As with most remembrances of the president’s day, recollections vary on when or if Bush put the military on high alert. Common sense would suggest that the military was pretty alert when fighter jets took off at 8:46 am, but the president wanted to do it himself, so they called everyone back and let the little guy give the order right after his morning treat.

But, like the shoot-down order, it was way late—Bush was on his way to Louisiana by the time he deduced the military might be useful. God was shaking her head.

“After two more conversations with Cheney and a briefing from a CIA official, the president instructed Rumsfeld to order all U.S. military bases, domestic and on foreign soil, to raise their threat alert status from normal, which is the lowest of five levels, to Delta, the highest.” —BILL SAMMON

After being told, “America is under attack,” in the most unfiltered, unvarnished way possible, it only takes the president another 75 minutes to put the military on alert.

The Wall Street journal reported that Air Force General Richard Myers, acting head of the Joint

Chiefs of Staff on 9/11 gave the order to raise the military’s alert status to Defcon III shortly after the Pentagon was struck.

“And so, I got on the phone from Air Force One, asking to find out the facts. You’ve got to understand, Jordan, during this period of time, there were all kinds of rumors floating around. Some of them were erroneous. Obviously—for example, there was a news report saying that the State Department had been attacked. I needed to know what the facts were. But I knew I needed to act. I knew that if the nation’s under attack, the role of the Commander-In-Chief is to respond forcefully to prevent other attacks from happening. And so, I’ve talked to the Secretary of Defense; one of the first acts I did was to put our military on alert.” —GEORGE BUSH

Evidently, Bush can’t put the military on alert until he first hears what’s been blown up.

He’s done been misled. Bush gives the impression that he was on Air Force One and looking for information shortly after the attacks began, when in fact he didn’t even get on the plane until an hour after the first tower was hit—and then took another 30 minutes after he boarded to give an order.

Bush couldn’t do anything due to the dew.

“Upon my return from the crash site and before going to the Executive Support Center (ESC), I had one or more calls in my office, one of which I believe was with the President. I left the ESC and went to the National Military Command Center where General Dick Myers, then Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had just returned from Capitol Hill. We discussed and I recommended to the President raising the U.S. Defense Condition level from 5 to 3, and increasing the Force Protection level.” —DONALD RUMSFELD, SPEAKING TO THE 9/11 COMMISSION

At the earliest…75 minutes after the first attack and 40 minutes after the Pentagon is hit, the Secretary of Defense thinks it’s perhaps time to defend the country. Rumsfeld would also tell the Commission that he didn’t even reach situational awareness until 10:39—nearly two hours after the first attack.

Don talks to the president—at least he’s pretty sure it was Bush. It was hard to tell through all the sobbing.

The Secretary of Defense doesn’t need permission to raise the alert level.

“We have in fact declared Force Protection Condition Delta and a condition of high alert—indeed, the highest alert. We did so almost immediately upon the attacks, and it is still in force.” He lied.

The North Tower of the World Trade Center collapses.