Former Florida officer recalls working for Bush on 9/11

SARASOTA, Fla. – President George W. Bush was in Florida reading to elementary school students when one of his advisers approached him, then whispered into his ear.

That adviser had to reveal to the president that the United States was under attack.

Chris Hunt was working security with the Sarasota Police Department on Sept. 11, 2001. When President Bush received the news, Hunt was in the next room. He still reveres the president for holding his composure at that moment.

“The way he handled that right from finishing a book with elementary school students after being told that news, it would have not been out of the realm of possibilities of him leaving at that moment — before finishing that book — and the fact that he did that blew me away,” Hunt said.

Hunt recalls providing security as the president took off in Air Force One. He said an ominous feeling began to settle in as he learned more information.

“We were notified at 8:46 a.m. I think of the first plane going into the building, and we were all thinking ‘Wow, that pilot really messed up’ and then at 9:03 when the second plane went into the building obviously we knew there was something majorly wrong,” Hunt said.

Today Hunt is employed in baseball as the area director of scouting in Southwest Florida for National Scouting Report and works for the Baltimore Orioles, but he observes the anniversary of the terrorist attack with his son.

“Every year on 9/11 President Bush gave us a little momentum, which I have at home, and I show it to him every year to remind him this can happen to us,” he said.