Inside the White House on Sept 11

So you're all standing in the back of the room yawning,

thinking you're going to just get this pro forma appearance by the

president in front of these kids.

You're standing there in the back and something happens that's a bit jarring.

What is that?

While the president was listening to the children, I suddenly saw Andy

Card, the White House Chief of Staff, a veteran of many administrations, come

quickly in, lean over, whisper to the president, and quickly step back again.

What stunned me is nobody interrupts a president.

I went back inside, and as I was going in the door, I could see in the

Secret Service room it was crowded with people looking at the television.

Just as I looked at the television, I saw a plane fly into the building.

It was almost like my heart stopped.

You could feel the frenetic activity in the White House of agents now in really

heightened alert with drawn weapons, u

h, now telling everyone to get out now,

and really telling, you know, women with high heels on, "Take off your shoes and

run for your life," ess- essentially.

The engines on the plane were roaring.

It was a rare moment when the president gave an order and his lieutenants

had no intention of o- obeying them.

We were flying west away from Washington, and the president was furious.

But we could see the burning buildings.

We could see people running.

And then at 10:29, we saw the towers fall.

The staff, senior- Mm-hmm

and all levels- Mm-hmm … is just kind of trying to figure out what to do.

Right.

How do you get focus?

How do you determine, okay, what is next to be done?

Well, it happened very quickly because one of the lessons, uh, from 9/11 and that

evacuation and being with the White House staff at all levels, staff assistants to

s- very senior people, was how much the focus was on continuing to do their job.

Very emotional still to this day.

We came together as a country as we haven't probably

since the Second World War.

Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack.

That's the message of 9/11, the humanity and the unity that we felt

in our darkest hour, and that's what defines who we are as an American people

Hello and welcome to this special episode of the White House 1600 Sessions.

I'm Stewart McLaurin, President of the White House Historical Association.

25 years ago, on the morning of September 11, 2001, the

United States came under attack.

19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners.

American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were flown to

the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.

Within hours, both towers had collapsed.

American Airlines Flight 77 was flown into the Pentagon, just across

the Potomac from Washington, DC.

And on United Airlines Flight 93, passengers and crew fought

back against the hijackers before the plane crashed into a field

near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Investigators believe its intended target was here in Washington, most likely the

United States Capitol or the White House.

By the end of that morning, nearly 3,000 people had been killed.

The attacks changed the United States, changed the presidency, and changed

forever the way the White House thought about security and its own vulnerability.

President George W. Bush began that morning at an elementary

school in Sarasota, Florida.

Within minutes, he was leading the country through one of the gravest

crises in its history, while the White House itself was evacuated and

officials feared that another hijacked aircraft could be headed directly

toward the seat of the presidency.

For this 25th anniversary, we wanted to tell that story through

the memories of people who actually lived that day at the White House.

Ann Compton was the ABC News White House correspondent traveling with

President Bush, and spent that day in an extraordinary way following him aboard

Air Force One all across the country.

Gary Walters was Chief Usher at the White House, responsible

for the executive residence.