Air Force One crew returns to Sarasota tarmac 25 years after getting President Bush to safety on 9/11

SARASOTA, Fla. — As the nation prepares to mark 25 years since the Sept. 11 attacks this Friday, the two men responsible for evacuating President George W. Bush from Sarasota on that fateful day returned to the same tarmac where it all unfolded.

Colonel Mark Tillman, the commander of Air Force One and 12th presidential pilot, and Master Sergeant Will Chandler, the superintendent of presidential aircraft security, stood on the runway at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport Wednesday morning, surrounded by first responders, airport employees and local leaders.

For Tillman, the visit brought an unexpected revelation.

"The biggest thing leaving out of this airport is, you know, a lot of friends, as well as the president give me grief for doing such a steep climb out," Tillman said. "And then now, learning that I didn't realize before I got here that, you know, I'd actually destroyed the back half of the runway with a lot of debris."

Tillman said he only learned about the debris scattered across the runway the day before Wednesday's commemoration event — a detail that had gone unknown to him for nearly 25 years.

A steep climb that changed everything

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush was visiting Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota when the Twin Towers were struck. What happened next became one of the most critical moments of that day, Tillman said.

Air Force One took off from Sarasota at 9:55 a.m. — just seven minutes before United Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Tillman said.

"We took off at 9:55. United 93 crashed in the fields of Shanksville at 10:02," Tillman recalled. "A lot of things happened right after we took off."

The takeoff itself was anything but routine, Tillman said. Tillman was informed by the Secret Service that there was a potential threat at the end of the runway — a man believed to have a long gun, he said.

"My plan of attack was, I can't taxi by the individual because he can shoot into the side of the aircraft, but I can fly over the individual," Tillman explained during his remarks. "So I took off extremely steep. Normally when I take off, I de-rate the plane two times because the engines are so powerful. On this day, I let it go full power."

The result was dramatic, Tillman said.

"Airplane, literally all I'm doing is climbing out as steep as I can climb out," Tillman said. "President Bush faces backwards in his desk. He literally went forward like this in his desk and he's holding himself into the desk as I'm climbing out. No one was expecting that."

A day that changed their lives

For Chandler, September 11 remains what the military calls a "SEE" — a Significant Emotional Event, he said.

"One of the first acronyms I learned in the military was 'SEE,' capital S-E-E, a Significant Emotional Event, and that's what Sept. 11 was for me. And it still is to this day," Chandler said. "I sometimes I do get emotional with it, especially when I want to talk about my friends and especially my family who you wanna hold, you wanna protect."

Chandler was on duty that morning, overseeing the refueling of Air Force One on the Sarasota tarmac when word came that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, he said.

"One of the gentlemen that was servicing the aircraft came out and he said, 'Do you know what happened?' I said, no, I don't. He said a plane hit the World Trade Center," Chandler recalled. "Now knowing, because we fly there all the time, I said why isn't an aircraft near the World Trade Center. Didn't think another thing about it."

Minutes later, Colonel Tillman came down the stairs with a direct order, Chandler said.

"Colonel Tillman comes down later and he says, 'Will, lock it down.' Those were his exact words," Chandler said. "He didn't have to tell me twice. We're always locked down. I don't care where we were."

The mission: Protect at all costs

The security measures taken that day were unprecedented, Chandler said. Once President Bush and his team boarded Air Force One, a critical decision was made, he said.

"Once we got on the plane, the decision was made to take everyone's cell phone. No one could call anyone. We didn't want anyone tracking us," Chandler said.

For Chandler, the order meant he couldn't contact his own family — including his wife, who was seven months pregnant and working in downtown Washington, D.C., he said.

"Focusing on the aircraft and then focusing on my family, you almost go black," Chandler said, his voice breaking with emotion. "But you've gotta protect. Period."

The mission was clear: protect the president, protect the crew, and get everyone home safely, Chandler said.

"We had what we called a no-fail mission. We went 100 all the time. We never stopped until we got back home," Chandler said.

Tillman echoed the sentiment, noting the caliber of the team surrounding him.

