[Music]
[Applause]
you’re all stronger than you know as
Americans we are all stronger than we
know so you see this fact became
brutally clear to all of us on September
11th 2001 as I was standing with our
nation’s highest leaders as the attack
on America was in progress
but let me back up as you heard I grew
up in the marine corps I grew up flying
attack helicopters I served in the first
Gulf War and then again in 1993 I was
deployed to Somalia Africa in June of
1998 I put a package in and I was
selected to fly with Marine helicopter
squadron one hmx won the presidential
helicopter squadron our job is the sport
is to support the president and the vice
president with helicopter operations
worldwide what people don’t realize is
our president only flies in our
helicopter
he only rides in our limousines he only
talks on our phones he’s only seen by
our doctors he only eats the food we
approved for him to eat and that happens
worldwide in October of 2000 I was then
asked to be the squadron representative
in the White House military office where
my job was to do those logistics so we
would have the Air Force carry all those
presidential assets worldwide so the
moment the president stepped off Air
Force One those helicopters limousines
Secret Service snipers doctors
everything he needed to perform to
perform his executive agenda was there
waiting for him
fully rehearsed and ready to go and then
he went when he was done and he was
wheels up on Air Force One we had the
Air Force come in with all the heavy
lift assets and we would clean up that
location and move it either to another
location or back to Andrews Air Force
Base in Virginia
September 11th I’m in the Eisenhower
executive office building 846 someone
came running in to our office and
hey sir turn on CNN apparently a small
aircraft I just dropped the North Tower
of the World Trade Center like all of
you we turned on the TV we couldn’t help
but notice what a beautiful clear blue
day it was 78 degrees in Manhattan and
why would a pilot run into a hundred and
ten storey landmark on the day like that
he had the East River to his right he
had the Hudson River to his left and
most aviators could even glide if they
had to and reach LaGuardia Airport there
must be much more to this story than we
know sure enough the phones were ringing
and we found out that was American
Airlines flight 11 it departed Boston
Logan Airport it was on its way out to
California to land at LAX it was off
course over Albany New York down the
Hudson River and hit the building at
over 500 miles an hour
903 just like all of you we are still in
that Eisenhower building when we saw
this aircraft come into view I remember
yelling up at the TV screen hey what’s
this moron doing trying to get a look at
the hole in the North Tower
when we watched him careening into the
South Tower as certainly what looked
like full power to us my boss was an Air
Force full-bird colonel he came in the
room is everybody stop what you’re doing
eyeballs on me we have a full-blown
terrorist event unfolding right before
our eyes in the city of New York stand
by for a lot of Whitehouse designated
missions and really what that means is
whenever we have a national disaster
anywhere in our country we have amazing
resources expertise people and equipment
that need and want to go to these
national national disaster sites but
there’s only so many heavy lift assets
so what they end up doing is they call
the White House and they say hey boss
this is the Federal Emergency Management
Agency I need to be up there at Ground
Zero and he goes go once the president
says go they become a 1 alpha 1 priority
mission we will push baby food out of
the back of the next available asset to
get them and their people airborne and
up to the site about as quick as we can
make it happen on 9/11 we were now
fielding all the phone calls from all
the government agencies requesting one
hour
for one priority and now diverting every
airforce asset in the sky into Andrews
Air Force Base and what were we gonna do
is we call Rackham and stack them get
him on the ground fill them with gas and
have them stand by a lot of government
agencies and people heading their way
to get up there these two assist the
people of New York 9:30 as we’re working
the 1-alpha ones an airline over flew
the White House the White House is
prohibited airspace if you’re not marine
one nobody over flies the White House
ever and yet this jet was so low and so
loud we froze right there and are in our
spot right where we were
somebody ran to a window and goes holy
mackerel I just saw a big white jet hard
left-hand turn heading west 937 breaking
news fire and explosion over at the
Pentagon this aircraft has just violated
the airspace over the White House must
have been the same aircraft that just
careened into the west side of the
Pentagon it turned out they were two
separate aircraft the aircraft had just
violated the president’s airspace was
none other than an Air Force efore be a
nuclear command and control platform
because on 9/11 our military was doing a
huge nuclear exercise we had parked this
national level asset out of Andrews Air
Force Base and when the second tower was
hit they scrambled it and said get to
the President of the United States and
when there’s big 747 with the weird cone
on top dialed in the president’s
location and they had a laser line it
took them right over the White House
there were full operations operational
and they’re heading to Sarasota Florida
to join up with the president the
aircraft that struck the Pentagon was
none other than American Airlines flight
77 it took off at a Dulles Airport just
west of Virginia when as far as Ohio
made a right-hand 180 came back right
hand 360 over top of Washington DC and
careened into the west side of the
Pentagon at 9:37 but literally this 757
carrying innocents and this 747 with
military members must have passed each
other in flight as one was racing to the
present
and the other was kid you know was
hijacked and careening into the west
side of our Pentagon 945 White House the
border ordered evacuated all the loud
speakers blared a life Eisenhower
executive office building White House
West Wing and everything else ordered to
be emptied right now and make it happen
my boss again came in said shut it down
we got to go to the alternate site I
said sir I can’t go wherever President
Bush is going to go today cuz it’s
obvious he’s not coming back to
Washington DC he’s gonna need limousines
helicopters phone with Secret Service
nieghbors doctors everything that we do
in airlift operations he said well you
can’t do it from here go across the
street go inside the President’s
Emergency Operations Center do logistics
from there the rest of us are going to
go to the alternate site I got to the
top of the staircase I’m looking over at
the West Wing I had to stop just for a
second and pause because the White House
is a living fortress and yet on 9/11 the
gates to the north were wide open the
gates to the South were wide open Secret
Service all had automatic weapons and
they’re yelling in bullhorns ladies take
off your heels and run there’s another
plane inbound and watching these young
twenty-year-old professional people
dropping their purses kicking off their
shoes sprinting off the White House
complex was really just an unbelievable
sight got across the street showed my
credentials Secret Service lets me in
before long I’m underground adore you
and I can’t pull on opens enters I enter
and I’m in the President’s Emergency
Operations Center the bunker under the
White House the first person I see was a
vice president military aide good friend
of mine I said Tom I’m here to do
logistics I’ll stay out of your way he
said Bob forget logistics and to the
phones they ran off the hook I looked at
this this console of military members
all working the phones answering the
radios taking notes doing what they’re
trained to do and I can see at the very
end there’s an empty console and as I
got close to it I could hear the phone
ringing I got down there I dropped my
planning kit 9:52 when I picked up the
phone and said major darling and the
gentleman on the other end said major we
have another hijack plane 16 miles south
of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
inbound Washington DC
naturally I told more you’re gonna have
to hold on and I spun to my right to
pass this information to the military
aid and who standing next to me but Vice
President Cheney behind him was his wife
Lynn here comes dr. rice a National
Security Advisor behind her was Stephen
Hadley heard her deputy Norman Mineta
the Secretary of Transportation and
everybody else who was in the West Wing
that morning was now evacuated
underground into the bunker complex as a
result of the violation of P 56 that Air
Force v4b coming over to my console to
hear about this new hijacked plane
somewhere south of Pittsburgh I merely
snapped – mr. vice president we have
another hijacked plane coming at us sir
they were reported south of Pittsburgh
he turned to his left and up on the wall
were these three speaker boxes they’re
all landlines phone lines he can talk to
anybody he wants to talk to they merely
passed him through to the FAA he goes
Rick it’s the vice president I just got
word we have another hijacked plane
somewhere south of Pittsburgh can you
confirm that for me mr. vice president
that aircraft is not talking
it is not squawking the transponder code
given air traffic control altitude
airspeed and direction mr. vice
president at the hijacked aircraft he
goes to the other speaker box he’s
looking for Donald Rumsfeld the other
member of the National Command Authority
who can give offensive lethal
instructions to the US military Donald
Rumsfeld was not in the building as a
result of the impact of flight 77 he ran
outside to assist with the wounded we
had the president getting on Air Force
One
we had Donald Rumsfeld outside the
building the Vice President Cheney then
said general I want you to listen to me
I want two f-15s I want him out of
oldest Air National Guard base in Cape
Cod let me know when they’re airborne
stand by to shoot this aircraft down and
I remembered naturally I took a step
away from him I turned because in my
mind we are our job in the US military
was to create options for the president
that’s what we do and on 9/11 with the
president getting on the aircraft and
the band the Secretary of Defense
outside we weren’t just creating options
