Eric Draper, the White House photographer who documented George W. Bush’s response to the 11 September attacks, has recalled the extraordinary day when the presidency was forced to operate without a clear plan.
Draper was with Bush at Emma E Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, where the president had been attending an education event. The first report of a plane hitting the World Trade Centre was initially treated as a possible accident.
That changed when White House chief of staff Andy Card approached Bush and whispered to him in front of the assembled children and reporters that a second aircraft had struck the South Tower.
“I followed the president into the adjacent classroom after the event ended. That’s when I knew what was happening,” Draper said. “And for me, I was just in shock.”
The National Archives identifies Draper as the photographer behind images of Bush and his staff watching television coverage from the Florida classroom, including the president sitting with a notepad as advisers brought him updates.
As the scale of the attacks became clear, Bush was taken to Air Force One. The aircraft left for Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana before continuing to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, amid fears that Washington and the presidential aircraft could be targeted.
“Andy Card was standing at the top of the stairs and he was telling everyone to take their batteries out of their cell phones because we didn’t want to be traced,” Draper recalled. “I remember a very steep takeoff.”
A contemporaneous White House account said Bush authorised the military to move to a higher alert status during the flight to Louisiana and later ordered that the National Security Council be assembled in Nebraska. The president returned to Washington only after officials judged it safe to do so.
For Draper, the journey was marked by uncertainty and a succession of improvised security decisions.
“There was no game plan for this,” he said.
He was eventually allowed to telephone his wife, after hours in which the presidential party had been moved between military bases and kept away from public view.
“My first words to her were, ‘Honey, I’ll be a little late tonight.’ And I could hear her laughing through the tears,” Draper said.
He also remembered seeing fighter jets flying close to Air Force One as it crossed the United States.
“We noticed the fighter jets literally almost touching the wings of Air Force One. And at one moment, one of the pilots actually saluted the president,” he said.
When Washington came into view, Draper photographed Bush looking from the aircraft towards the Pentagon, where smoke was still rising from the site of the attack.
Eric Draper’s 9/11 photographs
Three days later, on 14 September 2001, Draper accompanied Bush to Ground Zero in New York. The president climbed on to the rubble and addressed exhausted rescue workers through a bullhorn.
“I can hear you,” Bush told the crowd. “The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”
The bullhorn used during the speech is now held by the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, while the National Archives preserves a number of Draper’s photographs from the president’s visit and the events of 11 September.
Draper said the speech developed spontaneously after someone handed Bush the bullhorn.
“It just really happened organically. Someone at the last second handed him a bullhorn and that’s when he said the famous line,” he said.
The photographer said he recognised immediately that he was witnessing a defining moment.
“I got chills at that moment. I knew that was a famous historic moment just from being there,” Draper said. “And I was front and centre for that moment.”
A quarter of a century on, Draper said the images remain a record of events that were unfolding faster than anyone could comprehend.
“All I did was do my job and history will take care of the rest,” he said.