"You've got 300 handpicked individuals," Tillman said during an interview. "It's incredible to work at a job where everybody comes in whistling to work and they're excited about the job."

The fog of war

As Air Force One climbed out over the Gulf of Mexico, the crew was receiving conflicting and confusing reports — what Tillman called the "fog of war."

Initially, President Bush had insisted on returning to Washington, D.C., Tillman said.

"True Texan. There's no way you tell a Texan he's going to go ahead and hide," Tillman said. "The president says negative. He's heading back to Washington D.C."

But as reports came in that the Pentagon had been hit — initially misreported as a truck bomb rather than an aircraft—and that car bombs were allegedly going off in the nation's capital, the decision was made to divert, Tillman said.

"It doesn't make much sense to bring them back to Washington DC, but that's the president's plan, and I'm executing appropriately," Tillman said.

Then came another threat: Jacksonville Center reported an aircraft descending toward Air Force One, Tillman said.

"At that point, Jacksonville Center lets us know that there's an aircraft above us descending into us. We assume it's the aircraft in question," Tillman said. "At this point now, it's a big sky. I don't think it's an airliner with an issue, but I've got to take appropriate action."

The plane turned out to be a commercial aircraft with a failed transponder, but in those tense moments, nothing was certain, Tillman said.

Tillman also made the tactical decision to go radio silent, he said.

"We were completely radio out with all the air traffic controllers. Reason being I didn't want anybody to know who and where we were," Tillman said.

A message for a new generation

Twenty-five years later, both men carry a message for younger Americans who didn't experience Sept. 11 firsthand.

"They didn't experience it, but what they can do is learn from it, take the time and learn from it, understand what that meant to our country," Chandler said. "Let this be a part of your history. Let it be a part of your history and understand the impact and how it changed all of our lives."

For Tillman, the goal in his more than 400 speeches about that day has remained consistent, he said.

"My goal in all the talks is the idea of explaining what happened on Sept. 11 and explaining to people that there were all kinds of things that occurred in the country that were devastating, but America came together afterwards," Tillman said. "We recognized that what the terrorists had done to us wasn't going to be lasting. We literally could overcome it."

Tillman recalled how, in the months and years after the attacks, he witnessed Americans coming together in ways he hadn't seen before.

"There were small towns where President Bush would visit, 4th of July in Virginia, where everybody was coming together and just so excited. Families came together where families never did in the past. And they just started talking about what it was like to be Americans," Tillman said.

But Tillman noted a shift in recent years.

"That went on for a number of years and I'll say now that's not what I'm seeing in America," Tillman said. "I want, my goal is to get people to understand that we're Americans and when you want to talk to people, you talk to them like your kids. You don't need to yell and scream at them, but all you need to do is just explain to them, talk to them. We need to talk to each other and start getting that message out to folks."

Reflecting on responsibility

When asked about the weight of responsibility he carried that day, Tillman was reflective.

"The biggest thing though is people say that the president should have known, I should have known what was about to happen. It just wasn't the case," Tillman said. "We get tremendous intel reports. The president didn't know about it. Dr. Rice didn't know, the vice president — nobody knew about it. So everything that occurred here occurred here. It was our first knowledge of it."

Tillman paused before adding: "Could we have known better? Could we have saved lives by knowing more about it? It wasn't my call to do that, but many of the national leaders — was our intel, could it have been better to protect?"

For both men, standing on the Sarasota tarmac 25 years later was a moment of reflection — not just on what happened that day, but on the legacy they've carried forward.

"I've never been more proud in my life to do that job for nine years. I took it very serious. Our teams took it very serious," Chandler said. "Whether we're in the state of Georgia or the country of Georgia, we took that job so serious we never let it down."

Tillman agreed, noting the pride he still feels in the mission.

"The community came together. The logistics support, the airports gave us tremendous capability," Tillman said. "Being here, everywhere we went with Air Force One, the community came together."

As the nation prepares to mark Friday's 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the two men who helped protect the president that day hope their story serves as a reminder — not just of what was lost, but of what was found in the aftermath.

"Do not let anyone forget this tragedy," Chandler said.