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[MUSIC PLAYING]
It is peaceful, healing, serene.
Can a place that has known deep tragedy, the sharpest
pain, a pall of sadness, ever come to know true peace?
Prior to September 11, 2001, this Pennsylvania countryside
had been undisturbed.
Small town life in Somerset County was rich in its charm.
The beauty of fall was fast approaching.
Life went on at a measured pace.
But that day, the fate of the 40 passengers and crew of
United Flight 93 would forever change the community of
Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and make it a shrine--
a shrine of courage, resistance, and action as a
group of people, indivisible in their action even at their
own peril, did better than to play a part in a tragedy meant
for others.
They would not let terrorists take them to a destination
more hurtful than the one they chose.
Shanksville, Pennsylvania, received these patriots in
that action.
And now, a boulder marks the earth where
their struggle ceased.
This place is transformed by their actions and is
eternalized for their countrymen.
This was a place of sadness for a short while.
But as time passes, it changes.
A memorial site grows now, honoring the brave choices
made that September day.
And now, it becomes a grand example, secured by the free
and the brave, remembered and memorialized by their families
and their countrymen.
Today and every day, there is a resolve to never forget.
USAA honors the indivisible spirit of our nation on
Patriot Day through the personal reflections on the
tragic events of September 11, 2001, from
those who were there.
[BELL RINGS]
New Yorker Martin Maliga, a real estate agent who worked
in the shadow of the Twin Towers, was on the lower level
of the North Tower waiting for his best friend, Frank, a
trader with the securities firm, to join him for
breakfast when the first airliner hit.
His friend's office was located above the impact.
And he perished while executing an escape effort.
Martin delivered a eulogy for Frank, and moved south,
eventually joining USAA in 2010.
Today, he's an underwriter for USAA's mortgage services.
Born and raised in San Antonio, daughter of a retired
SAPD officer, Sharleen Walter has a strong tie and respect
for first responders.
While volunteering with the Red Cross, providing comfort
to those conducting recovery efforts in the Twin Towers
rubble, a firefighter, utterly exhausted by days of
searching, placed and ash-covered hand on Sharleen's
arm and quietly told her, if you have family, you need to
be close to them.
At that moment, she made the decision to move back home to
San Antonio.
Sharleen joined USAA in 2011.
Today, she is a senior specialist for the New Member
Solutions team, onboarding new members into USAA.
Please welcome both our hosts Sharleen
Walter and Martin Maliga.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you.
We welcome all of you here at USAA and in our regional
offices across the country.
Also, to all of you, who join as worldwide on the Pentagon
Channel, we say welcome.
We know you share a commitment to remembering this day.
In hosting this remembrance of 9/11, Sharleen and I are very
humbled to be asked to participate.
It is a day that is very difficult to talk about.
It stirs deep feelings and gives us
all a reason to reflect.
We both were in New York and both survived at a time when
many did not.
We hope to honor those who lost their lives that day.
I lost many neighbors on 9/11.
I lived in Brooklyn Heights, just a quarter mile from the
Brooklyn Bridge, overlooking the World Trade Center.
After college, I took a position in Charlotte, North
Carolina, and was later recruited by a top worldwide
auditing and consulting company to
move to New York City.
I moved to the Big Apple, actually fearful that the Big
Apple would just take advantage of a little old
Texas girl, like me.
But soon, very soon, I grew to love living in the city.
My life in Brooklyn consisted of a lot of work and daily
walks with my beloved Greyhound, Oscar.
We socialized with the same neighbors walking their dogs
along the same path every day.
Who would have thought that later, those same neighbors
would soon become ghost pictures, pictures smiling
back at me, but gone?
I had my windows open that day, enjoying the beautiful
September weather.
And I remember clearly that when I came back home, the
dust, the ash, and even papers from someone's desk were
littered in my apartment.
It was hard to breathe.
The ash was so fine.
And it stayed on your skin like some kind of sticky
powder, even showering wouldn't remove
it from your body.
We were all so desperate to help in the
days following 9/11.
I volunteered with the Red Cross, spending many months
supporting the firefighters, the police, and the military,
and all the volunteers who dug on the pile.
I did what I could to help, just little things--
offering a drink, maybe something to eat, maybe giving
them a card from all the children that were sending
them in, or just sitting next to a
searcher and being solemn.
I remember how their faces were ashen, their eyes were
irritated and red, and their shoes were melted from having
been on the pile that was still burning.