we were executing plans and I looked at
Vice President Cheney completely
differently that day and I realized this
is not an ordinary politician
this is somebody who was a congressman
from Wyoming a chief of staff for
President Ford a Secretary of Defense
for the first President Bush and now
vice president of the United States and
he just unleashed the United States Air
Force to intercept a civilian airliner
really minutes later we heard those
f-15s they were airborne there were
1,200 miles an hour they were supersonic
there were five minutes away from United
flight 93 and without hesitation he said
shoot that aircraft down everybody then
went quiet it was a military mission in
action and all of a sudden we heard at
10:05 aircraft down aircraft down 68
miles south of Pittsburgh no survivors I
remember staring at Vice President
Cheney had his back to us he was looking
up at those three speaker boxes he spun
around he came right over to my console
and he said major for the congressional
investigation state your full name and
I’m thinking unbelievable I was here to
do logistics and now I’m in between the
vice president and the US military taken
action against a hijacked civilian
airliner so I stated my name he turned
he said from major darling and the
National Military Command Center to the
vice president we just shot that plane
down I really need to talk to the
president and now everybody turned to
and they’re going Air Force One Air
Force one this is the peoc and they’re
trying to raise the president up on the
net and just as he was doing that all
those same radios blared back to life
the f-15s never fired the f-15s never
fired 40 innocent ordinary Americans
United themselves when they learned from
loved ones we got three planes and three
targets this is not a ransom mission
we’re not going to Cuba if we don’t take
action we’re just going to see here and
we’re gonna die and they did they storm
the cockpit they fought back with these
terrorists they won they ultimately
overpowered those terrorists that plane
went completely inverted and hid in a
field in Shanksville pen
Sylvania at over 500 miles an hour they
said that when the FBI went out there to
comb the wreckage of flight 93 the last
piece of steel was found 40 feet down in
the ground ordinary Americans doing
extraordinary things to save each other
on 9/11 the president now is on the net
vice-president and he or having
discussions and all of a sudden
10:08 CNN is now reporting that in fact
the South Tower of the World Trade
Center had collapsed just moments before
he literally said mr. president why I
got you on the phone sir we get a report
here the South Tower of the World Trade
Center complex has collapsed he flipped
over a sheet of paper he starts
scribbling some rough water math and he
goes mr. president it’s my best guess we
have 20,000 dead americans in the city
of new york mr. president why gotcha on
the phone sir a portion of the Pentagon
has just collapsed again I don’t have
accurate figures it’s my best guess we
have 800 to a thousand dead Americans
over at the Pentagon they quickly turned
her back to us they had some private
words they hung up the phone immediately
just a few minutes later but we’re now
at 10:29 we lost the North Tower
presidents back on the net mr. president
we lost 40,000 dead Americans in the
city in New York President Bush didn’t
say a word he was overcome we thought
maybe is one of those phone calls that
actually drops off the net and then
finally he came back and he said what is
Mayor Giuliani saying has anyone talked
to Mayor Giuliani no sir
no phone call with the mayor’s office
what about the hospitals where the
hospital’s saying as far as dead wounded
up there in the city of New York what
are we getting from them sir no reports
from any hospitals in the city of New
York he goes what about FEMA the Federal
Emergency Management Agency what are
they seeing on the ground up there what
are they saying
and he goes mr. president FEMA hasn’t
even left yet and you had this
overwhelming sense of despair that the
President of the United States who’s
been president for eight months he’s got
over 300 million Americans counting on
him an hour and 42 after an hour and 42
minutes after the attack began and we
had no response from the federal
government to help the people of New
York and despite the horrific loss of
life that day where we told the
president we had as much as 40,000 dead
Americans in fact we had only a fraction
of that why because ordinary Americans
did extraordinary things to save each
other again just like flight 93 these
Americans up there in New York City
ferry boat captain stockbrokers lawyers
construction workers shopkeepers opened
up their stores in their hearts after
after as soon as they could when they
felt safe to save somebody else a life
of another person unbelievable
bravery and resilience and we saw it
again with the shooting at Sandy Hook
elementary the Boston bombing up at the
marathon we just saw it again at the
pulse nightclub in Orlando and as
recently as a few weeks ago at the open
air concert in Las Vegas Nevada
Americans doing extraordinary things to
save each other from that moment on I
stopped saying that and I decided it’s
