On 9/11/2001, Scott Stanzel was 28 years old, working his dream job at the White House when Secret Service agents came running down the halls, throwing open doors and shouting at everyone to get out. They had two minutes.
For twenty-five years, Scott has said almost nothing publicly about September 11th. "Over the years I've struggled with how to talk about my experiences or even acknowledge that day," he wrote once.
This is the first time he has sat for an interview to tell the whole story:
Time Chapter
02:36 9:37 a.m. and the phone call about the Pentagon
04:30 Smoke rising over the Old Executive Office Building
08:59 "There's another plane. You have two minutes."
09:53 "Take off your shoes and run"
11:08 The West Exec gates thrown open
11:58 How a 28-year-old landed a White House job
13:18 The crystal clear blue morning
15:30 Calling mom, who was out running errands
17:33 The cell network fails, and Washington switches to BlackBerrys
18:53 Anita and Tim McBride clear a floor for the White House
19:43 10:03 a.m., Shanksville, and the plane that was coming for them
22:11 What the passengers on United 93 pieced together
26:46 What the day was supposed to be: No Child Left Behind
29:20 8:46 a.m., the first plane, and "did the pilot have a heart attack?"
32:16 From national tragedy to act of war
33:27 The car bomb that never happened
37:03 President Bush at Barksdale Air Force Base
38:22 Staff sent home before dark
40:01 The pager, and why Scott went back
42:43 "It honestly felt like we had entered into some dystopian world"
44:56 The president returns, and Ari Fleischer pre-briefs the pool
52:06 Twenty-five years later, what is America's role?
1:00:55 Alone on the phones until five in the morning
1:05:41 "I wanted to make sure that I was worthy of that moment"
1:07:25 Shanksville, September 11, 2002
1:13:31 What he tells his daughters
1:17:55 What he wants all of us to know
1:19:46 One tangible thing you can do to honor the day
1:21:57 To kids who feel dispirited by politics
#Leadership #Courage #Heroism #9/11 #NeverForget