They were all exhausted, having spent days and nights
without sleeping, constantly looking, but with the spirit
of hope that they'd find someone alive.
I know I made a little difference being there.
But the horror of the stories that I heard from the work
that was being done on the pile made me quickly realize
and make the decision that I needed to come back home.
I needed to be closer to my family.
So within a few months, I left New York City.
I now know why I was spared that day.
I was meant to be here.
I truly believe in the work that I do here at USAA.
Serving the military community, it allows me to
give back, to give security to our members, those of you who
risk your lives for us.
Yes, we both lost something that day.
Many people lost their lives.
Families were torn apart.
Lives were shattered.
I guess some people would say that I got off
easy, I came out alive.
I was on the ground floor of the North Tower having
breakfast in the snack bar, the one that was hit first.
I could hear the crash.
And I felt the building shake.
We all ran outside at that point.
Looking up, I could see a giant hole.
Thinking it was a bomb, people around me were telling me that
it was a plane that had hit the building.
What got to me was that I knew my best friend, Frank Garfi,
was up there, 104 stories up, just above the impact point.
And I felt that I had to help him get out.
My phone rang.
And it was Frank's brother Vito.
Vito and I were also close.
He called to tell me that had spoken with Frank.
Frank said everyone was under control and that they we're
going to go down the staircase.
He called his mom a few seconds later, in a panic,
saying, there was so much smoke.
He felt as if he were going to die.
By now, you could smell the fire.
People were jumping to escape the flames.
There was nothing to do.
No one could get up there and save those people.
Many brave, brave firefighters climbed to their deaths that
day, to give their lives in service to others.
I wonder, could I have done as much?
I was terrified.
Ultimately, Frank Garfi and thousands of
others lost that day.
I lived.
My mother, who worked less than a
mile away, also escaped.
I feared for her, too, that morning.
But luckily, she walked over the Brooklyn Bridge and got
off the alley with thousands of other people.
Like Sharleen, it wasn't long for me either.
New York was my hometown, but I soon left
to start a new life.
I may have found refuge now in knowing I'm serving those who
serve our great country.
It is a worthy mission and helps people who
deserve the very best.
Our theme today is "Indivisible." We think it's
the perfect word to describe America after 9/11.
The events of that day played out to frighten and to harm so
many people.
But in the end, we became stronger, we became
determined, and we became more indivisible than ever.
And we remain so to this day.
Let us continue to remember that as we honor the flag.
We will lead you all in the "Pledge of Allegiance" where
we are reminded of our indivisible nature.
Recent legislation now allows veterans to either salute or
place their hand over their heart when honoring the flag.
We have a special guest who will sing the national anthem.
Daniel Rodriguez, the New York City Police officer who sang
so beautifully right after 9/11, is with us today.
Daniel sang at many funerals and at many national events
following 9/11.
We are pleased to have him with us today.
Now, join us as we recite the pledge.
Please rise as you are able.
"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of
America and to the Republic for which it stands, one
Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for
all."
[SINGING]
O say can you see by the dawn's early light, what so
proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous
fight, o'er the ramparts we watched, were
so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, o'er the land
of the free and the home of the brave.
[APPLAUSE]
Everyone, please be seated.
Today, Martin and I have spoken of how we reacted.
We have found a semblance of peace, rebuilt, and grown
since 9/11.
Shari Tolbert is another such individual.
Shari was one of our employees and is still a USAA member.
She worked at USAA in 2001 and has now moved on to other
challenges.
Let us learn of the indivisible nature of family.
My kids and I know that we can get through anything
that life throws us.
There are always worse things that can be happening to you.
We know what's important and what's not.
9/11 is a very personal event.
It's the day that I lost my dad.
And it's the day that our family changed forever.
I was 32 years old when Vince died.
My children were 9, 7, and 18 months.
I look back at that now and think, oh, my goodness, how
did I get through that?
There is no option to lay down.
I've got kids that deserve better than that.
I remember when she told us that our dad had died, she
reassured us that she could do this, that she was capable of
keeping this family together.
What a blessing it is that we were surrounded by love from
our country, from our military community.
We have a lot of gratitude for the care that we've received.
Amanda is my go-getter.
She is my co-parent by default, couldn't
be prouder of her.
Just look at her and all of her accomplishments; and in
spite of everything she's been through, she's
just a great girl.
Britney is Britney.
