kindergartners. he was sitting in one of those little chairs and had a sharpy and writing down what he would say to the country. we were talking to him and eddie, the head of the secret service detail came up and said mr. president, we need to get you to air force one and airborne as quickly as possible. they were afraid that his whereabouts were known and that someone was going to plow a jet into the emma booker elementary school. sandra: to give you an idea of the moment and the ceremony that we re watching on at the pentagon right now, the laying of the wreath is expected shortly. the reading the names of the 184 victims still being read aloud there as we see the vice president, mike pence, paying his respects to those victims. he will be speaking shortly, along with james mattis, the secretary of defense. a moment of silence will be coming up a few minutes from now before an invocation by the chaplain, paul hurley, and then
going back and forth to the ceremonies that are happening. this currently is the moment at ground zero in lower manhattan where the names of the victims continue to be read. at the pentagon ceremony we are awaiting a moment of silence that will begin a minute from now. that will be followed by an invocation by the chaplain you saw standing by the vice president and the secretary of defense, paul hurley. then remarks by air force general paul silva. we ll hear from him before the defense secretary and vice president. they will make remarks a short time from now as the reading of the names of the 184 people killed at the pentagon concludes. let s listen in as the names continue to be read at ground zero. doris inge. bill: christopher epps. ramone erickson.
homeland security committee joining us now from the pentagon. thank you for your time this morning, mr. chairman. as we look back 17 years later now, what are the threats that we face today? when you look back at the threats we faced 17 years ago. we can never forget what happened here 17 years ago. the vice president gave a phenomenal speech in remembrance. the fact is, i think, radical islamist terror hasn t gone away. we have really given them a crushing blow to the caliphate in iraq and syria. my threat briefing in the capitol classified has gone way down since this new administration has come in. i think that s good news for america. we can t forget what happened. it s still a threat today. i think the emerging threats that i see we face as a nation are those from russia, china,
max grew up in a big family on a small farm in minnesota. he was drafted out of high school into the united states army and served for two years on the korean peninsula. like so many veterans of the korean war, he reenlisted after the conflict ended and more than 15 years later he took up the cause of liberty fighting in the jungles of vietnam. on march 29th, 1973, master sergeant max bell kee became the last american soldier to leave saigon. on september 11th, 2001, master sergeant max was among the first to be declared lost here at the pentagon.
it was quite remarkable. the next morning, i walked around the building and the pentagon is a place to work but it is also a place of duty. and the duty of the workforce largely civilian, is in that pentagon. and they were gathered in small groups not really at their computers but talking to each other trying to digest what had happened these last 12, 14 hours for them and i recognized what a determination it took for them to come to their place of duty. they knew we were at war was the reason. that was the most frequent thing they had. sir, we re at war, correct? i said correct, yes, we are. that s why they were there. it was one of the proudest moments of my life. this largely civilian workforce, 2/3 civilian, 1/3 military at their place of duty in the pentagon where they lost their teammates and where so many had been wounded and there they are the next morning