are scrambling black suburbans all over washington d.c., with people with briefcases with padlocks and handcuffs on them to bring back actionable intelligence.

the president gets a presidential daily briefing every day on threats around the world and wants another daily briefing and once actionable intelligence, who is responsible, where they are at and what we are going to do about it when he gets home at 6:30 p.m. the president lands at andrews. they had all the helicopters they have. he flew by the pentagon, which is still burning. he landed on the south lawn. dr. rice went out to meet him. mr. ashcroft, the attorney general on the left, on the far side, there is the president. andy card. george tenet from cia. richard clarke, the counterterrorism czar. we had cheney, powell, rice, and transportation mr. mineta. the president sat down, and we were watching him through a one-way window. here he is, eight months as a

president, untested. we just went through a whole day of these unprecedented events, and he sat down, and the vice president starts talking. "if you know something, say it." everybody is giving the president their assessment. he's messing with his tie. we are like, ", on, mr. president -- "come on, mr. president." he looks up and says, "fema where are you at? bring your checkbook, get to new york. you can go. i want planes, trains, and automobiles up and operating by noon tomorrow. the cities you figure it out let me know. you can go. i want to see my national security team upstairs in five minutes. the rest of you, thanks for coming." the president read the intel reports. we knew al qaeda was responsible.

we knew about osama bin laden. we knew where he was. the nation was going to war, and the president just needed to figure out when and where we were going to do our offense of attack against al qaeda in afghanistan. here he is at 8:30 that night. he addressed the nation. we all watched. he actually wrote his speech right next to me. he is up there in the oval office on tv giving his speech to the american people that we have been attacked. this will not stand. democracy will survive. freedom must reign forever and ever. america is going to war. at 23:50 i could not get my cabinet home because they came back and said the president wants everybody home who was not home already. my mission was somewhat easy, somewhat hard. first guy on the list was secretary o'neill of the treasury. he was in japan. we had lots of military in japan. we got him airborne, no problem. second on the list was in

california. he was my mission. when all of a sudden, the phone rang. former president bill clinton was in australia. it was on the news. he was down there. he no longer has air force one. he is a former president. he flies around on general aviation. he is not authorized to be airborne. if you are not military, you are not flying. the secret service agent asks for help. the former president is grounded in australia. is there any way to get back airborne? i'm going, "clinton, clinton -- how do you spell that?" [laughter] but him down, taken to the safe house, keep him secure, thanks for calling. probably the biggest mistake i ever made. secret service agent calls back and asks if anybody outranks me. the lady who bakes the cookies in the white house outranks me. marine corps major is nobody in the white house. i actually turned the phone over

to my boss, the air force colonel. he is saying the same thing. unless the president is in some form of danger, bring him back to his safe house. all assets are being used to bring the cabinet home to move the military around. pretty much, thanks for calling. he hangs up. two seconds later, the phone rings again. the same secret service agent goes "there is a threat against former president clinton. we need him moved right now." presidential security act of 1972 says nobody has the right to question the secret service. all we do is act. i took the information where it was. i called a three-star general out of scott air force base and said i needed all assets to us trillion. the former president of the united states is in danger. we need to get him airborne out of australia. they launched to big cargo planes out of japan. we put tankers with fuel over the pacific.

we flew fresh crews into hawaii. the united states just moved and sure enough, we got a c-17 down in australia with the former president on board. we got him back to guam. in 22 hours, he was there at ground zero in new york with his wife standing by, senator hillary clinton. as a marine, we never give credit to the air force. it is against our -- you know, our credo to do that and sure enough, i had to praise the air force. whether it was a threat or not again, above my pay grade. i invite you all to make your own determination, but i was told not to worry about it, just to do it. 22:50, -- 23:50, again, almost midnight. all of the alarms went off. apparently, a hostage rescue team, fbi counterterrorism team is in san francisco. we were going to get a military asset to bring them home.

we've got to get them home. sure enough flight 93 was supposed to go to san francisco. the place is loaded with grief counselors and airplanes and crews. united airlines ended up wanting to fly back to reagan. they ended up going through the chain of command over to the deputy white house chief of staff over to me. we accepted and gave the united airlines plane a military transponder callsign. here comes hrt across the united states. i forgot in all the things i was doing that day to coordinate the arrival of that airplane with the secret service. so here is the secret service at midnight almost, and they see not just an airliner coming at them, but it's a flight of three because two f-16s decided to escort this plane into reagan. there was no time to figure it out. they say that they have three bogeys inbound. they into the resident. the president and first lady were sleeping.

they scooped them up. they grabbed the two dogs, and here they come down into the bunker complex. i will tell you, when the doors burst open the guns hanging out, here comes the president and first lady in their pajamas -- i knew at that moment, "i think i did something wrong." [laughter] sure enough, they said "mr. president, it's one of our guys. it's a good guy. sorry about that." as you guys start your career in business and in life everybody will get yelled at by their boss, but until you get the president of the united states looking back at you at almost midnight looking at you tell you, "you do not want to be the guy that gets me dragged out of bed again tonight." anyway, first lady bush -- her hair was still perfect. [laughter] and off they went. they gave the all clear, and back upstairs she went.