She was born with pretty severe disabilities, had a
rough go from the very beginning.
Then her dad dies.
But she still has this smile and this spirit about her.
And we always call Britney the glue that
keeps the family together.
Anthony is just like having a mini-Vince in the house.
He was only 18, 20 months old when his dad died, so he never
really knew him.
He is him.
His presence is him-- his demeanor, his calmness, his
caring spirit, his attentiveness.
He's very attentive and wants to help.
People go through tragedy every day, but you can't let
that defeat you.
And you can't let it define you.
At the end of the day, the things that matter are the
kind of person you are and your
relationship with your family.
We can't control what happens to us, but we certainly can
control how we respond.
We know the love that we have for each other can't
be taken from us.
And those are the things that matter.
Now, I'd like to introduce someone who is well-known in
the hallways of this building, Maj.
Gen.
Joe Robles Jr. is president and CEO of USAA.
Gen.
Robles retired from the Army in 1994 after a 28-year
career, rising some private to major general.
On the day of the attacks, he was chief financial officer
and helped the association manage its financial resources
during a tumultuous time.
Please welcome, Gen.
Robles.
[APPLAUSE]
Good morning.
On September 11, 2001, like many of you, I
was in total shock.
I had 28 years under my belt of Army service, and I thought
I had seen a lot of crazy things in my life.
But I don't think anyone in the private sector had even
considered the possibility of that kind of carnage and
boldness on the terrorists' part.
Everyone wondered what we would do in retaliation and
what it would do to the fabric of this nation.
At first, we didn't have a clear perspective as to what
we needed to do here in USAA.
But we didn't panic.
We set up an emergency operation center.
And we carefully thought out the most likely impacts for
our members, many of which were
involved in 9/11 as recovery.
In the days after 9/11, we deployed Special Services
teams to lower Manhattan.
USAA was also invited to join the FBI, the Veterans
Administration, and the Social Security Administration at the
DOD Survivor Assistance Center that was
located near the Pentagon.
Our employees told us they were never more proud to
represent USAA and our membership.
One image of that day I will always remember is that famous
photo of the White House Chief of Staff Andy Card leaning
towards the president and whispering in his ear that the
nation was under attack.
I've always wanted to ask him how well the executive branch
was prepared for something like that.
Was there a high level of awareness beforehand?
Or was it really unthinkable?
We are very honored to have Andrew Card with us today to
tell us how the government and the intelligence community
mobilized in the minutes and hours after
the attack on 9/11.
He knows how things really work behind the scenes in the
halls of government.
He was the White House Chief of Staff of
President George W. Bush.
He was the assistant to the president and the deputy chief
of staff for President George Herbert Walker Bush.
He was special assistant and director of intergovernmental
affairs for President Reagan.
And we just developed a short video to kind of give you some
more insight into the career of this outstanding servant to
the people.
Could you roll the video?
The Honorable Andrew H. Card Jr. began his political career
in 1975, serving eight years in the Massachusetts House of
Representatives.
He answered the call to national service as a part of
the Reagan and Bush administrations and was named
the 11th Secretary of Transportation
in February of 1992.
The year would become even more notable for Card in
August as he tackled the job of coordinating the Bush
administration's disaster relief efforts
for Hurricane Andrew.
Stepping back into the private sector from 1993 to 1999, he
served as president and CEO of the American Automobile
Manufacturers Association, and then as vice president of
governmental relations for General Motors.
Card left Detroit to head the 2000 Republican National
Convention.
And subsequently, became George W. Bush's
first Chief of Staff.
"A second plane hit the second tower.
America is under attack." The words that Andrew Card
delivered to President George W. Bush on the morning of
September 11, 2001 would take on unspeakable meaning as the
day's tragic events played out.
Card continued with the Bush administration, eventually
becoming the second longest serving White House Chief of
Staff in the nation's history.
He resigned that position in 2006.
He most recently served as acting dean of the Bush School
of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M
University.
Please help me give a big, warm USAA welcome to the
Honorable Andrew Card.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
Thank you, Gen.
Robles for that introduction.
And thank you for the privilege of
being here at USAA.
What a great institution, but it's your members who have
helped to make sure that we are truly indivisible.
And so I want to salute the members of USAA.
[APPLAUSE]
September 11, 2001 dawned as almost a perfect day
in the lower 48.
There wasn't a cloud in the sky when we
woke up that morning.
The president woke up in Sarasota,
Florida, at a resort.
