Best of the Program | Guests: Bob Beckwith, Brad Meltzer & Garrett M. Graff | 9/11/19

Hey podcasters, it is Wednesday, September 11th, 2019.

18 years ago, we were on the air telling America about the World Trade Center coming down, and we really

focused on that.

And we had a couple of really amazing guests to talk about it.

One is Garrett Graff.

He's the author of this new book called The Only Plane in the Sky.

It's the best history book I've read in a long time.

There's no opinion in it.

It's just the oral history in a minute-by-minute what happened that day.

And it's riveting.

We go through some of those stories.

Also, Brad Meltzer joins us.

All of this today on the podcast.

You're listening to

the best of the Blenbeck program.

Hi, he's a captain.

I would like to hold the main team.

Detector 956, did you understand that transmission?

Yeah, that transmission he said was unreasonable.

It sounded like someone said they have a bomb on board.

Sir, did you hear the transition was the airplane just said he had a bomb on board?

Confirming this, he said there was a bomb on board.

That's what we thought.

We just

didn't get it clear.

He's just turned to the east, also.

American 1060, executive 956, we just lost a target on that aircraft.

Man, Z-100-852.

Something weird is going on.

The World Trade Center is on fire.

Oh my god.

Seriously, the top of the building.

We're trying to get information

top level of one of the women's

news to unfold from New York's

just.

Oh my gosh!

First of all, calm down.

We're

raining papers and ashes.

people jumping out the windows.

Oh yeah, they're jumping out the windows.

They guess the floor.

A second plane has now flown in.

Wait, exploded into Pentagon.

A third location on

outside of Washington.

I don't have words to describe what I'm witnessing right now.

Detective immediately until further notice.

Flying operations in the National Airspace System by United States civil aircraft and foreign civil and military aircraft are prohibited.

Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward

and freedom will be defended.

Oh my god,

it's not that it is.

One of the World Trade Towers

has collapsed and fallen.

I've never seen anything like this.

They've got five patients.

They need to be an ambulance

Female officer, where are you now, King?

Where are you, King?

We're not gonna be stopped.

We're not going to be deterred.

We're not going to stay at home.

We're not going to be frightened.

We're going to live our lives as Americans.

We're all brothers.

We've all got to stick together.

My God, look at the skyline without the towers.

It is Tuesday, September 11th,

2001.

This is Glenn Beck.

Dateline, New York.

In one of the most audacious attacks ever,

terrorists hijacked two airliners,

crashed them into the World Trade Center.

In a coordinated series of blows today that brought down the twin 110-story towers,

thousands may be dead, 58,000 people

work at the World Trade Center.

Sean and B, I just wanted to let you know I love you.

And I'm second and soft and smoke, and we just wanted you to know that I love you.

One plane, United Flight 93,

crashed north of Somerset County Airport,

a small airport 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

United said that flight

Boeing 757

left New York at 801

and into San Francisco in 38 minutes.

It is as old as the scriptures

as the American Constitution.

That is

the news

of this day,

September 11th,

2001.

United 93, United Ninety,

United Ninety three.

The Glenn Beck Program.

I know we

don't see

everything

in the same way.

But I know we

won't be

really

free if we don't stay.

United,

cause divided.

We will fall for anything, it's true.

So I have

decided:

I will stand for you,

and I will.

I will make a stand,

I will raise my voice,

I will hold your hand.

Cause we are one,

I will be quite strong,

I have made my choice.

We will overcome.

Cause we are one.

We are one.

We are

one.

We started going back and listening to what we did on September 11th, 18 years ago.

And I remember doing one thing.

I haven't heard it since.

Could you please play the last cut

GB's prayer?

I have not heard this since I did it, and I remember the moment.

Go ahead.

I think it is appropriate

as we end our business day today

that we together

ask for her blessing on this great nation.

So I ask you to pull over your car,

stop what you're doing,

hush your surroundings,

and take a moment with me

as we speak to our Father who gave us life

our most gracious Heavenly Father, we ask

you today

to watch over us.

Your children are confused and frightened.

We are saddened by the loss of our brothers

and saddened by the violence that our other brothers

have brought upon us.

We ask for your warm embrace.

We ask for your,

we beg for your guidance now.

We ask for the guidance of our leaders

that they may put aside all hatred

and have a clear view

as to the truth and what must be done.

I remember giving this prayer.

And I remember looking up at Stu early on, and he was, we had never done anything.

It was a different world.

We had never done anything like that before.

And I looked up, and he looked at me like, you're going to pray.

Do you remember that, Stu?

It sounds like something I would do.

Yeah.

And

I wanted to play that

Because when

when was the last time

we actually reached out like that

to him?

When was the last time we had

that much of a heartfelt collective, we're in trouble.

Please help us.

Perhaps that's why we

are struggling as much as we are.

The best of the Glenn Beck program.

Hey, it's Glenn, and if you like what you hear on the program, you should check out Pat Gray Unleashed.

His podcast is available wherever you download your favorite podcast.

The picture seared in the nation's memory.

President Bush at Ground Zero, three days after the attacks.

A bullhorn in one hand, the other draped around firefighter Bob Beckwith.

Firefighter with President Bush was Bob Beckwith.

Beckwith stood shoulder to shoulder with President Bob Beckwith, a firefighter from Queens, New York, in his mid-60s.

That day, he stood alongside the president and stepped onto the national patriotic stage.

Bob, are you there?

Yes.

Hi, Bob.

How are you?

Very good.

And yourself?

I'm very good, sir.

Very good.

I just wanted to touch base with you

your experiences with 9-11, because I painted a painting of you a couple of weeks ago for an auction.

And as I was painting you, I thought,

you know, I know this man's story, but not really.

And now that you've had, you know, almost 20 years to digest it, I'd love to hear, first of all, where were you on 9-11 when it happened?

When it happened,

my daughter had called me that my grandson, going to school on his bicycle, was hit by a car about two blocks away from me.

And I ran over there to see what was happening and I saw him on the ground, but he was moving, so

that was a plus.

And I found out from the ambulance driver what hospital they were taking him to.

And I came home to get my car.

I listened on the radio, and it said I heard a guy saying that a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center.

We don't know anything about it.

And so I came inside and my wife had it on the television already, and they had cameras there.

I was looking and I said, that's a little bit bigger than a small plane.

I figured I got a bad day going.

My grandson gets hit by a car and now a plane goes in.

Where were you living at the time, Bob?

I was living right here in Baldwin, New York.

When did the phone call come in that you had to go?

Were you with your grandson in the hospital?

Or

when did you find it?

So I went to the hospital to be with him.

Everybody was watching television at the hospital.

And I saw

the sound tower come down.

Oh, my God.

One World Trade Center has collapsed in its entirety.

One World Trade Center is gone.

And then a few minutes later,

the North Tower came down.

And I knew that there was guys in the building, you know, because the firemen were in there, you know what goes through your head when

it just hits you pretty hard.

Bob,

did you have any inkling that those towers might come down when you saw them?

I never thought it would.

I really honestly never thought that they were coming down.

Boy, was I shocked when that happened.

So

when did you first arrive at Ground Zero?

What happened was I came home

from the hospital later that day,

and I told my wife and my kids that I'm going down to Ground Zero, and they said, don't go down.

You're too old.

I was 69 years old.

And they thought I was an old man there, and I'm going to get in the way.

So just don't go down there.

The next day, I find out that Jimmy Boyle, now Jimmy Boyle was the president of the UFA, the Uniformed Firefighters Association,

and I was one of his delegates.

And when I found out his son is missing, I said, that's it, I'm out of here.

And I suited up the next morning, and I got to go down to ground zero.

So I'm driving down there, I'm on a BQE, the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, and I'm going towards the Williamsburg Bridge.

Guess what?

The bridges are closed.

And I saw a cops car going over the bridge with two vans behind it.

I said, I'm going to give it a shot.

And I drove between the cones, and I went on the bridge.

But when I got over to the other side, there was nobody, nobody was there.

Everything was gray.

And I went over to the house watch at 55 engine, and I told him I'm going down to Ground Zero.

And I said, well, good luck.

I said, what the heck is that?

Good luck about.

Anyway, the police department,

they're lined up on a perimeter all around Ground Zero.

I said, I got to get in there, you know.

And I showed them my badge, and they let me in.

And then the guy said to me, good luck.

So I went down about a block or two, and then I see the National Guard.

They were on a perimeter also.

And I said, we don't care that you're a fireman, but you're not getting in.

So I had to think fast.

And I talked my way in.

You know, I was at that perimeter.

I don't know how anyone could have talked themselves through that line.

How did you do it?

I told a little fib dev.

I told them I missed the rig, and I was going to get in trouble if I didn't get in there.

And they bought it.

Wow.

Wow.

Okay.

So you're there.

You snuck across the bridge on the island.

Then

you sneak across the barrier with National Guard right and then what happens and then I came up into ground zero and I tell you what it was a shocking

running racing for their lives

collapse

the first thing that came to my mind was since it's how it probably looked in in the blitz when yeah wow you know what happened i i worked down there all that day and I went on the bucket brigade and I found a shovel and I started digging with the guys and

we found a pumper.

A pumper is a fire engine in the rubble and we told the crane operator to put the

rig out on this in the street, which he did.

Some guy comes over and he says, the president is here.

And I saw the guys put their shovel down and I put mine down and I walked out to the street, and there's that pumper we just dug out of the rubble.

I jumped up on it, and right across the street was a command post, a tent with all microphones in front of it.

I figured, oh, that's where the president's going to talk.

This Secret Service man came over to me, and he said, is this safe?

I said, yeah.

And he said, well, jump up and down on it for me.

So I jumped up and down on it for him.

And he said, okay, he said, somebody important is coming over here.

And when they come over here, you help them up and then you get down.

I said, okay.

Of course, you do what the Secret Service guy tells you to do.

The President comes around and he does a hard ride and he comes right in front of me and he puts his arm up.

So I pull him up and I turn him around and I said to him, are you okay, Mr.

President?

He said, yeah.

And then I started to get down.

He said, where are you going?

I said, I was told to get down.

He said, no, no, you stay right here.

And he put his arm around me and uh that's my story that's unbelievable i didn't i didn't know

i didn't know any of those things

what did the president say to you at one point do you even remember when he turned to you in the middle of the speech and he said some things to you do you remember no we couldn't hear we couldn't hear each other we did speak to each other but we didn't hear each other

It was too loud.

The guys were, they were yelling.

I didn't remember him having that megaphone, the bullhorn.

Really?

And then he started to speak, and he's speaking to the right.

And the guys on the left, they're yelling, we can't hear you.

And then he turned to the left with the bullhorn, and he said, I can hear you.

And the whole world hears you.

And the people who knock these buildings down will hear all of us soon.

They went crazy.

They went nuts.

They started chanting, chanting USA, USA, USA.

And it was, he said everything in those three sentences.

So, Bob,

you were given

a flag right after his visit, right?

Yes.

When I was helping him get down from the rig,

somebody handed him the flag.

And he puts his arm up and he waves the flag.

I saw Governor Pataki standing there, so I tapped him on the shoulder and he turns around and he grabs my legs and he picks me up and he puts me out in the street.

I said, you're going to hurt yourself.

He said, I'm a big guy.

I said, okay.

I'm walking back to go back to work.

And this Secret Service guy taps me on the shoulder and he said, the president's been looking for you.

I said, oh, no, what did I do?

And he said, he wants you to have this flag.

I said, oh, very nice.

Thank you.

And I stuck it in my pocket and I'm going back to work.

Anyway, Glenn, the Secret Service guy that told me when the politician comes over there and takes my spot to get down, when I went on television, I would tell them my story.

And I got a letter from the White House.

I'm the guy that told you what to do.

Thank you for calling me a Secret Service guy,

and he signs it.

Carl Rove, senior advisor to the president.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, yes.

Exactly.

That's what I said.

So let me ask you this, because the day before

your family was saying you're just going to get in the way.

When you got home after sneaking across the bridge, sneaking past the National Guard working, then the president is giving one of the most memorable speeches probably since the day of infamy.

What did your family say?

I drove over and I said, who's going to believe that I was with the president?

There were no cameras down there, Glenn.

No cameras at all that I saw.

Anyway, I pull up in front of my house and people are coming out, my neighbors, and they're all carrying the candles.

That was the day they had candles.

And they came into my driveway and

this police officer across the street from me, a city cop.

And he said to me, Beck, you're right,

you're on television.

I said, get out of here.

There were no cameras down there.

So I came in the house and my granddaughter was sitting on a couch and she says grandpa you're on watch you're on television and they were showing it over and over i said wow i was surprised that that they had me and the president who was the most important thing

yeah you you you stayed in touch with the president i we did we still keep in touch Myself and my wife and a couple of my kids, we were invited to the Oval Office.

And it was very nice.

Everybody was there, you know, Governor Pataki, Karl Rove was there, Mayor Giuliani, Tommy Varness and the Commissioner, and Chuck Schumer.

You've had some special experiences because of that picture.

Yes, we were called into, excuse me,

Germany three times and then twice in Cologne,

and that really treated top shelf.

So, Bob, when you look back at this now,

what is it that you take away?

What is it that we should as a people take away from that moment on the fire truck?

You know what, Glenn?

We fought two wars.

We fought the Japanese and we fought the Germans and we stuck together and that's the same thing that happened at

9-11.

People came in from every state to help us.

Search and rescue and

the food.

I was there, Bob, and I saw people come from all over the country to feed you guys.

And my wife and I went.

These firemen were coming out after a long day, and both of us just started to applaud.

Like,

I don't know.

It was just, it was, everything was upside down, and the enormity of it was just remarkable.

Yes,

it really was.

But we stuck together, and

we received rigs that we lost in it.

And other states helped.

They built the rigs and sent them to us.

You know, this is America, and people are great.

They really are.

Bob, it's an honor to talk to you.

It really is.

I made a painting for charity, and I was wondering if you would be willing to sign it if I sent it up to you.

Would you be willing to sign it?

Of course.

That would be great.

That would be great.

Bob, thank you so much.

God bless you.

God bless you, Glenn.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.

Brad Meltzer is a good friend of mine.

We became friends after 9-11, a few years after that, and we have connected on history.

And Brad is with us.

He has a new book out today.

It's about Walt Disney, and I want to talk to him about it.

It's a great children's book.

I am Walt Disney.

But I also wanted to talk to him about 9-11.

Where were you, Brad, when the towers came down?

I was in Washington, D.C., of all places.

And this is, you know, we lost our friend Michelle Heidenberger, who was a flight attendant on the Pentagon flight.

And my wife,

this is why it hits me today, not because of the finding of the flag, which obviously was an honor, but it was the personal side.

As we all know, we all have our one story that makes up this quilt of history.

And my wife worked in the U.S.

Capitol, and she was driving to work.

She was eight months pregnant, giant belly, my son about to be born in October.

And my wife thought, you know, the towers were hit.

I wonder what security, I wonder if they'll increase security at the Capitol.

And she said, wait a minute, our security is terrible.

And she pulls over to the side of the road and calls me.

Says, I don't, I have a bad feeling.

I'm just going to stay home.

And I know to this day that, but for the heroes on United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania, that if that flight did not go down in Pennsylvania, it was headed to the Capitol.

I know people say the White House, but if you look, the plaque that honors them is actually in the U.S.

Capitol.

And but for them, my life could have been profoundly different.

And I think of them, of course, every 9-11,

but they deserve to be remembered every single day for what they did.

That was one of the most moving things of 9-11 was

not only the way everyone kind of pulled together, but what those people on that flight did.

And it wasn't, you know, it was weird.

I haven't even heard this.

Can we play

my response?

Somebody called into the show.

I haven't heard this yet.

This is seven hours after the planes hit the World Trade Center.

There's plenty of time to scream for blood.

There is plenty of time to exact

the price

of the day's events.

But I don't know about anybody else.

I'm not there yet.

I'm barely hanging on emotionally

just on the overwhelming events of the day.

I haven't been able to process

take out the human, take out the human toll.

I haven't even been able to process that the skyline of New York is different,

let alone that there is a possibility with 58,000 people working in the World Trade Center,

the possibility within an hour

of business this morning

we lost more American lives than were lost in the entire Vietnam War.

I'm not ready to scream for blood yet.

Devastating.

I think it's time to be around like-minded people,

people that you don't know

and hold on to them for dear life.

It was such an

I mean, remember that day we didn't,

we really thought

30 to 50,000 people could be dead

by God's purpose.

I remember being in D.C.

and we didn't, you know, it was, we were putting together the funeral for my friend Michelle, who was the flight attendant on the Pentagon flight, and driving down to make photocopies for the memorial program and the big poster of her, I should say.

And

and there was armed guards like it was under martial law that we thought there was another plane coming at any moment.

We didn't know what, you know, we'd lose that.

And and I I really was struck, Len, by what you just said in that clip, which is, you know, holding on to people you don't know.

And I'm just so saddened as as we all relive this moment of 9-11 and those visceral memories kind of come back

that in that chaos, there was that unity again, right?

We felt somehow that these United States of America were that magical word again, united.

And it's so horrifying to me that it takes a tragedy to do it.

But it is amazing what kindness comes out in those low moments.

You know, the lowest moments always bring out the best of us.

And when we were searching for the 9-11 flag, you know, everyone knows the great photograph of the firefighters raising the flag at 9-11, and the flag went missing 24 hours later.

I became obsessed with it and started searching for it.

We did a story on it on our TV show and said to America, please bring it back.

Now, here's a story I don't know if anyone knows,

is

on the episode of our TV show on History Channel where we asked to come back, I said, I added something to the script that we had, and I said, I want you to bring it back for my friend Michelle Heidenberger, this flight attendant on the Pentagon flight, because 3,000 people dead, it was always too hard to imagine.

But for me, it was always for my friend.

And when the flag finally was returned, right after the episode aired, I couldn't tell anyone, but four days later, a man walked into a fire station in Washington State, in Everett, Washington, and said, he was a former Marine.

He said, here's the flag.

I saw a lost history, and I want to bring it back.

And I finally, secretly, when it came back, I called him to say thank you on behalf of the American people.

And I said to him, he said to to me, you want to know why I brought it back, Brad?

And I said, yeah, I did, because we offered a reward.

To this day, he's never taken the reward.

We offered him $10,000 to whoever brought it back.

He's never taken it.

But he said, you want to know why I brought the flag from 9-11 back?

And I said, sure.

And he said, because of your friend, Michelle Heidenberger.

He's like, you mentioned her on the air, and it got to me.

And I knew I had to bring it back in that moment.

How did he get it?

How did he get the flag?

He was like yourself and myself.

He was a a collector.

But his specialty was American flags.

And he got it from someone who lost someone at ground zero.

And he doesn't even know someone gave that flag to that person who lost their loved one.

And, you know, again, at that moment in time, it wasn't a famous flag.

It was a flag that had been lifted.

It didn't become famous until it ran on the cover of Newsweek and everywhere else.

So it wasn't like anyone was like secretly going, oh, I'm going to steal this flag and give it away.

It wasn't famous then.

No one knew what it was.

It was just a flag.

So he got it from someone who just cleared it out of their attic and said, you know, I don't want this anymore.

He saw the show and returned it.

And

again, to be a small part of that, on the 15th anniversary of 9-11 a few years ago, I got to unveil that flag in the 9-11 Museum.

It is currently on display.

And I highly encourage anyone, as you think of it today, when you're in New York next time, go to the museum.

It is a museum that is proof that heroes still exist in the world.

And we knew that that wasn't the right flag, not this one, but like I think with Giuliani, didn't he go out to Yankee Stadium and he claimed that that was the flag and somehow or another somebody figured out that's not it?

How did that happen?

Yeah, so Giuliani and everyone signed the flag at Yankee Stadium and had this big kind of homecoming and then they brought the flag out and everyone cheered and they all signed it.

And the owners of the flag, it was actually taken from a boat down at Ground Zero, was this Greek couple.

And the Greek couple said, hey, that's our flag.

And everyone knew it was off their boat.

They knew where it came from.

They said, can we use the flag at a charity benefit?

They're doing a 9-11 benefit.

We'd love to bring the flag there.

And the city said, of course.

So they gave the flag to the couple.

And the couple unfurls the flag at the event.

And they realize this flag is gigantic.

Their flag was small.

They're like, someone switched the flags.

They lost it.

And then to cover it up, someone just added a new flag.

So that was how they finally realized it was missing.

And that's how, of course, we got on the case and just said, you know, someone out there must have the real one.

and please bring it back to us.

I'm going to ask you a tough question that is kind of unfair in some ways to ask you on the spot.

But I'm looking at

last hour, I played something that I haven't heard in 18 years.

I was on the air, and it was the end of the broadcast, and I think we had been on the air for about eight hours.

And I said, I want you to pull your car over

because I think it's appropriate that we pray.

And in that, it was a real

anguished kind of help us, Lord, kind of prayer.

And I think we have gone so far astray because as I was listening to that, I thought,

I don't know the last time we as a nation

collectively said, help us, we're in trouble.

Listen,

I think that's, I, we need, I, I say a prayer.

Of course, I say my prayers every day, every night, right?

but on this 9-11 and my prayers will of course be with those we lost but the prayer that I'm saying today

is I just read this article that all the first responders right who were lost 18 years ago how many of their kids who were just born are now signing up to be firemen and fire and firefighters and police officers that are in this incoming class they know exactly what is at risk they know exactly the cost of this job.

18 years ago, they lost their dads, their moms.

And my gosh, how do we not include them in our prayers too?

It's a thankful like that these people are out there.

Hang on.

I want to ask you a different question.

So, Brad, we are now paying for the consequences of our actions.

The war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq,

the Patriot Act, all of these different things.

What is the lesson?

And you you might even want to come back tomorrow and answer this.

What is the thing that we have done in the last 18 years that we should now look back and go, that was a mistake.

We probably shouldn't have done that, and we should talk about it and correct this mistake?

Listen, I think when we look back on history, and obviously be happy to come and talk tomorrow, because I know, you know, there's just two big issues to talk about today, and we have to, but, you know, I think the thing that haunts me is that misinformation that took us to war as if we were, you know, we were so rightfully looking for someone to get, right?

We were attacked personally.

And I do think that,

you know,

and I was at President Bush's funeral.

I saw W was at dinner with him months ago.

Right.

But that is haunting, that we had the wrong information and went to war on the wrong information in Iraq.

That is forever haunting because, I've done books on Dover Air Force Base and the men and women who take care of our fallen soldiers.

And how many fallen troops have gone through Dover

for truly

what I can only say is the wrong reason.

And not just because it's wrong that anyone should die, right?

We don't want any one of our troops to pay the ultimate price, but

sent to battle for what?

And that's what, you know, you have to, at the end of the day, we see war, and that's a big word.

But we forget that, you know,

when you enlist in the military, they will tell you

as the spouse of

someone who is sending their spouse into battle, that if two people show up at your front door, it means your loved one's dead.

And if one shows up at your door, they're just injured.

And those are real things that happened.

Those were real funerals that happened.

Thousands of

men and women buried because of this.

They told me at Dover that at the height of Iraq and Afghanistan, there were so many bodies coming through there that they literally had to

find another cooler to stack them up on.

They were coming so big, so many, so fast.

And that's the thing that I look back on and say, that's

one of the places where we went so, so wrong.

Brad, let me switch to your book.

I am Walt Disney.

You know how much of a fan I am of Walt Disney.

I did not know about the tar painting on the back of his house.

How good.

So listen,

again, oh, and you know, we'll talk about heroes.

So let's actually talk about the positive side of this, right?

I mean, the reason why we're so moved today, I still believe, is our culture is, you know, I started this book series, and in many ways, you know, almost in a similar vein, I was tired of my kids looking at people who are famous for being famous, famous for the wrong reasons.

I wanted to give my kids heroes, like these 9-11 heroes, but heroes of character, heroes of kindness and compassion and hard work and perseverance.

And we did, I am Amelia Earhart and I am Abraham Lincoln and I am George Washington.

But our number one requested hero is the one that comes out today, I am Walt Disney.

Number one request?

Number one request is I am Walt Disney.

We had to do the book.

And kids, when they come to my book sign, they don't make requests.

They make demands.

They're like, oh, you know.

When you're really old or really young, you can get away with that.

Hang on just a sec, Brad.

I got to take a quick break.

Back with Brad Meltzer,

who is gracious enough to be with us today and talk about 9-11, but also heroes.

And I want to talk about heroes when we come back.

This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.

Hey, it's Glenn, and I want to tell you about something that you should either end your day with or

start your morning with, and that is the news and why it matters.

If you like this show, you're going to love the news and why it matters.

It's a bunch of us that all get together at the end of the day and just talk about the stories that matter to you and your life.

The news and why it matters.

Look for it now wherever you download your favorite podcast.

The name of the book is The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9-11.

Garrett Graff is the author.

Garrett, welcome to the program.

Thanks so much for having me on this day.

It's an honor to have you.

I have to tell you,

your book, you are going to sell, I hope, millions of copies.

This is a hard topic to get people to look at.

And I don't really want to live through another rehash of 9-11, and I don't want somebody's opinion on 9-11.

I just want to know what happened.

How long did it take you to put this book together?

It was three years, start to finish, trying to pull together ultimately what are the 480 voices that I follow across America, coast to coast, morning to night, that day.

I mean, it is...

It is incredible the number of people that you have in.

And your voice is not one of them, which I so appreciate.

It is just...

Did you interview everyone about that day and then cut them up minute by minute to place them?

Yeah, so the book is a mix of my original interviews, several hundred stories that I collected myself,

and then some incredible work by institutions like the 9-11 Museum in New York, the Flight 93 National Memorial, the Pentagon Historian,

people who recognized after 9-11 the importance of capturing these stories.

And we started the book with about 2,000 of those archived primary source oral histories that I ultimately spent

months and years boiling down to this story minute by minute.

And I think that to me, the reason that I wanted to tell this story, and I think that the reason you're feeling that it's so powerful, is that when we say never forget, what we generally mean on 9-11 now are the facts of the day.

You know, the four planes, the twin towers, the Pentagon, Shanksville.

And what we are losing as we celebrate this 18th anniversary now this year is what that day was like to experience, what it was like to live through.

Because the story that we now tell ourselves of 9-11 is so much neater and cleaner than the day that we lived as Americans that day.

That we we now know the attacks were 102 minutes long from the first crash at 8:46 to the collapse of the second tower at 10.29.

We didn't know that on 9-11.

And when you go back and you tell that story through the voices of the people who were living it, what you come away with is the fear and the confusion that we felt that day.

You know, well into the afternoon, worrying about follow-on attacks, worried about more hijacked planes in the skies.

I mean, Disney closed that day.

You know, Disney feared an attack on itself that day.

The Sears Tower in Chicago was evacuated.

You know, schools closed coast to coast.

And everyone that day, you know, no matter how far you were from the Twin Towers, from the Pentagon, from Shanksville, you felt that visceral fear that we now, I think, have lost as we sort of forget just what that day was like to live.

And let me, if I may, I just want to read a couple of things from this, and I'm going to kind of jump around a bit.

But this is how this book is written.

Robert Letter, executive of SMW Trading Company, North Tower.

I was on the 85th floor.

I was looking out the window facing the Empire State Building when I saw the plane come into the building.

There was such a dramatic change of atmospheric pressure.

The building swayed from the impact, and it nearly knocked me off my chair.

Our ceiling imploded.

Some of the walls began to explode.

Harry Waitser, Tax Counsel,

Canner Fitzgerald, North Tower.

I was in the elevator at 846 in the North Tower when the first jet hit the trade center.

My office was on the 104th floor.

I had gone up to the sky lobby on 78, and I had made the transition over to the local area,

local elevators.

I was somewhere between 78 and 104.

Gene Potter, Bank of America, North Tower, 81st floor.

I was thrown out of my chair, like thrown.

It was a horrible, loud explosion.

The building started to rock back and forth.

Smoke filled the air immediately.

We were fortunately right by the staircase because our floor was fully

involved with fire.

Maybe I heard four or five survivors from above us.

Vanessa Lawrence, artist, North Tower 91st.

I had literally put one foot out of the elevator onto the 91st and was thrown to the side.

Smoke and debris blasted down our corridor and the building shook.

Richard Eichen.

I saw on my left shoulder an Asian man coming towards me.

He was on the 90th floor.

He looked like he had been deep fried.

He had his arms out.

His skin was hanging like seaweed.

He was begging me to help him.

He said, help me, help me.

And then he did a face plant right between my legs.

He died there.

I looked down, and that's when I saw my shirt was full of blood.

I didn't know that I was hurt.

You go into the accounts of the people in the elevator that had burst into flames.

I didn't know any of these people survived.

Yeah, and those stories are so harrowing to hear,

in part, because this was one of the things that just really came across to me

in doing this research and telling these stories is what the sensory experience of 9-11 was like.

That

we remember the facts of the day, but

none of us actually really know what 9-11 tasted like, what it smelled like, what it sounded like, what it felt like.

And so, you know, I was amazed as I was going through and writing this and compiling this, is, you know, what this, you know, the people talking about the smell of the plane crash of Flight 93 in Shanksville as those volunteer firefighters arrived on the scene.

You know, the people like Harry Weiser and Richard Eiken talking about what that heat felt like.

You know, they get down then through those stairwells.

The stairwells have the fire sprinklers going.

And so they are coming out the bottom of the Twin Towers, soaking wet, that water pooling at the base of the stairwells.

And, you know, the idea that these people in their final moments before they walk out to freedom,

they are wading through knee-deep water in the stairwells of the Twin Towers as it's pooling at the bottom.

I mean, what the dust of the collapse tasted like in your mouth, what it was like to step in it.

You know, just the sounds of that day.

I mean, it was just so amazing to sort of understand that sensory experience.

The chapter at Emma Booker Elementary School is also fascinating to me.

The way that Rudy Giuliani, when he first heard, you know, he was at a hotel and he was like, hang on, I gotta go to the bathroom because I'll probably be, you know, be out for a long time.

But he had no idea the gravity of it.

He thought it was a small Cessna.

Let me just read this part.

A thousand times a day.

This is Andy Carr, the guy who told the president at the elementary school.

Dave Wilkinson said, we're beginning to get the motorcade up and running, getting the motorcycle cops back.

We're ready to evacuate at a moment's notice.

And all of a sudden, it hits me.

The president is the only one who doesn't know that this plane has hit the second building.

It was a discomfort to all of us that the president didn't know.

The event was dragging on, and that's when Andy Card came out.

Andy, a thousand times a day, a chief of staff has to ask, does the president need to know?

This was an easy pass to test.

My job that day was to be cool, calm, and collected.

Not the same magnitude, of course, but I knew my job on 9-11 was cool, calm, and collected.

Carl Rove, I remember Andy Card pausing at the door before he went into the classroom.

It seemed like forever, but it was probably just a couple of heartbeats.

I never understood why, but he told me years later that he needed to spend a moment formulating the words he wanted to use.

Andy, I knew I was delivering a message that no president would want to hear.

I decided to pass on two facts as an editorial comment and an editorial comment.

I didn't want to invite a conversation because the president was sitting in front of the classroom.

The teacher had asked the students to take out their books, and I took that opportunity to approach the president.

I whispered in his ear, a second plane has hit the second tower.

America is under attack.

I took a couple couple of steps back so he couldn't ask any questions.

Then you quote a couple of the students that remember his face and how it changed.

Andy, I was pleased how the president reacted.

He didn't do anything to create fear.

Then he walked out.

Carl Rose said, When the president walked back into the staff hold, he said, We're at war.

Give me the FBI director and the vice president.

I mean, it's

you've

just by using the dialogue, it's almost a movie script,

the whole thing.

And it's riveting, absolutely riveting.

Let me take a one-minute break and then we'll come back with Garrett Graff.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

If you want to have a real history book on what actually happened, The Only Plane in the Sky, an oral history of 9-11, it is absolutely fantastic.

Please get one for your library at home.

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