Events across North Texas marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. George W. Bush was president during the attacks; his library held a "moment of remembrance" Friday morning.
Earlier this week, the former president spoke at a forum as part of the Engage at the Bush Center series. Condoleezza Rice joined George W. Bush for a discussion about how September 11 unfolded.
"We all remember the moment when we heard," she says. "I remember my young assistant told me the plane hit the World Trade Center. I called you. We both initially thought it was an accident because how could this be happening?"
"Correct," Bush replied. He said he thought the first plane was an accident as well.
The president was attending an event at a school in Florida. He was sitting in a classroom when his chief of staff, Andrew Card, told him a second plane had hit the other tower.
"I was in a classroom listening to a child read. Andy Card whispered in my ear, 'second plane has hit a tower, and America is now under attack,'" Bush said. "I didn't have much time to process that, but it was pretty clear to me if we were under attack, my job was to defend the child who was reading to me, her family and her country."
Rice said she told the president not to come back to Washington. Bush said the Air Force One crew initially flew them to Louisiana but then were sent to Omaha, Nebraska.
The former president said he spoke with his national security team who told him he needed to give a speech.
"I do, but I'm damn sure not going to do it from Omaha, Nebraska. I thought that would be a psychological victory for those who attacked us," he said.
He returned to Washington and gave the speech from the White House.
Prior to returning to returning to Washington, Bush and Rice said agencies within the federal government were trying to determine the scope of the attack.
"You have to understand the hard decisions this man had to make just like that," Rice said. "One of them was what would happen if a plane wasn't properly identifying itself because every plane had become a missile."
She said the president gave the order that any plane not communicating properly should be shot down.
"We thought, initially standing in that bunker, Flight 93 had been shot down by the American military," Rice said.
"I thought the same thing," Bush said.
"For about ten minutes, we thought we'd shot down a civilian aircraft," Rice continued. "That always, to me, represented just how hard the decisions were that you had to make under a lot of pressure."
Two veterans spoke at the event. Jared Lyon, a Navy petty officer, said he was five weeks into boot camp.
On September 10, he said commanders used footage of the bombing of the USS Cole during classroom instruction on counterterrorism. The night of the 11th, he said commanders rolled out a television and showed news clips.
"The first time we saw those clips was at night. Some of us actually began to get a little bit excited. We didn't think what we were watching was real," Lyon said. "It was also, to us, almost unimaginable an attack on American soil could be real. We honestly thought it was a training simulation."
Melissa Stockwell, a Purple Heart and Bronze Star recipient, said she had wanted to become a soldier since she was a kid. She was already in ROTC at the University of Colorado on September 11.
"I sat in a room with my fellow cadets, future Army officers, as we watched this horrific news unfold on TV," she said. "It was a day that changed the world; it was also a day that changed the trajectory of my own life."
Three weeks into deployment, Stockwell said her Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb. She lost her left leg above the knee.
"I went to Walter Reed Army Medical Center and I learned really quickly I was one of the lucky ones," she said. "I had three good limbs, I had my life, and I vowed to live my life for those who no longer could."
General Dan Caine, now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said young people continued enlisting, and the generation coming of age now is showing dedication and pride in the country.
"I remain speechlessly humbled by the gifts this generation gives this country," he said. "Just like those passengers on Flight 93, just like people like Jared (Lyon) and others who saw a chance to do something important, saw the chance to serve something greater than themselves knowing full well they were signing up to go into combat to defend this nation, our values, our virtues, our interests."
Friday, George W. Bush attended a ceremony at Ground Zero in New York. His presidential center at SMU offered free admission and parking Friday through a donation from Sewell Automotive Companies.