It was a tennis and golf resort
called the Colony Resort.
And we had arrived the night before.
And I remember as the limousine pulled into the
resort area and the limousine doors opened up and we stepped
out, there was a terrible stench in the air.
The red tide had washed fish up on the shore.
And it stunk.
But it was relatively late in the afternoon, and the
president was finished with his day.
And he was going out for a leisurely dinner, something
that's very unusual for a president to do.
He didn't have to be "on" at this dinner.
There were no speeches, he was with friends.
And it was a relaxing evening, and the president stayed out a
little later than normal.
We went back to the Colony Resort.
And he went up to go to bed, and I went over the day's
activity for the next day.
And I was struck with how easy day it was going to be.
The president was going to focus on "Leaving No Child
Behind" in education and would be visiting
an elementary school.
I went to sleep that night, woke up very
early in the morning.
If you're the chief of staff to the president, you always
wake up very early in the morning.
And I remember going downstairs in the resort and
taking a walk outside and sniffing the air.
And sure enough, it stunk.
I looked over, and I saw some of the advance team working
the motorcade.
And there was a car lined up and kind of in the wrong spot.
So I went over and suggested they
should move things around.
And then I went back into the resort and went up the
elevator to the president's suite.
And there, the president was starting to put
on his running clothes.
And he was all excited.
I watched as he got dressed, and I'm talking to him.
I'm saying, it's going to be an easy day.
When you get back from your run,
we'll have a CIA briefing.
But it's going to be all about "Leaving No Child Behind" and
going over to this elementary school.
His mind was kind of focused on something else.
You see he had invited a reporter to go for a run with
him on the golf course.
And I don't know if any of you know the Bushes, but they're
all so competitive.
They don't let their grandchildren
beat them at checkers.
And President Bush was nervous about this run on the golf
course because the reporter that he had invited to run,
he'd been an NCAA All-American cross country runner.
And that's where his head was.
And I said to him, good luck with your running.
By the way, I checked with the White House doctor.
He said there won't be any problem out there.
And the president looks at me and said, what?
I said, well, the red tide stench, they said even if you
exercise hard, you won't get sick.
And president looked at me-- yeah, right.
I got that look a lot when I was chief of staff.
He went out for the run.
And he came back, and he was pumped.
He ran 4 and 1/2 miles, 7 minute 20 second
miles the whole way.
And he beat the reporter.
And he was walking a little taller.
And he started to get undressed to go
in and take a shower.
Not always a pretty sight.
When he got out of the shower and was all dressed, we sat
down and had our CIA briefing.
And then we got ready to go over to the
Emma E. Booker School.
We went down, piled into limousines, and there was a
buzz in the air.
I remember Karl Rove and Dan Bartlett, both asking a
question, anybody hear about a plane crash in New York?
In the limousines, we went, and we headed over to the Emma
E. Booker School.
It's an elementary school with students who come from
challenging neighborhoods.
And when we arrived at the school, I know that the
director of the White House Situation Room, Deb Loewer,
who was a Navy captain, went on to become an admiral, went
over and kind of stuck her head into the limousine and
spoke to the president.
I went into the school and entered a classroom that had
been converted into a White House command center, and then
went in, opened the door to a classroom that the president
was going to walk in.
And sure enough, the students were starting to arrive.
And they looked so young, those second graders.
And there was a press pool beginning to build at the back
of the room.
And I walked back into the holding room, that classroom
that had been converted into a White House command center.
And I'm standing at the door to the classroom, right next
to the president and the principal of the school,
principal Rigell, when Capt. Loewer, the director of the
White House Situation Room, came up to the president and
said, sir, it appears a small twin-engine prop plane crashed
into one of the towers at the World Trade
Center in New York City.
Our collective response was, oh, what a horrible accident.
The pilot must have had a heart attack or something.
And then the principal opened the door to the classroom.
And she and the president went in.
When the door shut, Capt. Loewer came back up to me.
And she said, sir, it appears it was not a small twin-engine
prop plane.
It was a commercial jet liner.
My mind flashed to the fear that must have been
experienced by the passengers on that plane.
They had to know it wasn't gaining altitude.
I don't know why that's where my mind went, but
that's where it went.
But that was only a nanosecond because Deb Loewer came right
back up to me and said, oh my gosh, another plane hit the
other tower at the World Trade Center.
My mind flashed to three letters--
U, B, L. That's what we call Osama bin Laden.
