Posted on 09/09/2011 7:53:56 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
In a holding classroom at Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, President Bush talks on a secure phone while communications director Dan Bartlett points to a TV showing the second plane hitting the World Trade Center on 9/11.
As the president's personal photographer and head of the White House Photo Office, Eric Draper was with President George W. Bush for nearly every day of his eight-year term, often just a few feet away.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, he was there, too.
"My job was to document the president, to follow him everywhere," Draper told CNN in an exclusive interview. "But I had no idea what stories, what events would play out ... September 11 changed everything."
Draper, a former newspaper and wire photographer who is now a freelancer based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ended up at President Bush's side on that fateful day and made some of the most iconic and memorable images of the president as the tragedy unfolded.
He was there in the motorcade, driving to Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, when press secretary Ari Fleischer first got a "page" on his pager -- "Back then, we didn't have BlackBerrys," said Draper -- alerting the White House that a single plane had hit the World Trade Center.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
9/11 through Bush's lens
Thank God adults were in the White House then.
Could have been Gore.
What people don’t get is the understructure at the Pentagon, etc.
A bad secretary (like most of the present cabinet) can really jack things up.
President Bush reacts to live video of the burning World Trade Center at a classroom at Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota.
White House communications director Dan Bartlett alerts the room to watch the TV ...
...as President Bush turns to see the second plane hit the south tower of the World Trade Center.
Bush confers on a secure line as "the football" -- the briefcase holding the secure nuclear launch codes -- is watched by a Marine.
White House advisers plan the route for Air Force One as Bush works in his cabin.
With Andy Card watching, President Bush gives the order to shoot down any aircraft that might threaten an attack on the U.S.
President Bush watches the collapse of the twin towers aboard Air Force One, with Dan Bartlett and a secret service agent.
Air Force F-16s fly off the wingtips of Air Force One.
Your link goes to a pic and not an article.
Bookmark
Thanks for posting...Gives you goose bumps.
That’s a great set of pics. GWB took his jacket off, kept his tie on, got whizzed around the country to undisclosed locations and got on TV that night to reassure Americans.
Thank God.
Thanks!
See the guy off to the left with the briefcase...could that be the “football”? Extra eerie.
Great reminder of what it was like back when we had a real American as President. And no, I don’t care how much money Bush spent, I will always admire and appreciate him.
This is one of my favorite photos of President Bush. You can almost see the gears spinning in his head as he absorbs what has happened and contemplates both the possible culprits and what kind of action America must respond with.
I thank God constantly that George W. Bush was in charge on that horrible day. Who knows where we would be if a boob like Zero had been in the White House.
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