then he said, let's roll. >> courage lies in every heart. on september 11, 2001, it was summoned and forty incredible men and women enter the call. they gave their lives. --answered the call. host: from shanksville, pa., as the nation reflects on the evens 10 years ago, september 11. -- on september 11. the flags are at half-staff. about 45 minutes ago, the president and mrs. obama departed the south lawn and route to new york city for the site of ground zero -- en route to new york city for this type of round zero. they will also be in pennsylvania and washington, d.c. a live look from ground zero. we want to hear from you -- your comments, memories, stocks -- thoughts. call us at -- we will also take your e-mail journal@c-span.org. out twitter address is twitter.com/cspan. this is one of those mornings in which the headline in virtually every newspaper in the country is sharing the same story and the same sentiment. from the "new york post." from the new york daily news. "proof thru the night." "the new york times" -- a sc ene of the new memorial. we will be live throughout the morning with services in new york city, shanksville, and here at the pentagon. all of us remembering what happened on that morning of september 11. we want to hear from you. we will also share with you some interviews and reflections about what happened 10 years ago and how it impacted the nation 10 years later. first up is ron running is from miami. good morning on the democrats line. caller: thank you so much for c- span. my heart is so heavy for what has happened. it has been 10 years. we do have to go to the exact promise of what happens. as long as the palestinians suffer, there'll be more bin ladens. we have to stop -- all the -- solve the israeli-palestinian conflict peacefully. god bless america. host: thanks for the call. "the washington post." meanwhile, from the weekly standard -- paul wolfowitz writes -- next is andrew on our republican line from houston, texas, on this 10th anniversary of 9/11. go ahead. you are on the air. caller: i would like to make a comment concerning the 9/11 attacks. host: rich, laurel, maryland, good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. i was in the service. i retired in 2006. one of the main reasons i might have retired was the war in iraq. i've started to look at 9/11 much harder. so many things bother me. why does it not look like a commercial aircraft went down in pennsylvania? wise says -- why does it not look like a commercial aircraft hit the pentagon? everything seems so shaky about that day. host: it was not a commercial jetliner, then what was it? caller: it does not matter. it does not look like it, period. host: ryan in sterling heights, michigan. good morning to you. this is a special edition of "new york post." go-ahead. you are on the air. caller: this is brian, calling about the 9/11 incident. i still believe it was an inside job. i have been studying every piece of footage i could get my hands on for the last 10 years. my conclusion out of my research is that it was a distraction. the buildings coming down, the two tower is coming down was a distraction. host: what happened to the people on board those flights? caller: there is true that they were let off somewhere else. host: caller, i'm one to stop you there. we're not going to spend the morning dealing with things that are completely fiction. we will deal with the facts and get your comments and reflections. caller: good morning. it is nice to speak with you today. can you hear me? hello? good morning? host: go ahead. caller: my memory is of september 9, 2001, c-span. i called during the 7:00 hour. you had a speaker who was advocating for the closure of overseas bases. i called in to voice my opinion that those overseas bases should not be called -- closed, that our presence abroad was important. 10 minutes after, you changed to a segment that involved a spirited exchange between bill press and barbara olson, and i believe that was her last public appearance. host: she signed the guest book. she was heading out to los angeles on the morning of september 11. caller: that was always very striking to me. i was able to search out and see that in your online database. host: a 9/11 tally -- $3.30 trillion. a look at the price of the events of 9/11. we conducted interviews with a number of people involved, including heather penny, a pilot for the d.c. air national guard, and her story before flight 93 went down. >> i realize this is a total hypothetical. you are flying over washington, d.c., and the potentially have to bring down an airplane may be in the nation's capital. in light of what was happening, did you give any thought to how you would have done that if it was over the city? >> for the large aircraft, it would simply be taking off the tail. i would essentially be a kamikaze engram my aircraft into the tale of the aircraft -- and ram my aircraft into the tail of the aircraft. you've only got one chance. you do not want to reject and miss -- eject and miss. you have to be able to stick with it the whole way. we did the combat air patrol over d.c. there were plenty of other aircraft that we had to turn away. what we finally employed would be to thump them -- to fly in front of them and put out a flare or two. that flrae would -- flare would turn the other aircraft away. we would get on the victor frequency and try to communicate with the aircraft. 121.5 is a frequency that all pilots know about. it is called burghardt -- guard, if you get in trouble or you need help. on that frequency, you should be able to talk to anybody. we would try to get them up on guard. >> so you were prepared to take your life is necessary to take them that plane? >> of course. host: we have conducted a number of interviews. we will show you some highlights during the day, including live coverage of ceremonies at ground zero and in shanksville, pa., and at the pentagon here in washington, d.c. here is a headline from the "l.a. times." a number of planes came from boston's logan airport. it remains brilliantly lit, but deep in the shadows. from the pittsburgh post- gazette, not far from shanksville, names etched in history -- the ceremony that took place honoring those who died on flight 93. from the miami herald -- living with the new normal -- how new york and the world chain nged as a result. caller: we're attacked because of our support of israel. host: i will stop you there. let's watch the scene from ground zero in new york city. we will continue to take you to the scene at ground zero as various events continue to develop their to the service is scheduled to begin at 8:30 eastern time. the president is scheduled to arrive in about 30 minutes. he will meet with family members of those victims who died on 9/11. harry is joining us from the uk. welcome to the program. good afternoon. caller: i was living in a small village in the west of wales. there were photos of the hijacking. i paid no attention. so, when we saw the second impact, we thought -- [unintelligible] the twin towers collapsing. [unintelligible] the towers are gone. new yorkers try to rise. in your hearts, they are so near. they are just a step away remembered close may god hold them in his hands we wish new york, shanksville, and the pentagon all the best as the commemorate the lives lost -- they commemorate the lives lost. host: thank you for the call. service is taking place around the world as the world remembers what happens -- services taking place around the world as the world remembers what happens. flags are at half staff. it is a morning quite similar to what we saw 10 years ago, bright sunshine in lower manhattan, but a very different sight at ground zero. the service will begin to remember those who died. imagine if the twin towers still dominated the skyline and the pentagon was still intact. imagine the number is 9 and 11 that anything -- meant nothing more than an emergency phone call. it is clear the world has changed. how much and how radically? good morning. thank you for floating back -- phoning back. caller: my concern is about ground zero. it is a magnificent sight. concerned what the firefighters weren't involved or invited to the ceremony. if it had not been for the incident of the world trade center, they never would have been on the scene. i think it is kind of bad that they were not invited to the ceremony. i also want to say that it appears that -- i know they haven't been confirmed yet, but is a tax a person was to be coming in, -- these attacks that are supposed to be coming in -- does something have to hit us again before we take it seriously? any announcement of some type of terrorist involvement should be taken very seriously, not "wait until something happens." host: you do not think the dhs, the fbi, cia are taking things seriously? they have been warning the public and following up to try and find out if there is any credibility to those threats. caller: i think they're taking it serious, but not serious enough to inform the public so that we can be aware. host: what more should be done? caller: i think they should announce -- hey, this is what we have heard. this is what is taking place. we need you to be watching and aware of what is going on. host: they have done that. we have had a news conference from a year blumberg. caller: than they come back and say that it has not been -- from mayor bloomberg. caller: but then they come back and say that it has not been confirmed. it wanted to say that it as -- i did not want them to play it down. host: mark, go ahead, please. caller: good morning. i am so shocked that those who lost the lives of other americans did not take it serious. it was -- [unintelligible] to carry on that kind of act that took place. host: robert is next, los angeles. good morning. caller: good morning. 9/11 was a big tragedy for us, like oklahoma was. it is a national tragedy. somebody did something to us on purpose. a handful of -- what were they from? saudi arabia? they made up a plan. those people were lucky. they got through and hurt us, americans.em we are still wasting money, 10 years later, still fighting. if we have the draft like we did in world war ii or vietnam, we would not be spending -- sending bodies over. we would have a private army. if you need a dog, join the military -- job, join the military. host: the names of those who died at our -- died are on a waterfall. there will be a musical tribute tonight and remarks by the president. the scheduled event at the national cathedral has been moved to the kennedy center. we will have live coverage at about 8:00 p.m. eastern, 5:00 for our viewers and listeners on the west coast. garrett was planning for a congressional picnic on the south lawn of the white house. the president was scheduled to return at about noon time for the picnic. of course, the president was in sarasota, florida, for an education even. we get his reflections on what happened 10 years ago. i want you to go back to the moment you were writing this diary, this time line. you are husband. you are a father. you worked with the president and the first family. what were you thinking? >> this was a historic occasion. negative, certainly. i needed to write down for history what occurred at the white house on that day. so much gets lost, as you well know, if people do not write stuff down. activityasn't my normal to keep a journal or anything, but the historic nature of that day just overwhelmed me. i had gone through probably as many emotions during the course of the day as anybody could possibly go through. thoughts of my family, obviously. mainly thoughts of the people in shanksville, who miraculously fought their way through terrible conditions and downed that plane. as far as i'm concerned, they save my life -- saved my life. i am convinced that the white house is the symbol of this nation, even though the capitol building things that it is. i thought somebody would try to do something -- if somebody would try to do something and the white house is an image they would like to take them. i have fought through a great deal of remorse for the people who lost their lives in shanksville. i also feel they saved my life. if the time and had worked out, i would have been right in the south lawn when the airplane would have crashed into the white house. i felt that i needed to sit in compose my thoughts, both for history and also to calm down. i was pretty hyper. even though i was a good nine hours into the first crash that had occurred in new york. i use that as a means to recalculate my day and start to think about the coming days, what would happen in the coming days, both to the workout, the united states government -- all of those things start coming through your mind. host: the recall a phrase or line that you wrote that stands out -- do you recall a phrase or a line that you wrote that stands out? >> i tried to keep it factual. the first thought was that we were going to war. there would be a state of war declared one way or another. who are the people who did this? what were their motives? by that time in the afternoon, there was plenty of speculation and what the -- speculation of who was responsible and what the actions of the president and government