Well of course yes, but GWB did at least return from Florida to the WH....and he was in Florida, so he was within America, not in some other nation.
One truth the anti Bush pro Michael Moore fans never talk about is that in those seven minutes the Secret Service was securing the airport around Air Force One. All they knew was America was under attack and did not know if the President was a target. President Bush had to remain cool calm and collected and not running out the door pretending to be Superman.
A great witness to history is Captain Tillman who as the pilot of Air Force One was responsible for the President's safety. There was a genuine fear that they would be rammed in the air. They got a message saying "Angel is next".
So Bush had to remain seated until his team had everything secured and ready to go. He doesn't get to direct the players. There are protocols in place that must be followed. Basically the Secret Service are in charge.But this was wild because no one had faced planes being used as weapons.
Here's a great link to the Captain telling how it all went down.Pretty intense. Here's part of it. Worth the read.
On 9/11, Air Force One pilot's only concern was President Bush's safety
"Radios and phones on Air Force One came alive. The Secret Service created a huge security perimeter on the tarmac. My boss, Mark Rosenker, called and told me to depart as soon as the president got on board.
There are written protocols to follow in a nuclear attack, a chemical attack or anything like that. I knew someone was hijacking airliners and hitting targets. But there was no manual for terrorists in suicide planes. The sky was filled with other aircraft, and I really didn't know who had hijacked what. Was Air Force One among the targets? I needed a plan to make sure the president was safe.
I was still married then, and had three kids. But there was so much going on I didn't have time to get emotional or think about anything but my job. Communications systems were overwhelmed with traffic.
Key officials were being evacuated in Washington, D.C., and cell calls that got through were breaking up. Information was mixed with rumor. We had to switch to the military radio network.
The president couldn't reach key people on regular phones because people like the secretary of Defense had abandoned buildings in D.C. Cellphones were useless because the networks were saturated.
At one point, Mr. Bush advised me through a staffer that we were a target. The message, using a code name for Air Force One: "Angel is next."
Some flight attendants were crying, asking what they should tell the media in the back of the plane. I made all the crew members shut off their cellphones.
We were at war, and I didn't want to take a chance that someone would slip up and leak our location or destination.
I asked for an armed guard at the cockpit door while Secret Service agents double-checked the identity of everyone on board. My military training told me to avoid the predictable - to stay out of Washington, D.C. I thought we should fly to a secure air base along the East Coast, or to Camp David.
Nobody took into account that a proud Texan would be in office. He wanted to fly straight to the nation's capital - to go back and fight. So we took off - it was a full-thrust departure, up like a rocket - on a course to Andrews Air Force Base.
Read more:
On 9/11, Air Force One pilot's only concern was President Bush's safety
