9/11 Survivor Stories

President George W. Bush puts his arm around firefighter Bob Beckwith while standing in front of the World Trade Center in New York during a tour of the devastation Photo: Doug Mills/AP

9/11: The People In The Pictures -- The Telegraph

9/11 has produced innumerable iconic yet devastating images. Ten years on, we speak to the faces in the photographs.

Three days after 9/11, George W Bush visited Ground Zero to witness the devastation. From the still-smouldering ruins, the president delivered one of his most famous speeches. In one hand was a megaphone. His other arm was draped around a 69-year-old rescue worker who in that moment was transformed from a retired fireman into a national symbol of strength and defiance.

But Bob Beckwith’s presence in that photograph was very much accidental. When word spread that Mr Bush was about to speak at the scene, he had climbed on to the wreck of a burnt-out fire engine for a better view. “As I was standing there, a guy who I presumed was from the Secret Service came over and asked, ‘Is this safe?’ I said, ‘Yes’, and he told me that someone important was going to come over and that I should help them up and then get down. Then all of a sudden, Mr Bush was in front of me. So I helped him onto the rig and started to climb down. But he said, ‘Where do you think you’re going? You’re staying right here.’” He then delivered his speech.

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My Comment: That is a day that I know I will never forget.