ATLANTA — Dave Wilkinson says as one of two U.S. Secret Service supervisors with President George W. Bush on 9/11, he saw him make the toughest decision he ever witnessed by any of the several presidents he protected in his long career.
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“You got to realize President Bush is a tough guy, right,” Wilkinson told Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne. “President Bush is the kind of guy you wouldn’t want to have a bar fight with right? He’s a tough guy. He immediately said, ‘I’m not going to run from these people. I am going to do what the American people need to do,’ and he said a few other expletives probably along with that.”
Wilkinson says as U.S. Secret Service assistant special agent in charge of the President George W. Bush security detail, he was just off camera in a Florida school room when the president he imagines would be so formidable in a bar room learned a second plane had hit the World Trade Center.
“He was upset that this had happened here on our homeland. And he was determined now, let’s get somewhere we can start strategizing here to get even with these people, right?” Wilkinson said. “And so I admired that about him.”
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He said Bush vehemently resisted when Wilkinson and deputy special agent in charge Eddie Marinzel told him he couldn’t go directly back to Washington while the scope of the attack on America remained unknown.
“We did not know what we didn’t know,” Wilkinson said.
He says Air Force One flew to Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, then to a highly secure facility in Nebraska before finally heading to Washington, DC.
Wilkinson said the plane was the only one in the air when they flew back to D.C., “well, other than the F-16s that were off each wing of ours.”
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But Wilkinson, now president of the Atlanta Police Foundation, says a quarter century later, one thing stands out like no other.
“The most significant moment of that day was Flight 93 and the decision to shoot down Flight 93. Imagine the weight of that decision by our president,” he said.
Wilkinson says officials knew Flight 93 was controlled by hijackers and headed toward Washington, where another plane had hit the Pentagon.
And Bush wanted to wait to give the final order once jet fighters were in place for the grim task. But Wilkinson admits to feeling relief after heroic passengers who fought the hijackers took the decision out of the president’s hands.
“All of those brave souls on Flight 93 had just died for their country,” Wilkinson said.
He says an Air Force One flight attendant told him about praying with the president. That Christian faith and family helped forge the leadership Wilkinson witnessed behind the scenes.
“Leadership’s ‘bout doing hard things, or acting in a moment of crisis,” Wilkinson said.
He admitted 9/11 changed him.
“From that day forward, I decided I’m going to live my life dedicated to serving other people, which is what led me to lead the police foundation,” Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson says he remains in awe of the brave firefighters, police officers, the military and others who gave their lives to save others or to combat terrorism.
He told he draws inspiration from that every day, as well as from the unflinching leadership he witnessed that day from top national officials.
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