here it is. i have the privilege of taking my story up to meet the firefighters in new york. if you want to be overwhelmed, look into their story. what they told me was when 210 story buildings -- when ttowo 110-story buildings come falling down on each other, there were no desks no chairs, no escalators, no elevators nothing you could pick out of the rubble to say, "that used to be a chair." everything was twisted at 2000 degrees fahrenheit. it was nothing but molten steel and dust. the firefighters that responded from brooklyn and staten island -- by the time they commandeered the fairies and came across the water into manhattan, they said it was really quiet when they got there -- by the time they commandeered the ferries.

there was not a sound because the 343 other firefighters that were there were all dead. there was nobody making any noise. they said they could not see a hand in front of their face, and they heard an occasional emergency locator going off. they said essentially everybody was gone. the people that ran away from these buildings were literally blocks away, and when you push buildings down on top of themselves like that, where do you think all of that plumbing goes? imagine you are running for your life locks away from your tower and there's types blowing up through the road -- pipes blowing up through the road. think about the horror of those people were feeling as they were running for their very lives. more first responders, more carnage. very moving visit. really surreal for me. something i will never forget. september 20, from the president of the united states, when he is at the national cathedral, something i wrote down that i

live by -- "i will not forget the wound to our country and those who inflicted it. i will not yield. i will not rest. i will not relent waging the struggle for freedom and the security of the american people." our number one ally in the world, tony blair, britain. "if they could have murdered not 7000 but 70,000, does anyone doubt they would have done so and rejoiced in it? there is no compromise possible with such people. no meeting of the mines, no point of understanding, just a choice -- defeat it or be defeated by it, and defeat it we must." tony blair. as i conclude my presentation, i tried to inject humor where humor is appropriate, but there was really nothing funny about that day. that was a day we lost nearly 3000 americans. some you may have known

personally. they were either trapped at their desk in the world trade center working at their desk in the pentagon, or literally fighting for their very lives on board flight 93. these americans were undeserving victims of pure evil and hatred ideology by a group of calculating islamic fanatics whose only mission that day was to kill as many americans as possible. we are at war with an enemy who publicly declared they would never stop their jihad until the white house and those who occupy it are destroyed. but here is the good news -- what our government may have been ignoring 10 years and 11 years ago is now being scrutinized, briefed, and even attacked preemptively if need he. our military has fought and defeated terrorists in afghanistan, yemen, iraq, the philippines, horn of africa, pakistan indonesia, and many other places where cnn is not.

we are putting pressure on iran syria, north korea lebanon. intelligence agencies are talking. our borders and ports are being improved. thanks to the heroic actions of our elite navy seals, the men responsible -- the man responsible for the most destructive act of terrorism to take place on u.s. soil is dead. we shocked the world with our determination to find him, our military capability to reach him, and our resolve to bring him to an appropriate end. but winning in battle does not yet equipped to victory in this war. we absolutely must finish this job. freedom will always be worth the price. to the students here tonight, to the future leaders of america you will soon take the baton from people like me and others and continue our struggle against radical islam in the defense of our freedoms. like so many other generations of americans before you, failure

simply is not an option. and you will have to deal with a few other issues while you are at it -- a struggling economy high unemployment, a politically divided and crippled congress enormous national debt, the challenges of affordable health care for your families. on the international stage, we are leaving your world in a state of unpredictable change with the muslim brotherhood now in charge of egypt china rising, north korea isolated and starving, a ran on the brink of owning a nuclear weapon, or rack -- iran on the brink of owning a nuclear weapon, iraq, syria, afghanistan suffering from the results of political unrest. the truth is there is no finer group of young men and women prepared to deal with these issues. you have learned the value of hard work, character integrity teamwork, cooperation. you are well read, extremely bright. you are among the most patriotic group of young americans i have

ever met. in closing i want to personally thank each of you for your faith in god, your patriotism, love of our country. thank you for your willingness to lead and defend our nation. thank you for recognizing that despite our failings and shortcomings in this country america is without doubt the greatest good the world has ever seen. the peace we seek, the security we need, the freedoms we cherish simply would not exist without the collective efforts of all of us. never forget the events of september 11 2001. support the troops. keep praying for victory. keep fraying for the united states of america. god bless you all. -- keep praying for the united states of america. god bless you all. [applause]

thank you. thank you very much. >> you are watching american history tv. 48 hours of programming on american history every weekend on c-span3. follow us on twitter at c-spanhistory for information on our schedule upcoming programs and to keep up with the latest history news. >> each week, american history tv's "american artifacts" visits museums and historic places. british and american naval forces clashed for 2.5 hours in cumberland bay near plattsburgh, new york. the battle was the culmination of six days of army and navy conflict. we travel to plattsburgh where retired army colonel david fitz-enz, author of "the final invasion: plattsburgh, the war of 1812's most decisive battle" takes us on a tour of key locations to tell