Grief

[Jim Page]

(01-11-2013 11:30 PM)My Name Is Kate Wrote:  TV (mainstream, even) shows Bush still sitting there reading a story to the class after having been informed of the attack.

Kate, I believe President Bush's reaction when the first plane hit the WTC tower was the same as mine when my admin assistant told me about it: That had to have been a small aircraft flown by a non-professional and bewildered pilot. And remember, President Bush was a trained pilot himself. The idea of an aircraft pilot deliberately flying into an inhabited skyscraper was just beyond the pale.

Then, when it became known that the plane was indeed a commercial jetliner, what came to my mind, and perhaps the mind of the president, was the incident when a WWII bomber flew into the Empire State Building in bad weather. That was an accident; the plane hit about halfway up the building, I believe.

As I recall from President Bush's autobiography, it was wasn't until the second plane hit that he realized, "Okay; we're now at war." And that, I believe, is when the Secret Service took over as they are obliged to do.

Many people don't realize that the Secret Service is in charge when something like that occurs; I'm not certain that even the president can easily override what they have in motion. I seem to remember Bush having to really put his foot down to get Air Force One back to DC, as the Secret Service had other plans.

It's been years since I've read about this incident, but I believe President Bush handled himself well considering this was literally a bolt from the blue.

--Jim