I stood there, and I performed the tests that chiefs of staff
have to perform all the time.
Does the president need to know?
This was an easy test to pass, yes.
I thought about what I would say.
I knew the venue that I was going into.
I made the decision to pass on two words that were facts.
And that I was going to offer an editorial comment.
And I would do nothing to invite a question or dialogue.
I opened the door to the classroom.
The teacher Ms. Daniels was in front of these second graders.
And she was organizing a dialogue between the students
and the president.
Say good morning, Mr. President.
Good morning, Mr. President.
The president responded back.
And this dialogue was taking place.
And I didn't want to interrupt the dialogue.
So I stood at that door.
And then I spotted Ann Compton from ABC News
in the press pool.
And she spotted me.
And it was unusual for me to enter a room after the
president had gone in.
And she says, and I said, and she said--
[LAUGHTER]
--and then the teacher was instructing the students to
take their books out.
The dialogue with the president had ended.
And I walked up to the president, and leaned over and
whispered into his right ear, "A second plane
hit the second tower.
America is under attack."
That was all I said to him.
And I stood back from him so that he
couldn't ask me a question.
I noticed his head was nodding up and down.
And I stepped back to the door of the classroom.
And I remembered in my peripheral vision, I saw
Secretary Rod Paige, the Secretary of Education, and a
White House staffer named Sandy Kress from Texas, and
principal Rigell standing there,
wondering what I had done.
Then I saw those innocent second graders.
And they looked so young.
And in my right peripheral vision, I saw Ari Fleischer,
the press secretary, huddled with reporters.
And the president was sitting there contemplating.
I was really pleased with how the president reacted.
He did nothing to introduce fear to
those very young children.
He also did nothing to demonstrate fear to the media
that would have translated it to the satisfaction of
terrorists all around the world.
Instead, I honestly believed the president was thinking
about his job.
I was with him when he became president on the
steps of the Capitol.
It was a very different day.
It was a cold, rainy, almost snowy day.
And the president was called to the rostrum by the Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court.
Laura Bush held the Bible.
He put his left hand on top of them, raised his right hand,
and he took the oath.
It's a simple oath, comes right from Article II in the
Constitution.
I don't think the president thought much about the oath
when he took it.
I think his mind was focused more on his inaugural address,
which was going to be delivered right
after he took the oath.
But in that classroom in Florida on a spectacular day,
I believe that he thought about that oath, his job to
preserve, protect, and defend.
I left the classroom.
I walked into the holding room.
And I was pleased that the president didn't come with me
because it gave me an opportunity to get some things
done that had to be done.
The first thing I said was, get the FBI
director on the phone.
Get a line open to the vice president.
Get a line open to the White House Situation Room.
Get the crew back on Air Force One.
We're going to have to leave.
To the Secret Service, I said, turn the motorcade around,
we're going to have to leave.
To Dan Bartlett, we communicated.
I said, get some remarks written.
We have people in the gymnasium right next door.
And the president is going to have to say something.
Then the president opened the door from the classroom and
walked into that holding room.
And as I had anticipated, everybody
rushed to the president.
What's the first thing that he says?
Get the FBI director on the phone.
And we go say, right here, Mr. President.
A TV was brought in as he worked on his remarks.
And we saw the footage of the planes crashing into the World
Trade Center.
I actually left the holding room and went into the
gymnasium where the president is going to be speaking.
I first spoke to Secretary Rod Paige and said, we're going to
be leaving.
You'll have to speak to this audience after
the president leaves.
I gave him a brief description of what was happening.
Then I walked back into the holding room as the president
was getting ready to walk out and give his remarks to the
people that had gathered.
When he took the stage, he walked out, he said,
unfortunately, I'm going to have to be leaving.
And I'm going back to Washington, DC.
And he told us about what had happened in New York City.
And he asked for those in the audience to thank the rescue
workers that would be responding.
I was upset because the president had lied.
He said he was going back to Washington, DC.
And I knew he wasn't.
We piled into limousines.
And we left the school, went at a very
fast clip to the airport.
And I was sitting in the back of
limousine with the president.
And both of us were on our phones.
And the president is frustrated because he keeps
calling the Secretary of Defense, Secretary Rumsfeld,
and there's no answer.
And he's frustrated.
It turns out, that's right when the
Pentagon was being attacked.
We get to Air Force One.
And Col.
Mark Tillman already had the engines running
on Air Force One.