not ordinary Americans doing
extraordinary things
it’s extraordinary Americans doing
heroic things to save each other when it
comes to bravery perseverance and
resilience Americans have cornered the
market what we’re talking about bridges
today so how do we bridge this great
American trait called resilience and
turn it into a level of sustained
performance resilience isn’t a strategy
it’s a trait as a nation we have to get
better we just can’t keep counting our
resilience how we’re gonna take it to
the next level you know I put a lot of
thought into this and I realized it’s
really not much different than a young
athlete who has incredible natural
talent and then he’s all of a sudden
developed or she developed into an
Olympian or world-record holder how does
that happen how do you take somebody
from a young age and develop them into a
champion and I realize it’s training
it’s coaching and it’s practice and we
need to do the same thing now in America
we need to train more crisis leaders men
and women
who are able to lead us in times of
uncertainty willing to stand up make a
decision communicate clearly and
effectively and ultimately have a little
empathy so the rest of us can heal and
recover
we need coaching we need to get more
experts in our organizations and do and
develop our business continuity plans
our disaster recovery plans our
emergency communication plans we need to
make sure that they are not only
understood but they are accessible 24
hours a day and finally we need to
practice and by practice it means as an
organization or a company or a community
we need to do tabletop exercises so our
leaders know what to do and what their
roles and responsibilities are in any
type of tragedy and we need to do
full-blown exercises with everyone
involved maybe even include our first
responders from our communities and our
community leaders to come on in so
together we can learn how to recognize
react recover respond to any world
crisis or any adverse event in our
communities today let’s face it if you
read the news crisis leadership and
management is no longer a luxury it’s
now a requirement it’s a necessity given
the world that we live in today
so I want to tell you this in closing I
want you all to do me a favor and never
forget 911 I also want you to never pass
up the opportunity to thank those that
protect and serve us heal us or defend
our freedoms and our way of life and
lastly never forget the enormous impact
each of you have in the lives of so many
so god bless you and God bless the
United States thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
you’re all stronger than you know as
Americans we are all stronger than we
know so you see this fact became
brutally clear to all of us on September
11th 2001 as I was standing with our
nation’s highest leaders as the attack
on America was in progress
but let me back up as you heard I grew
up in the marine corps I grew up flying
attack helicopters I served in the first
Gulf War and then again in 1993 I was
deployed to Somalia Africa in June of
1998 I put a package in and I was
selected to fly with Marine helicopter
squadron one hmx won the presidential
helicopter squadron our job is the sport
is to support the president and the vice
president with helicopter operations
worldwide what people don’t realize is
our president only flies in our
helicopter
he only rides in our limousines he only
talks on our phones he’s only seen by
our doctors he only eats the food we
approved for him to eat and that happens
worldwide in October of 2000 I was then
asked to be the squadron representative
in the White House military office where
my job was to do those logistics so we
would have the Air Force carry all those
presidential assets worldwide so the
moment the president stepped off Air
Force One those helicopters limousines
Secret Service snipers doctors
everything he needed to perform to
perform his executive agenda was there
waiting for him
fully rehearsed and ready to go and then
he went when he was done and he was
wheels up on Air Force One we had the
Air Force come in with all the heavy
lift assets and we would clean up that
location and move it either to another
location or back to Andrews Air Force
Base in Virginia
September 11th I’m in the Eisenhower
executive office building 846 someone
came running in to our office and
hey sir turn on CNN apparently a small
aircraft I just dropped the North Tower
of the World Trade Center like all of
you we turned on the TV we couldn’t help
but notice what a beautiful clear blue
day it was 78 degrees in Manhattan and
why would a pilot run into a hundred and
ten storey landmark on the day like that
he had the East River to his right he
had the Hudson River to his left and
most aviators could even glide if they
had to and reach LaGuardia Airport there
must be much more to this story than we
know sure enough the phones were ringing
and we found out that was American
Airlines flight 11 it departed Boston
Logan Airport it was on its way out to
California to land at LAX it was off
course over Albany New York down the
Hudson River and hit the building at
over 500 miles an hour
903 just like all of you we are still in
that Eisenhower building when we saw
