Part 49 (1/2)

47.

The Pentagon, September 12, 2001.

48.

During my early-morning drives to the Pentagon through empty Was.h.i.+ngton streets in the days after 9/11 I saw how the terrorist attacks gripped the nation and filled the newspapers.

49.

(Left to right) Doug Feith, Gen. Jim Jones, President George Bush, Condi Rice, Gordon England, Gen. Hugh Shelton, Gen. Jack Keane, Adm. Vern Clark conferring at the Pentagon the day after 9/11.

50.

Meeting with the Pentagon press in the days after 9/11, Gen. Myers and I responded to hundreds of questions about this new and uncertain conflict-the first war of the twenty-first century.

51.

Ground Zero, New York City.

52.

With Vice President Cheney while our miniature dachshund Reggie patrolled the area. After 9/11, we were never really off the clock.

53.

At a meeting around my stand-up desk in the hours before military action started in Afghanistan with advisers Steve Cambone, Paul Wolfowitz, Larry Di Rita, and Torie Clarke.

54.

Arriving at Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, Afghanistan, in December 2001, we were greeted by a band of haggard but courageous Northern Alliance fighters who had just toppled the Taliban-and by the abandoned wreckage of Soviet-made aircraft.

55.