EDITORS NOTE: A reader pointed out that Pat Roberts did not actually take the chairmanship of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence until 2003. Hutch Post regrets the error.
By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Former Kansas U.S. Senator Pat Roberts was at the Kansas State Fair Saturday morning and reflected on his memories of the attacks on New York and Washington September 11, 2001.
"I was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee," Roberts said. "We had been warning folks that the oceans no longer protected us and that we could be attacked by something that we just were not prepared for. The intel community was trying to figure out where that might come from. Nobody thought about somebody using airplanes as missiles."
Roberts realizes now he probably risked his own life just trying to get to the office.
"I finally hit some traffic and drove on the apron with people honking at me," Roberts said. "I got to my office by going behind the Capitol. That's especially important, because at the time I was doing that, was exactly the time that 007 (known commonly now by its name as United Flight 93) would have hit the Capitol. I think about that and really that heroism and really, saving my life."
Roberts thought his committee could help figure out what happened.
"I shouldn't even have been there, I should have probably stayed home," Roberts said. "I was chairman. What are you going to do? I got two members of my staff out. I said go home, go home, get away from this place, get off of the Beltway. I went over to police headquarters, where about 20 of us were meeting."
Leadership had gone to a secure location to ensure their safety.
"They were safe, but we had an intercom back and forth," Roberts said. "I was asking leadership, I'd like to have the intel committee meet, at least know what's going on. They said, nobody knows what's going on. That's when the President was flying around in the air."
Roberts also talked about his first trip to Ground Zero.
"We went up to the site later with the President," Roberts said. "There must have been 25 or 30 Senators. I got up there and I think it was the most horrific thing I've ever seen. For some reason, we had coat and ties on, I don't know, we took that off real fast. All the workers up there just stopped. They didn't know who we were, but they knew it had to be somebody semi-important. I got out of the bus first, went up there and I saw this guy with a jackhammer about from me to the tables, but there's concrete. It's just a mess. I thought, well, what am I doing just standing here? I just went over there, I got up on that deal and I said, I want to meet you, you're a hero. God bless you. I'm Pat Roberts from Dodge City, Kansas. I'm a Senator. He said, you're all Senators? I said, yup and I can't tell you how much I appreciate you at this particular time."
Several other Senators also spoke to the workers, and so did President Bush, with his famous speech with the bullhorn. If Roberts had a bullhorn, that Marine likely would have a message for current policy makers as well.
"I think all this business with Afghanistan and leaving people behind is absolutely contrary, 180 degrees from where we were at that particular time. I deeply regret what has happened in Afghanistan, again, tearing at the ethic of the military and making some really incredible decisions that put our country at risk."
Below is the raw audio from Roberts as told to Hutch Post on Saturday, September 11, 2021.