this aircraft come into view I remember
yelling up at the TV screen hey what’s
this moron doing trying to get a look at
the hole in the North Tower
when we watched him careening into the
South Tower as certainly what looked
like full power to us my boss was an Air
Force full-bird colonel he came in the
room is everybody stop what you’re doing
eyeballs on me we have a full-blown
terrorist event unfolding right before
our eyes in the city of New York stand
by for a lot of Whitehouse designated
missions and really what that means is
whenever we have a national disaster
anywhere in our country we have amazing
resources expertise people and equipment
that need and want to go to these
national national disaster sites but
there’s only so many heavy lift assets
so what they end up doing is they call
the White House and they say hey boss
this is the Federal Emergency Management
Agency I need to be up there at Ground
Zero and he goes go once the president
says go they become a 1 alpha 1 priority
mission we will push baby food out of
the back of the next available asset to
get them and their people airborne and
up to the site about as quick as we can
make it happen on 9/11 we were now
fielding all the phone calls from all
the government agencies requesting one
hour
for one priority and now diverting every
airforce asset in the sky into Andrews
Air Force Base and what were we gonna do
is we call Rackham and stack them get
him on the ground fill them with gas and
have them stand by a lot of government
agencies and people heading their way
to get up there these two assist the
people of New York 9:30 as we’re working
the 1-alpha ones an airline over flew
the White House the White House is
prohibited airspace if you’re not marine
one nobody over flies the White House
ever and yet this jet was so low and so
loud we froze right there and are in our
spot right where we were
somebody ran to a window and goes holy
mackerel I just saw a big white jet hard
left-hand turn heading west 937 breaking
news fire and explosion over at the
Pentagon this aircraft has just violated
the airspace over the White House must
have been the same aircraft that just
careened into the west side of the
Pentagon it turned out they were two
separate aircraft the aircraft had just
violated the president’s airspace was
none other than an Air Force efore be a
nuclear command and control platform
because on 9/11 our military was doing a
huge nuclear exercise we had parked this
national level asset out of Andrews Air
Force Base and when the second tower was
hit they scrambled it and said get to
the President of the United States and
when there’s big 747 with the weird cone
on top dialed in the president’s
location and they had a laser line it
took them right over the White House
there were full operations operational
and they’re heading to Sarasota Florida
to join up with the president the
aircraft that struck the Pentagon was
none other than American Airlines flight
77 it took off at a Dulles Airport just
west of Virginia when as far as Ohio
made a right-hand 180 came back right
hand 360 over top of Washington DC and
careened into the west side of the
Pentagon at 9:37 but literally this 757
carrying innocents and this 747 with
military members must have passed each
other in flight as one was racing to the
present
and the other was kid you know was
hijacked and careening into the west
side of our Pentagon 945 White House the
border ordered evacuated all the loud
speakers blared a life Eisenhower
executive office building White House
West Wing and everything else ordered to
be emptied right now and make it happen
my boss again came in said shut it down
we got to go to the alternate site I
said sir I can’t go wherever President
Bush is going to go today cuz it’s
obvious he’s not coming back to
Washington DC he’s gonna need limousines
helicopters phone with Secret Service
nieghbors doctors everything that we do
in airlift operations he said well you
can’t do it from here go across the
street go inside the President’s
Emergency Operations Center do logistics
from there the rest of us are going to
go to the alternate site I got to the
top of the staircase I’m looking over at
the West Wing I had to stop just for a
second and pause because the White House
is a living fortress and yet on 9/11 the
gates to the north were wide open the
gates to the South were wide open Secret
Service all had automatic weapons and
they’re yelling in bullhorns ladies take
off your heels and run there’s another
plane inbound and watching these young
twenty-year-old professional people
dropping their purses kicking off their
shoes sprinting off the White House
complex was really just an unbelievable
sight got across the street showed my
credentials Secret Service lets me in
before long I’m underground adore you
and I can’t pull on opens enters I enter
and I’m in the President’s Emergency
Operations Center the bunker under the
White House the first person I see was a
vice president military aide good friend
of mine I said Tom I’m here to do
logistics I’ll stay out of your way he
said Bob forget logistics and to the
phones they ran off the hook I looked at
this this console of military members
all working the phones answering the