That 747, the VC-25, it was cranked up.
That's a no-no until the president is
safely on the plane.
But he had the engines running.
We ran up the stairs.
As soon as the president was on that 747 and the door shut,
it became Air Force One.
And we started to rumble down the runway.
And we lifted off at a very, very steep incline, went all
the way up to 46,000, 48,000 feet, and started to fly in a
serpentine way, waiting for fighter jets
to catch up to us.
The president is in his office in the front
cabin on that 747.
And he's making phone calls back to Washington, DC.
Actually, one of the first phone calls he made was to
President Putin, saying, don't overreact.
We're not sending the missiles toward you.
Don't send anything towards us.
He talked to the vice president, talked to the White
House Situation Room, talked to Condi Rice.
And then I'm standing with the president.
And he said, we're going back to Washington, DC.
I said, Mr. President, I don't think you want
to make that decision.
You see, I had already talked to Col.
Tillman.
And he said, we were not landing at
Andrews Air Force Base.
And the Secret Service said, we're not going into
Washington, DC.
But the president was quite adamant.
And he kept saying, we are going back to Washington, DC.
Mr. President, I really don't think you want
to make that decision.
I would not recommend that right now.
And the president--
I am the President of United States.
We are going back to Washington, DC.
Mr. President, I really don't think you want
to make that decision.
It was a pretty heated exchange, but it was heated
from one side.
I was cool, calm, and collected.
I had zero protection.
The Secret Service didn't want any part of it.
They were there to protect the president, not to protect me.
We ended up going to Barksdale Air Force Base.
Why Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana?
See, the two phenomenal military aides who were on
this trip-- and usually there's only one--
one was named Tom Gould, an Air Force officer; the other
was Paul [? Montanus, ?]
a Marine officer.
They were phenomenally helpful that day.
They gave me the best options to consider.
It turns out, Barksdale Air Force Base was under an
exercise on their own, simulating a nuclear attack.
They were on the highest level of alert.
Perfect!
We're on the runway.
We're going to Barksdale Air Force Base.
Don't tell anybody.
As the plane is coming in to land at Barksdale Air Force
Base, you could start to pick up the local television.
And we're watching the TVs.
And all of a sudden, they break and say, President Bush
is about to land at Barksdale Air Force Base.
[LAUGHTER]
And I'm going, how did they find out?
Months later, I had learned that it was a reporter
happened to be driving by with his camera, saw the plane
starting to come down, put the tripod up, put the camera on
it, and got the scoop.
There was no leak.
When we landed at Barksdale, we piled into Humvees.
And we're driven at a very fast pace to a building that
was a nice office building, but it had very poor
communications.
And the president was frustrated.
So we hopped in those Humvees and drove at even a faster
clip to the commanding officer's office.
And there, the president made his secure phone calls back to
Washington, DC.
And he taped a message for the American people.
And he said, "faceless cowards attacked this country.
But it would not stand."
And then with a crew that I had to turn into a skeleton
crew, we piled back onto Air Force One.
And those who were left behind ended up taking other planes
to other venues.
Actually, it was a pretty healthy debate over who should
go with the president on the rest of the trip.
We went to the Strategic Air Command, off at Air Force Base
in Nebraska.
And I remember when landed, we went down
into a very deep bunker.
Some of you have probably been there, and a lot of your
members have probably been there as well.
It was right out of the movies-- all these flat TVs.
And you know that the generals and the admirals that were in
the room, they're pretty squared away.
And you could hear all of the communication going around the
FAA and all the planes in the sky.
And the flag of war was real.
Things were being described that weren't real.
And the president was very disruptive.
When the president walks into a room of people wearing
uniforms, they want to stand.
But they had jobs to do that required them to sit.
So they are kind of half-standing and
half-sitting.
And the president said, I'm disruptive.
I'm getting out of here.
And we went to a small holding room where we had a video,
secure video conference back to Washington, DC, with the
vice president and the National Security Council.
After that meeting, the president turns to me.
And he says, Andy, we are going back to Washington, DC.
I went to the Secret Service, and they relented.
The reports were Andrews Air Force Base would be secure.
And they could get the president back
to the White House.
We left off it, piled on to the plane, and we were winging
our way to Washington, DC, in Andrews Air Force Base.
And the TVs that were on in Air Force One showed the Twin
Towers completely collapsing.
No one said a word on the plane.
We said prayers.
