9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001: Vice President Cheney’s Military Aide Sees the Second Crash on TV, Goes to Fetch the ‘Nuclear Football’ from His Office

Douglas Cochrane, Vice President Dick Cheney’s military aide, sees Flight 175 crashing into the World Trade Center live on television and, in response, goes to fetch a special briefcase that holds the codes necessary for the vice president to initiate a nuclear attack. Cochrane left his office on the fifth floor of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House, and went to the White House after he learned a plane had crashed into the WTC (see (8:50 a.m.-9:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). He is in the White House Situation Room at 9:03 a.m. and sees the second hijacked plane, Flight 175, crashing into the WTC live on television (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001). In response, he runs back to his office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to get the “nuclear football” out of the safe. [Florida Times-Union, 9/10/2003; 9/11 Commission, 4/16/2004] The nuclear football is a briefcase that contains “a variety of secure phone capabilities and options for launching nuclear strikes that [the US president] may authorize,” according to journalist and author Ronald Kessler. As well as the nuclear football that is assigned to the president, a second, identical football is assigned to the vice president, in case the president becomes incapacitated or dies. This is presumably the briefcase Cochrane now fetches. Carrying the football is the responsibility of military aides, such as Cochrane, who accompany the president and the vice president wherever they go. [Associated Press, 5/5/2005; Kessler, 2014, pp. 7] Once he has the football, Cochrane will return to the White House and see Cheney being evacuated from his office by his Secret Service agents (see (9:36 a.m.) September 11, 2001). He will subsequently join Cheney in the underground tunnel that leads to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) below the White House (see Shortly Before 9:58 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 4/16/2004]