radios taking notes doing what they’re
trained to do and I can see at the very
end there’s an empty console and as I
got close to it I could hear the phone
ringing I got down there I dropped my
planning kit 9:52 when I picked up the
phone and said major darling and the
gentleman on the other end said major we
have another hijack plane 16 miles south
of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
inbound Washington DC
naturally I told more you’re gonna have
to hold on and I spun to my right to
pass this information to the military
aid and who standing next to me but Vice
President Cheney behind him was his wife
Lynn here comes dr. rice a National
Security Advisor behind her was Stephen
Hadley heard her deputy Norman Mineta
the Secretary of Transportation and
everybody else who was in the West Wing
that morning was now evacuated
underground into the bunker complex as a
result of the violation of P 56 that Air
Force v4b coming over to my console to
hear about this new hijacked plane
somewhere south of Pittsburgh I merely
snapped – mr. vice president we have
another hijacked plane coming at us sir
they were reported south of Pittsburgh
he turned to his left and up on the wall
were these three speaker boxes they’re
all landlines phone lines he can talk to
anybody he wants to talk to they merely
passed him through to the FAA he goes
Rick it’s the vice president I just got
word we have another hijacked plane
somewhere south of Pittsburgh can you
confirm that for me mr. vice president
that aircraft is not talking
it is not squawking the transponder code
given air traffic control altitude
airspeed and direction mr. vice
president at the hijacked aircraft he
goes to the other speaker box he’s
looking for Donald Rumsfeld the other
member of the National Command Authority
who can give offensive lethal
instructions to the US military Donald
Rumsfeld was not in the building as a
result of the impact of flight 77 he ran
outside to assist with the wounded we
had the president getting on Air Force
One
we had Donald Rumsfeld outside the
building the Vice President Cheney then
said general I want you to listen to me
I want two f-15s I want him out of
oldest Air National Guard base in Cape
Cod let me know when they’re airborne
stand by to shoot this aircraft down and
I remembered naturally I took a step
away from him I turned because in my
mind we are our job in the US military
was to create options for the president
that’s what we do and on 9/11 with the
president getting on the aircraft and
the band the Secretary of Defense
outside we weren’t just creating options
we were executing plans and I looked at
Vice President Cheney completely
differently that day and I realized this
is not an ordinary politician
this is somebody who was a congressman
from Wyoming a chief of staff for
President Ford a Secretary of Defense
for the first President Bush and now
vice president of the United States and
he just unleashed the United States Air
Force to intercept a civilian airliner
really minutes later we heard those
f-15s they were airborne there were
1,200 miles an hour they were supersonic
there were five minutes away from United
flight 93 and without hesitation he said
shoot that aircraft down everybody then
went quiet it was a military mission in
action and all of a sudden we heard at
10:05 aircraft down aircraft down 68
miles south of Pittsburgh no survivors I
remember staring at Vice President
Cheney had his back to us he was looking
up at those three speaker boxes he spun
around he came right over to my console
and he said major for the congressional
investigation state your full name and
I’m thinking unbelievable I was here to
do logistics and now I’m in between the
vice president and the US military taken
action against a hijacked civilian
airliner so I stated my name he turned
he said from major darling and the
National Military Command Center to the
vice president we just shot that plane
down I really need to talk to the
president and now everybody turned to
and they’re going Air Force One Air
Force one this is the peoc and they’re
trying to raise the president up on the
net and just as he was doing that all
those same radios blared back to life
the f-15s never fired the f-15s never
fired 40 innocent ordinary Americans
United themselves when they learned from
loved ones we got three planes and three
targets this is not a ransom mission
we’re not going to Cuba if we don’t take
action we’re just going to see here and
we’re gonna die and they did they storm
the cockpit they fought back with these
terrorists they won they ultimately
overpowered those terrorists that plane
went completely inverted and hid in a
field in Shanksville pen
Sylvania at over 500 miles an hour they
said that when the FBI went out there to
comb the wreckage of flight 93 the last
piece of steel was found 40 feet down in
the ground ordinary Americans doing
extraordinary things to save each other
on 9/11 the president now is on the net
vice-president and he or having
discussions and all of a sudden
10:08 CNN is now reporting that in fact
the South Tower of the World Trade
Center had collapsed just moments before
he literally said mr. president why I
got you on the phone sir we get a report