And we cried.
But there was also a tremendous resolve because
while others may have thought that America was divisible, we
knew it was indivisible.
As we're coming into land at the Andrews Air Force Base,
the approach allows us to look out the windows, and it was a
sight that I had never seen before--
fighter jets on either side of that VC-25.
They were so close that we could see the facial
expressions of the pilots.
We land, get off the plane, pile on to a helicopter that
becomes Marine One as soon as the president gets on it.
And we lift off.
And usually, the flight from Andrews Air Force Base to the
South Lawn of the White House is up and direct.
This time, we stayed at treetop level and zigzagged
our way to the South Lawn.
Yes, we went right by the Washington Monument, which is
always quite a trip.
But as we're winging our way into the South Lawn, you saw
the smoke billowing from the Pentagon.
And the president turns and says to me, that's the face of
war in the 21st century.
We land at the South Lawn, and the president goes into the
Oval Office.
And it's kind of torn apart.
Klieg lights are being brought in; the rug is being rolled
up; chairs are being pushed aside; there were getting
ready for the president to make an address to the
American people.
So we went into a dining room, just off the Oval Office.
And president sat at the table and started going over a
speech that had been drafted for him to give that evening.
He made a lot of changes.
And he practiced it a few times.
And at 8:30 that evening, he walked into the Oval Office.
And he told America what was happening.
He said that this was a day that we would never forget.
He said that terrorism would not stand.
It was a brief address, but it was an address that he never
thought he would have to deliver.
The day ended.
But the day didn't end with a great deal of knowledge.
Instead, it ended with a fog, still very thick.
And we didn't know what was really going on everywhere.
The president went up to bed with the first lady.
I went back to my office.
And it's pretty late at night, maybe 11 o'clock at night.
And I'm going through my paperwork, getting ready to go
home, when into my office walks a Secret Service agent.
And he literally picks me up out of my chair and starts
running with me down the halls of the White House.
And he took me to the bunker, which is
underneath the mansion.
Next thing I know, down comes Laura Bush,
carrying one of her pets.
She didn't have her contacts in, so it's kind of feeling
her way along.
And she's wearing very silly slippers.
Right behind her is the president, carrying one of the
pets, wearing a robe, and also, very silly slippers.
It turns out, it was reported that there was a plane that
had entered Washington, DC's air space that hadn't
identified itself.
So they rushed the president and the first lady out of the
bed and brought them down to the bunker.
Well, in the bunker, they have a bed.
I had a steel cot.
[LAUGHTER]
But none of us had to get into our bed or the steel cot
because the "all clear" was given.
And everyone went back to their business.
My heart is pumping, the adrenalin is flowing, and I go
home and lay in bed.
That was September 11 for me.
It was a day that did change the world.
It changed America or changed us.
It was a day that we promised never to forget.
But it was also a day that demonstrated to the world that
while you thought we might have been a divided nation on
September 10, we were not on September 11.
And we never will be again.
We are indivisible.
Thank you, and God bless you.
[APPLAUSE]
Mr. Card, thank you so much for being with us
today, thank you.
Recalling these events bring to mind many stories of
bravery and sacrifice beyond the norm.
People were thrown into circumstances they may never
have imagined.
However, some people do imagine them and prepare as
best they can.
What follows is a story about one man's preparation, a
united response, and providence
that saved many lives.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
When the airplane hit the Pentagon at 460 knots, 11,000
gallons of fuel, it's equivalent to 400,000 pounds
of dynamite.
So I was in the vice chief's office on the fifth floor
opposite the impact point.
And the whole building shook.
It was a, "what's that?" And within a couple of seconds,
smoke filled his office.
And it became very apparent that we
were the third airplane.
I thought, OK, time for me to revert to being a doctor.
My whole career and up to that point, 32 years of commission
service, prepared me to be able to function on 9/11.
So I went down to the Pentagon clinic, picked up a team who
were putting on their equipment, which had arrived
on the first of September.
Came out the door, tried to breathe.
We were in heavy smoke.
As soon as I could see again, there was a lady midair,
jumping off the fifth floor.
And a very large man caught her, physically put his arms
like this, caught her, which had pummeled him into the
ground, but saved her life.
And he stands up and salutes and reports in and says, sir,
I'm so glad you're here.
We need some help.
The hole wasn't 20 feet away, but we couldn't see it.
The pressure wave blew all three of us out.
