Twenty years ago, Adam Putnam became an unlikely behind-the-scenes witness to a commander-in-chief in the crucible of 9/11.
Rep. Adam Putnam, right, R-Bartow, Fla., and Sarasota County Sheriff's Advisor Larry Berberich look at television reports of the terrorist acts upon the World Trade Center while waiting for President Bush, on Sept. 11, 2001 in Sarasota, Fla.WASHINGTON — Adam Putnam was part of a welcoming committee making small talk with President George W. Bush outside Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., when White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card interrupted.
The president continued with his schedule, sitting down with a second-grade class. Putnam made his way to the school's media center, where he was surrounded by other dignitaries, White House aides, members of the Secret Service and a group of fifth-graders. There, they watched a second plane hit the South Tower.America is under attackWhite House aides wanted Bush to address the nation as quickly as possible.
Bush delivered brief remarks from the school, advising Americans that he would be heading back to Washington.Aboard Air Force One, Putnam was thrust back in his seat on takeoff. The plane climbed into the air at the most vertical angle possible, an evasive maneuver. Putnam said he would later find out that Bush already had given an order to shoot down suspicious commercial airliners and that the president knew a passenger jet had crashed in western Pennsylvania.White House officials scratched the plan to head toward Camp David — the plane downed in western Pennsylvania wasn't far by air — and decided to land Air Force One at Barksdale Air Force Base in Northwest Louisiana, where Bush disembarked to deliver a second set of remarks to the nation.
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