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
sarasota, florida and interrupted by andy card. this is just 17, 18, 19 minutes in. the imagination reeled at that moment trying to figure out what what s happening, where, why. 9:21 all bridges and tunnels in manhattan are closed. 9:24, faa notifies all flights about suspected hijacking of american airlines flight 77. we as a country were in hyper drive to try to figure out what was happening. and what could possibly happen next. sandra: and we want to head over to the pentagon now where in a short time from now we ll be remembering the moment when american airlines flight 77 struck the pentagon. there is a ceremony that has begun there. the u.s. army band playing the names of 184 people killed at the pentagon, the reading of those names will begin in a couple minutes from now and we await remarks from the
for us, sandra, it is a living history that we all went through. we all remember what happened that day. that bright blue sky day where the terrorists hijacked these airliners and crashed into the pentagon, a symbol of military might and the economic symbol of might in the world trade center, and sandra, the third target was the united states capitol, a symbol of political might. thank god they didn t succeed in that one. but i also want to thank our men and women. i was with rob owe kneel the other night talking about the killing of osama bin laden really bringing this horrific nightmare to an end. and i want to thank the five million plus people who signed up to serve in the military after the tragedy of 9/11. sandra: we re waiting remarks by the president shortly there in shanksville, pennsylvania, where the ceremony is underway there.
sandra: you re listening to secretary of defense james mattis at the pentagon as the ceremony continues 17 years after 9/11. let s listen in. courage and strength answered amid the fire and smoke over new york city, in a pennsylvania meadow and in this very building as innocent people from 91 countries were murdered on our soil. many of those countries represented by the foreign dignitaries who join us here today. we remember the bravery and sacrifice of those who fell here in america and then on far-flung battle fao elds. we salute the soldiers, sailors, air men, courts guard and marines as they gave their last full measure of devotion declaring proudly that americans do not scare. and we followed to the end of
ground, that we will never forget what took place in this place on that fateful morning. president trump asked me to join you for this ceremony to pay a debt of honor and remembrance to all who fell here at the pentagon on september 11th, 2001. and to express the gratitude of the american people for all who have labored every day between then and now. to rebuild, to restrengthen, and to protect this nation. the bible tells us that we re to mourn with those who mourn and grieve with those who grieve. today as a nation we pause to do just that. the president and the first