tower. America is under attack.”10 The message set in motion a harrowing day for President Bush and the staff traveling with him. The president returned to the holding room to speak with Vice President Dick Cheney, New York Governor George Pataki, and Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Robert Mueller, before going to the media center set up in the school cafeteria to make a press statement. At 9:32 a.m. the president’s motorcade left Booker Elementary School.11 During the short ride to Air Force One, a third passenger jet crashed into the Pentagon. Although the president wanted to return immediately to the White House, the Secret Service strongly objected in light of the potential threats. The president spent the next nine and a half hours managing the emergency response from Air Force One (which was ultimately protected by an escort of fighter jets) and secure locations at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana, and the U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base near Bellevue, Nebraska. He returned to the White House at approximately 6:55 p.m., where he addressed a shocked and grieving nation on national television at 8:30 p.m.12
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Surrounded by his senior staff in the Booker Elementary School holding room, President George W. Bush begins a round of telephone calls to Vice President Dick Cheney, New York Governor George Pataki, and FBI Director Robert Mueller. Seen here, left to right, are Karl Rove, Andrew Card, Ari Fleischer, the president, and Dan Bartlett.
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