25 Years Later, Journalist Residing in Annapolis and Former CBS News Producer Kia Baskerville Reflects on September 11
Twenty five years after the September 11 terrorist attacks changed the nation, longtime Annapolis resident Kia Baskerville is reflecting on the extraordinary day she experienced from a vantage point few others shared, traveling with President George W. Bush as a CBS News producer.
Ms. Baskerville, who has lived in Annapolis for 24 years, was traveling with the president on September 11, 2001, after receiving what she described as a last-minute assignment to Florida. She was filling in for CBS News White House correspondent John Roberts, and the day was expected to include a presidential education speech and routine political coverage.
Instead, it became a day she would spend the rest of her life remembering.
Related: Kia BaskervilleTV News Producer
In a reflection shared with Report Annapolis News, Ms. Baskerville recalled traveling in the presidential motorcade toward Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota when she received word that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Her initial thought was that it may have been a small private aircraft.
Shortly after 9 a.m., as President Bush sat with second-grade students inside a classroom, CBS Radio correspondent Mark Knoller called Ms. Baskerville with news that a second plane had struck the South Tower.
“This is no accident. We are under attack,” Mr. Knoller told her.
Moments later, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card entered the classroom and whispered into the president’s ear. Ms. Baskerville recalled watching the president’s expression change as members of the press corps tried to comprehend what was unfolding.
After the president made brief remarks, the press pool rushed back to the motorcade and then toward Air Force One. By then, reports were coming in that another plane had struck the Pentagon.
Ms. Baskerville recalled arriving at Air Force One to find armed military personnel surrounding the aircraft. Once aboard, she and other members of the White House travel pool watched television coverage from the rear cabin.
Then they watched the South Tower collapse.
Ms. Baskerville wrote that images of people jumping from the World Trade Center remain among the memories that have never faded, even a quarter century later.
At the same time, she had a professional responsibility to fulfill. It was only her second time serving as the television pool producer during a presidential trip outside Washington, a role that made her responsible for providing television coverage to all five national networks.
As Air Force One remained in the air, Ms. Baskerville began to realize the aircraft was not returning directly to Washington. She recalled asking a Secret Service agent how high they were flying.
The answer was 44,000 feet.
After briefly raising her window shade, she saw a fighter jet alongside Air Force One and could see the pilot’s face. The presidential aircraft eventually landed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, where Ms. Baskerville and her crew recorded President Bush’s next remarks and coordinated the transmission to the television networks.
Following the president’s remarks, the traveling press pool was reduced, and Ms. Baskerville was among those instructed to return to Washington. With airports across the country closed, the Secretary of State’s aircraft was sent to transport members of the press pool back.
As the aircraft approached Andrews Air Force Base, Ms. Baskerville recalled seeing smoke still rising from the Pentagon.
She expected that her workday was finally over.
It was not.
A few hours later, Ms. Baskerville was standing inside the Oval Office, preparing to cue President Bush for his televised address to the nation.
With the president seated behind the Resolute Desk and the room silent, Ms. Baskerville began the countdown.
“Thirty seconds. Fifteen. Ten.”
She then finished the countdown silently with her hand.
Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
Following the address, Ms. Baskerville recalled that President Bush remained seated for a moment. She could see what she described as the heaviness of the day across his face.
Their eyes met. She nodded.
The president looked at her and said, “Good job today.”
For Ms. Baskerville, it became one more unforgettable moment in a day filled with them.
“Our world, as we knew it, had changed forever,” she wrote.
Ms. Baskerville originally wrote her reflection in 2002 to mark the first anniversary of September 11. She has continued revisiting and updating the story over the years, using her experience to remember the 2,977 people who lost their lives, the loved ones they left behind, those who continue to experience the lasting physical and emotional effects of that day, and the men and women who later served in the wars that followed.
Her connection to Annapolis would become another part of that story.
Shortly after moving to the city, Ms. Baskerville had a Boeing 747 tattooed on her right hand as a permanent reminder of September 11 and the aircraft that carried her through that historic day. She later married at Quiet Waters Park and purchased her first home in the area.
Twenty five years later, Annapolis is the community she calls home, but the lessons of September 11 remain with her.
“September 11 taught me, and all of us, how quickly the world can change,” Ms. Baskerville wrote.
Comments
Post a Comment