Remembering 9/11: Andrew Card on the moment everything changed
President George W. Bush arrived at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., on a clear September Tuesday in 2001 to celebrate a surge in reading scores. Teacher Kay Daniels' second-graders were eager to meet him. "It was a beautiful start of the day," Daniels said. "Moms had done hairs, and uniforms were pressed, and everybody was excited."
President Bush, she said, "was light, and he was approachable."
The children were about to read to the president when the light began to turn. As Daniels recalled, "Mr. Card came up and whispered in the president's ear, and my whole being just froze, because I knew that was not supposed to happen."
And then something happened to the president's attitude. "He left us for a moment," said Daniels. "Not physically, but I could tell he left us for a moment, but he came back. And I'm wondering, what was that moment about?"
The president read the assigned book, "The Pet Goat," for a few moments – then briefly addressed the nation with few hard facts: "Today, we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country."
Daniels said, "That is a part of me that will never go away, because it's a part of me. Just like breathing is a part of me, that day is a part of me. I'll never forget it."
Bush's chief of staff, Andy Card, now 79, can never forget, either. Though it had been 25 years since he was inside the classroom, it all came flooding back on a return visit. "That day I promised myself I was going to be cool, calm, and collected, and help the president," Card said. "So, what do you tell him? I decided I would tell him two facts and make one obvious editorial comment. A second plane hit the second tower; America is under attack. And I was praying that the president did nothing to demonstrate fear to those second-graders."
He didn't, prompting later criticism for appearing indecisive.
"I'm offended if people think he was doing it wrong," Card said, "because if he was doing it wrong, I had done it wrong. So, I'll take the blame. We didn't know much about what was going on at all. I do think it was the moment that he realized what the real job of being president was."
The flow of information that morning to and from the president was jumbled. Reporters like me scrambled for scraps of facts as we prepared for live reports.
Asked if he'd felt afraid, Card replied, "I had fear. I'm not sure that I would call myself afraid. I felt very mission-driven."
Card's whisper to the president is now an enduring image of a moment America changed.
"I feel guilty that that photograph, which is iconic and defines an era, includes me," Card said. "Because I'm not iconic at all. I tried to help a president do a job. I'm sure there are millions of Americans that would stand up and do the same thing that I did that would help the president do the right thing. My conscience is clear, but I also know maybe I didn't do some things right."
This past spring, Card and Daniels reunited for the first time since 9/11 at a commemoration held at Booker Elementary.
For those who suffered up-close, 9/11 carries a sacred obligation: Never forget. It's the anthem of 9/11, and a mission to educate those too young to know.
Part of that mission now includes a steel beam recovered from the South Tower of the World Trade Center, on a nationwide tour marking 25 years. The steel, roughly 22 feet long and weighing 17,000 pounds, conveys the enormity of destruction, and the gravity of loss – a loss few know better than Stephen Siller, Jr. His father, Stephen, a New York City firefighter, was off-duty when he heard the distress call on 9/11.
"So, he grabbed his gear, threw it in his truck, and drove to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel," said Siller. "When he got there, it was shut down. So, he grabbed his gear, put it on his back and ran to the World Trade Center, where he ultimately lost his life."
Siller travels the country with the steel truck to honor his father, part of his work with the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. "We want people to go up to it," he said. "We want people to pray over it. My father's body was never recovered. Who he is, is ingrained into that steel."
Asked what he wants younger Americans who have no living memory of 9/11 to know, Siller replied, "Well, I'm one of them. I was nine months old on September 11th, so I completely understand growing up without the depth of knowledge of what occurred that day."
Card said, "People that are 25 today don't know what it is that we promised never to forget. I feel an obligation to tell the story."
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Story produced by Arden Farhi. Editor: Lauren Barnello.