would be. the president had not been the action that long. host: you saw president bush depart the white house on september 10. did a different george w. bush returned late afternoon september 11? >> yes. he made the transition to a wartime president to the president was one of the most affable people -- president. the president was one of the most affable people that i ever served at the white house, always laughing, joking, had nicknames for everybody, and knew a lot of the staff from when his father was the president. he knew the people and some of their family members. when he returned, he had a staff job -- had a stiff jaw. he was very focused, tremendously focused. i think, to that point, mrs. bush, laura bush had been one of the primary focus is of his initiatives, which was taught good education. that is why she was down on capitol hill -- which was childhood education. his demeanor changed. he was still the same person personally, but his demeanor changed. he have a purposeful look in his eyes when he returned that even iing. host: gary walters, one of our oral histories of the events of 9/11. available at c-span.org. paying tribute to those who lost their lives in iraq and afghanistan. a photo from yesterday. from "the new york times," a president of former president bill clinton, george bush, or bush, and joe biden. what are your thoughts this morning? caller: thank you for taking my call. i think there are three reasons that i call this the day of atonement. the first one is that we were so naive as to believe that there are not people out there who want to kill us. the second is our ignorance in not reading it in newspaper, because everything was in "the washington post" that indicated we were about to be attacked. the third is our organs for sending comedians over with -- is our arrogance for sending comedians over to tell jokes. the president is saying you want to win the hearts and minds. you do not win the hearts and minds of people by making jokes about their women or their culture. host: mark from michigan. good morning. color them a good morning, c- span. good morning, america -- caller: >> morning, c-span. good morning, america. my father was a senior master sergeant in -- in the united states air force. it is called nomad. we have three defenses comes -- it is called no rarad. all of these defense systems were shut down on 9/11. this was an attack with 3767's @ were remote-controlled, just like drones -- three 767's that were remotes to controlled, just like drones. the third one was supposed to hit the southern power, but it malfunctioned. there was no plane that hit the pentagon. it was a bomb. host: i will stop you at that point. we will leave it there. from "the new york times," "loss and hope." the first lady, laura bush, scheduled to testify on capitol hill, with a focus on education and literacy. she was in the room with senator ted kennedy shortly before the second plane hit the second tower. during her visit at the national book festival last year and based on her book reflecting on the events of 9/11 are here is a former first lady laura bush with her oral history of what happened that morning. >> in the time it had taken to drive the two miles between the white house and the capital, the world as i knew it had changed. senator kennedy was waiting to greet me. we both knew when we met at the towers had been hit. without a word being spoken, we knew that there would be no briefing that morning. together, we walked the short distance to his office. he began by presenting me with a limited edition print. it was a copy of a painting he had created for his wife, victoria, and given to her on their wedding day. the print was ascribed to me and dated september 11, 2001. an old television was turned on in the corner of the room. i glanced over to see the plume of smoke billowing from the twin towers. senator kennedy kept his eyes averted. he led me on a tour of his office, pointing out various pictures, furniture, memorabilia, even a framed note that his brother jack had sent to their mother when he was a child, in which he wrote, "teddy is getting fat." [laughter] the senator who would outlive his brothers by more than 40 years laughed at the note as he showed it to me, still finding it amusing. all the while, i kept glancing over at the blowing television screen. my skin was starting to crawl. i wanted to leave, define a was going on, to process what i was seen, -- to find out what was going on, to process what i was seeing. did not occur to me to say, senator kennedy, what about the towers? i followed his lead. it was clear that i might dissolved into tears. senator judd gregg of new hampshire, the ranking republican on the committee, one of our very good friends, had played all board during mock debates at the ranch that previous fall -- al gore during mock debates at the ranch the previous fall. he arrived and invited us to sit and talk about anything other than the horrific images unfolding on the screen across the room. i was still trying to pay attention to him and the thread of conversation. it seemed completely unreal, sitting in this elegant, sunlit office, as an immense tragedy unfolded. we sat as human beings, driven by heat, flame, and searing heat, jumped from the top of the twin towers to end their lives, and as firefighters prepared to climb the stairs. i have often wondered if it was ted kennedy tossed defense mechanism. if after so much tragedy, the combat death of his brother, the assassinations of his brothers, the deaths of nephews, including john, jr., whose body identified when it was pulled from the waters off of martha's vineyard -- if, after all those things, he simply could not look upon another grievous tragedy. host: from the national book festival, a former first lady laura bush reflecting on her memories of the morning of september 11. we'll have live coverage of the national book festival later this month on c-span2. "booktv" programming every weekend on c-span2. "unhealed wounds." charlie is joining us. washington, d.c. good morning. caller: i had this been wondering -- i would not want to hear it again. the plane that was talked about in pennsylvania -- a fellow described that on the radio. i was listening to the radio. he heard the noise, then saw the flames, and the plane came down after he seen the flames. i have never heard that interviewed again. i wondered if you had heard of that. do you know where it is? i just want to hear it again. host: you're talking about flight 93 that hit shanksville, pa.? i am not aware of that interview. caller: nobody seems to be. i was listening to t