Andy Card Recalls the Words He Whispered to Bush

Andy Card still remembers the words he leaned in to deliver: "A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack." Card was President George W. Bush's chief of staff at the time, and his whisper to Bush in a Florida classroom on the morning of September 11, 2001, has become one of 9/11's defining images, notes CBS News. "I feel guilty that that photograph, which is iconic and defines an era, includes me," Card told the outlet. "Because I'm not iconic at all. I tried to help a president do a job."

In a separate appearance on NBC's Today on Friday, the 79-year-old recalled the moment. Card said he stepped forward to deliver the news when the children paused to take out their books. He then quickly stepped back, fearing that a longer conversation between him and Bush would be picked up by the microphones in the room and upset the children. Teacher Kay Daniels also recalls the exchange. "He left us for a moment," she told CBS of Bush. "Not physically, but I could tell he left us for a moment, but he came back. And I'm wondering, what was that moment about?" Bush this week said he had a moment of clarity when he received the news: He knew he had become a "wartime president."