staff called CISM—Critical Incident Stress Management.” On September 14, while the president was at the National Prayer Service at the National Cathedral, the White House Medical Unit set up the first CISM session in the OEOB’s Indian Treaty Room for staff who could not go to the service. Over the next few weeks, the CISM “brought in secular counselors, psychologists, faith-based counselors and the Med Unit themselves to counsel staff.” Tubb believes they saw up to one thousand staff members, either individually or entire offices together. “It was really a tough three months for everyone, especially the younger people, the people who were told to run for their lives,” says Cindy Wright, a nurse in the White House Medical Unit who was traveling with the president on 9/11. “Some people were getting settled from that and then anthrax struck. Then everyone’s anxieties were heightened again.” Wright remembers how on 9/11 she was amazed that “the president was walking through the plane checking on us.” “It has always left an impression on me that in the midst of this crisis that he was taking time to get a feel of where his people were and to reassure everybody.” Dr. Tubb adds, “People struggled with the knowledge they were collateral damage with targets on their back based upon where they worked and who they worked for.” He viewed his job as “care by proxy”: by taking care of the people who take care of the president, he’s taking care of the president.
“NOTHING WAS EVER THE SAME” These first-person accounts and stories of this tumultuous day in history, and the emotional days that followed, reveal the understandable anxiety and disbelief felt by the White House staff and also the strength and determination, with a profound sense of purpose. Staff members drew that resolve directly from the president and the duty to the country they were proud to serve. The country was now at war, and the physical signs of how life changed after 9/11 were evident not only in the heavily armed streets surrounding the White House but in the horror at the Pentagon, at Ground Zero in New York City, and in a field in rural Pennsylvania. “Everyone knew it was the start of a new chapter,” says Joel Kaplan, and “nothing was ever the same after 9/11.” Policy decisions and legislative priorities were impacted by the domestic consequences and issues that arose from the terrorist attacks. The staff ’s work in organizing the
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president’s schedule now also shifted in ways they could have not imagined on the beautiful sunny morning of September 11. On September 12 he visited the Pentagon to survey the damage and boost the morale of the rescue workers and those charged with the morgue detail, uncovering the bodies of their friends and colleagues. And on September 14, after leading the nation in the prayer service, President Bush traveled to New York City and stood atop the rubble of the collapsed towers and then spent hours consoling the grieving families. Not long after, he and Mrs. Bush hosted the Flight 93 families at the White House. White House staff were tasked with “the excruciating experience,” in the words of Kate Marinis and Sara Taylor, of calling those families and arranging their transportation to Washington and escorting them to the emotional meeting on the State Floor. When those families arrived, they were greeted by many White House staff who lined the halls in the East Wing ground floor to thank them and tell them they were praying for them. Kara Figg says that image of lining up to meet those families “is burned in my brain.” Taylor told me, “These families, who had not met before, were now forever connected in a very unique and shared tragic experience.” That tragic experience connected the White House staff, too, as reflected in what Eric Motley shared with me: “Working at the White House is a binding experience in itself, but the strengthening of that bond deepened after an experience like this.” NOTES The interviews on which this article is based were conducted by the author in January, February, and March 2021. Interviews of Christal West Atkinson, Ruth Elliott, Mary Haines, Joel Kaplan, Allison Riepenhoff Ratajczak, Richard Tubb, and Cindy Wright were conducted by Emily Michel. The interview of Noel Francisco was conducted by Chris Michel. Notes from these interviews are in the possession of the author. All quotations, unless otherwise cited, come from these interviews. 1.
“Flight of the Madisons,” White House Historical Association, online at www.whitehousehistory.org.
2. George W. Bush, Decision Points (New York: Crown, 2010), 126. 3. George W. Bush, Presidential Daily Diary, September 11, 2001, online through George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum website, www.catalog.archives.gov. 4. The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, 2004, 7, available online at https://govinfo.library.unt.edu. 5. Karl Rove, Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight (New York: Threshold Editions, 2010), 249–50. 6. George W. Bush, Decision Points, 126. 7.
9/11 Commission Report, 8.
8.
Scott Thuman, “Inside the Situation Room and with the President on Sept. 11,” WJLA with McClatchey Newspapers and Reporter Mike Bohn, September 8, 2011, online at https://wjla. com.
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