here the South Tower of the World Trade
Center complex has collapsed he flipped
over a sheet of paper he starts
scribbling some rough water math and he
goes mr. president it’s my best guess we
have 20,000 dead americans in the city
of new york mr. president why gotcha on
the phone sir a portion of the Pentagon
has just collapsed again I don’t have
accurate figures it’s my best guess we
have 800 to a thousand dead Americans
over at the Pentagon they quickly turned
her back to us they had some private
words they hung up the phone immediately
just a few minutes later but we’re now
at 10:29 we lost the North Tower
presidents back on the net mr. president
we lost 40,000 dead Americans in the
city in New York President Bush didn’t
say a word he was overcome we thought
maybe is one of those phone calls that
actually drops off the net and then
finally he came back and he said what is
Mayor Giuliani saying has anyone talked
to Mayor Giuliani no sir
no phone call with the mayor’s office
what about the hospitals where the
hospital’s saying as far as dead wounded
up there in the city of New York what
are we getting from them sir no reports
from any hospitals in the city of New
York he goes what about FEMA the Federal
Emergency Management Agency what are
they seeing on the ground up there what
are they saying
and he goes mr. president FEMA hasn’t
even left yet and you had this
overwhelming sense of despair that the
President of the United States who’s
been president for eight months he’s got
over 300 million Americans counting on
him an hour and 42 after an hour and 42
minutes after the attack began and we
had no response from the federal
government to help the people of New
York and despite the horrific loss of
life that day where we told the
president we had as much as 40,000 dead
Americans in fact we had only a fraction
of that why because ordinary Americans
did extraordinary things to save each
other again just like flight 93 these
Americans up there in New York City
ferry boat captain stockbrokers lawyers
construction workers shopkeepers opened
up their stores in their hearts after
after as soon as they could when they
felt safe to save somebody else a life
of another person unbelievable
bravery and resilience and we saw it
again with the shooting at Sandy Hook
elementary the Boston bombing up at the
marathon we just saw it again at the
pulse nightclub in Orlando and as
recently as a few weeks ago at the open
air concert in Las Vegas Nevada
Americans doing extraordinary things to
save each other from that moment on I
stopped saying that and I decided it’s
not ordinary Americans doing
extraordinary things
it’s extraordinary Americans doing
heroic things to save each other when it
comes to bravery perseverance and
resilience Americans have cornered the
market what we’re talking about bridges
today so how do we bridge this great
American trait called resilience and
turn it into a level of sustained
performance resilience isn’t a strategy
it’s a trait as a nation we have to get
better we just can’t keep counting our
resilience how we’re gonna take it to
the next level you know I put a lot of
thought into this and I realized it’s
really not much different than a young
athlete who has incredible natural
talent and then he’s all of a sudden
developed or she developed into an
Olympian or world-record holder how does
that happen how do you take somebody
from a young age and develop them into a
champion and I realize it’s training
it’s coaching and it’s practice and we
need to do the same thing now in America
we need to train more crisis leaders men
and women
who are able to lead us in times of
uncertainty willing to stand up make a
decision communicate clearly and
effectively and ultimately have a little
empathy so the rest of us can heal and
recover
we need coaching we need to get more
experts in our organizations and do and
develop our business continuity plans
our disaster recovery plans our
emergency communication plans we need to
make sure that they are not only
understood but they are accessible 24
hours a day and finally we need to
practice and by practice it means as an
organization or a company or a community
we need to do tabletop exercises so our
leaders know what to do and what their
roles and responsibilities are in any
type of tragedy and we need to do
full-blown exercises with everyone
involved maybe even include our first
responders from our communities and our
community leaders to come on in so
together we can learn how to recognize
react recover respond to any world
crisis or any adverse event in our
communities today let’s face it if you
read the news crisis leadership and
management is no longer a luxury it’s
now a requirement it’s a necessity given
the world that we live in today
so I want to tell you this in closing I
want you all to do me a favor and never
forget 911 I also want you to never pass
up the opportunity to thank those that
protect and serve us heal us or defend
our freedoms and our way of life and
lastly never forget the enormous impact
each of you have in the lives of so many
so god bless you and God bless the
United States thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
Please follow and like us: