Remembering a date with destiny on 9/11 that began in a Sarasota classroom
For a generation of Americans, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are forever seared into memory, whether as survivors, first-responders, or as observers watching the horrifying images on TV.
Former U.S. Rep. Dan Miller, now 79, has a unique set of memories.
He was traveling with President George W. Bush that day as the incumbent congressman for District 13, serving Manatee and Sarasota counties
When the terrorists struck, Bush was at Booker Elementary School in Sarasota to promote his Putting Reading First program.
Bush was informed of the first airliner striking the World Trade Center just before entering Booker Elementary. While sitting with a group of 18 students, White House Chief of Staff Andy Card whispered in his ear that a second airliner had hit the World Trade Center and that America was under attack.
The classroom teacher, Kay Daniels, later said she knew immediately that something was wrong.
“It was not supposed to happen,” Daniels said in 2011. “I could feel President Bush leave me emotionally.”
Bush stayed in the classroom briefly to recognize the children’s reading improvements, shaking hands with the students and their teacher before delivering a short message to the nation from the school and then returning to Air Force One.
“It wasn’t unusual for me to be with President Bush that day. I flew down that Monday from Washington for one night. I met him at the school on Tuesday, where all hell broke loose,” Miller said in a recent interview. “Adam Putnam was the other congressman traveling with the president.”
While Miller wasn’t in the classroom with Bush when the president learned of the attacks, he was at the school, and accompanied him back to Sarasota Bradenton International Airport where Air Force One was parked.
“We took off about 10 a.m. We were heading back to Washington and then suddenly we took a hard left and flew west. They told us we couldn’t return to Washington. We would be going to Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana.”
Even though Miller was flying with the commander-in-chief, he and the other passengers on the plane knew less about what was happening on the ground than Americans who were watching on television.
“The plane didn’t have TV reception, but when we got closer to Mobile, Alabama, we were finally able to see a blurry image,” Miller said.
Information from the the ground might have been sketchy, but Miller heard directly from the president.
“As long as I am president of the United States, I will do everything in my power to keep this from ever happening again,” Bush told those on Air Force One.
“I think that was always on his mind afterward,” Miller said.
in a 2001 interview, Miller said Bush was calm, focused and determined on that flight.
“I was the one who felt very emotional,” Miller said. “I felt very confident he had control of the situation. He was serious. He was determined these people would not go unpunished. You could tell he was anxious to be back in Washington. He is the commander-in-chief, and he was exercising those duties from Air Force One.”
Miller told Bush: “The country stands with you, Mr. President, and God bless you.”
When Air Force One landed at Barksdale, Bush left the plane to go into a video conference with other government officials.
Miller and other passengers also left Air Force One about 2 p.m. and returned to the Washington area on another Air Force flight.
Meanwhile, Air Force One flew on with Bush to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, before returning to Washington, D.C.
Aside from the horror of that day, Miller’s strongest memory is of how the country closed ranks in a unified show of red, white and blue patriotism and a refusal to be cowed by terrorism.
“Partisanship wasn’t extreme then like it is now. For a few weeks, Democrats and Republicans worked together,” he said.
Miller, a Bradenton Republican who served in the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003, flew to Florida with President Bill Clinton as well as Bush several times.
“They all liked to come to Florida. It was only two hours from Washington, and it was a swing state,” Miller said.
Today, Miller has a signed photo from Bush inscribed with a personal note.
“Dan, we were together on that fateful day. Thank you for your words of comfort,” the president wrote.
The world changed that day
Rick Piccolo, president and CEO of Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, was returning from a conference in Montreal, Canada, on the morning of the terrorist attacks.
When his flight landed in Atlanta, he was unaware of the attacks, but knew something was out of the ordinary after spending 45 minutes on the taxiway. Piccolo soon learned that all flights in the United States had been grounded because of the attacks.
His father-in-law called Piccolo on his cellphone with word that his family had been worried that he might have been on one of the flights hijacked from Boston.
“You had better call your kids, they are frantic,” his father-in-law said.
A friend drove Piccolo to Columbus, Georgia, where he had found a rental car and, after a four-hour drive, returned home about midnight.
Soon, the sheriffs in Manatee and Sarasota counties stationed deputies at the airport, along with National Guard troops, as a show of force to discourage any other potential terrorist attacks, Piccolo said.
The world had changed that day — at the airport and elsewhere.
This story was originally published September 8, 2021 at 2:46 PM.