Because after I passed him, he followed, and the next thing
he knew, we were all on a heap in the water.
Now, in the water, even with a sheet of flame over us, didn't
light any of us off.
I get up, and I said, OK.
I've sent casualties into my casualty collection point,
there's no other docs there.
I better go tend my men.
And there's an executive officer who was supposed to
keep every general on track.
And that's hard.
He dropped me off the impact zone.
And then he couldn't find me.
And then I wasn't able to be found.
He called and asked for some help, where's Carlton?
And one of the young men, one of my colonels, he said,
there's rumor that there's a three-star killed.
And we can't find Carlton.
So the assumption then was I was dead.
And in the meantime, the chief of staff had come and taken
over my headquarters and moved everybody to my house because
I had a secure fax, I had a secure comm.
I run upstairs.
And there's 50 people in my bedroom.
And they all looked at me like I'm a ghost.
And I'm thinking, what do you think?
You get rid of a three-star, and
everybody else gets a promotion?
Come on, we got work to do.
Not knowing that they have been told for four hours that
I was dead.
If you had to choose an area, that would have been the area
for that day, not the following day,
but for that day.
It wasn't populated, and it was the strongest
area that we had.
Call it providential, absolutely.
And to do two exercises prior to that, two weeks prior,
providential.
We needed an exercise for the clinic.
We wanted to make it realistic.
And so we came up with, OK, well, let's do an airplane
hits the Pentagon, medics you're up.
And so we did that in May, and we didn't do very well.
And so on the 28th of August, we did it again.
Airplane hits the Pentagon, medics you're up.
And then this time, we had our equipment.
Everybody knew where to go to help people evacuate properly.
The unspoken part of this, and the thing you haven't read, is
that at every stairwell were able-bodied people in uniform
helping those who weren't able-bodied.
Every stairwell was the same--
people wanting to help anybody that couldn't get down easily.
Probably the best joint operation I've
ever seen in my life.
No chain of command, except what's on your shirt.
And everybody did just exactly what you would
hope they would do.
An amazing story and actions that saved so many.
We are honored, indeed, to have Lt.
Gen.
Carlson in the audience today.
Will he and his wife, Jan, and their daughter [? Krista, ?]
please rise and be recognized?
[APPLAUSE]
At this time, ladies and gentlemen, we ask that you
will respectfully join us as we observe the tolling of the
Remembrance Bell.
Four tolls, one for each group that we'd like to remember and
honor today.
Joining our hosts will be employees Joyce [? Magi, ?]
who survived in the area next to the Twin Towers, and
Darlene [? Bisson, ?]
who took the first call at USAA, resulting in connecting
a member with her family on 9/11.
Our bell today is tolled by Navy veteran John Gordon, who
also escaped the Twin Towers on that fateful day.
For those who lost their lives on the following flights and
their loved ones--
Flight 11, North Tower; Flight 175, South Tower; Flight 77,
Pentagon; Flight 93, Shanksville.
[BELL RINGS]
For those who occupied the following places and their
loved ones--
World Trade Center, North Tower; World Trade Center,
South Tower; the Pentagon, both
service members and civilians.
[BELL RINGS ONCE]
For the first responders who were lost while trying to save
others and for their families.
[BELL RINGS ONCE]
For the military and the civilians who died to defend
our freedom here and abroad, for those wounded in action
and who continue to struggle, and for our nation's
collective loss.
[BELL RINGS ONCE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
"As the storm clouds gather far across the sea, let us
swear allegiance to a land that's free.
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, as we raise our
voices in a solemn prayer.
[SINGING]
God bless America, land that I love.
Stand beside her and guide her through the night with a light
from above.
From the mountains to the prairies, to the
oceans, white with foam.
God bless America, my home sweet home.
God bless America, my home sweet home.
God bless America, land that I love, stand beside her and
guide her through the night with a light from above.
From the mountains to the prairies, to the
oceans, white with foam.
God bless America, my home sweet home.
God bless America, my home sweet home.
[APPLAUSE]
Wow, wow, thank you, Daniel, thank you so much.
And Tim Decker, wow, that is such an amazing piece of work.
Your painting is amazing, thank you as well.
We want to thank all of you for joining us here today to
remember and to honor those who were affected since 9/11.
We hope our stories have shown that American nature to be
indivisible.
Life continues.
We still work to recover.
But honoring and remembering renews our strengths.
Thank you again.
We will always remember and never forget.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE]