A view from the Top....Larry King tonight with the Secretary of the Navy, Gordon England.........
Just in case anyone in the world has ANY doubts where Mr. Bush stands on this situation....The entire piece (I saw the live show....but the transcript follows...it's worth reviewing the whole article....)
GORDON ENGLAND, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY: Go figure.
KING: Where were you on September 11?
ENGLAND: Larry, I was in Fort Worth, Texas. The night before, I had a dinner, the Navy League at Fort Worth, Texas -- speaker -- a lot of old friends. I was getting ready to come back to Washington when the events happened that morning.
KING: Were you in your hotel or going to the airport or...
ENGLAND: No, I was going to the airport. And these events happened. So I heard the news. And I went out to the airport. Our airplane was grounded. This is a Navy airplane coming back to Washington. Navy -- the airplane was grounded like everyone else for a short period. But then we got clearance to come back to Washington. For a time, perhaps, I expect my airplane, the president's, were the only two in the air at some point in time there. It came into Washington with F-15 and F-16 air cover.
KING: What was that like, that flight, like for you?
ENGLAND: Well, of course, we didn't have any communications.
(CROSSTALK)
ENGLAND: We didn't know what was happening, literally just knew some of the things that happened, knew that something had been hit in Washington, but didn't know until we were airborne that it had been the Pentagon. But I really didn't hear much until we got on the ground. We went to the Navy Yard. We didn't go to the Pentagon, because the command center had been destroyed. It was at ground zero in the building. So went to the Navy Yard, where we had a temporary headquarters set up.
KING: What did you immediately see -- what was your role? What was secretary of Navy going to do now?
ENGLAND: Well, the secretary of the Navy doesn't have control over the fighting forces. We have control over, basically, the forces getting ready. And we do everything except the fighting force itself. So I was with the chief of naval operations, leadership of the Navy, making sure we had security in place, that we were on alert; we were getting ready, as the president said, to be ready, carry out the president's orders.
But at the time, it was gathering information. We were getting information from commanders around the world, stations around the world, people phoning in. So we were still collecting data that morning.
KING: What prepares for you this, Mr. Secretary?
ENGLAND: Nothing prepares you for it.
KING: General Dynamics don't prepare you.
ENGLAND: Not this kind of event -- nothing prepares for you it.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: You're always was an executive, obviously.
ENGLAND: Right.
You are always ready for a crisis, but not a crisis like this. I don't believe anyone in the nation or anyone in the world was ready for this kind of a crises.
KING: When did you meet with the president?
ENGLAND: I met with the president the next day. So the event happened on Tuesday morning. The president came to the White House. He came to the Pentagon the very next day about 6:00 the following evening. It was very traumatic.
KING: And what was that like?
Well, of course, the fires were still burning in the Pentagon. At the Pentagon, you could still smell the smoke. We didn't know how many people were killed. We didn't know who all was missing. We still had people in the hospital. Some were critical. So there was still a lot of unknowns in the Pentagon itself. But the president came in about 6:00 that evening. He came into the Pentagon.
Of course, everybody was there to greet him, all the employees. He came in the conference room, met with the secretary of defense, met with the service secretaries, chiefs of all the services.
KING: What is that like? What was the mood in that room?
ENGLAND: Well, it was still very emotional. I mean, everybody was still trying to assimilate the events of the day before. A lot of action had taken place, of course -- again, putting troops on the ready, etcetera. But, nonetheless, I think everybody at that point was really looking for leadership -- what next? -- when the president came in.
And, Larry, this was very early. This was the very next day. And the president came in. I will remember this evening -- that evening for a long time, because the president came in. And the first thing he said was -- he looked around the room and he pointed to each of us, and he said: "Don't Forget. Don't forget." He said, "No one in this room,' he said, "don't forget."
He said, "I will never forget." He said: "Now, the nation will go on to other things. It has to go on to other things." He said: "But I will never forget. None you have can forget this," he said, "because we have to -- we have to root and eliminate this evil." He said, "We must do it." He said, "Otherwise, the next generation, our children and grandchildren, will live in terror." He said, "And we better be patient doing this," he said.
He knew then. He had internalized this. Larry, this was the leader speaking to the leadership. I was proud of the president.
KING: I'll bet.
Continued on link>>>>>>>>>>
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