Summary of the presentation on….
“The Nation is Under Attack!”
with
Antonio A. Rucci
On September 11th, 2001, the United States came under sustained attack by Al-Qaeda via the hijacking of four commercial aircraft which were subsequently flown into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville, PA. Intelligence indicated that further attacks were likely, with the White House being a “High Value Target”. President Bush was speaking at an elementary school in Florida, but was quickly whisked away by the Secret Service onto Air Force One. Given the uncertainty and potential for future attacks, the President stayed in the air, stopping only at remote military bases. Indeed, that day Air Force One was the ONLY plane in the air.
Vice President Dick Cheney was taken quickly to the President’s Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) below the White House.
Less well known is what White House staff advised the First Lady, Laura Bush, to do and where to evacuate her. NSF attendees were treated to a most professional and riveting presentation by Tony Rucci, who was the Counterintelligence Operations Officer detailed to the First Lady at the White House during the attacks of 9/11. He explained what occurred behind the scenes during that day in history, sharing insightful perspectives as to what was happening in the White House, and later in the safe house where the Secret Service evacuated the First Lady, from the Capital building where she’d been scheduled to meet with Senator Kennedy.
Rucci laid out the timeline of events, with a focus not only on President Bush’s location (talking to elementary school kids in Florida), but on just what was happening at the White House and, specifically, with First Lady Laura Bush. As we noted, as the events began unfolding, she was motorcading to the Capital from the White House to her meeting with Senator Kennedy at the Capital. Shortly after the 2nd plane impacted the WTC in New York, Rucci was deployed to assist in the emergency action response and relocation of the First Lady to a nearby “safe house”. Recall that after four airplanes were hijacked and diverted, no one knew if there were more civilian aircraft overtaken. If so, the White House would presumably be the target. Rucci took the audience through those tense hours, aligning the President’s travels on Air Force One, with the evacuation of the First Lady. After a very long day for our nation, President Bush returned to the White House, despite advice from his U.S. Secret Service protective detail. Shortly thereafter, Rucci and the U.S. Secret Service detail with the First Lady retuned to the White House to reunite with the President of the United States.
Tony’s PowerPoint is attached. Many thanks to our good friend and NSF participant Tony Rucci for a great presentation!
The link to Tony’s PowerPoint on “The Nation is Under Attack” is below: