Elaine Iler

General Richard Myers, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, learns that a second plane has crashed into the World Trade Center and realizes this is a terrorist attack while he is meeting Senator Max Cleland (D-GA) on Capitol Hill. Myers learned of the first crash at the WTC when he saw it reported on television as he was about to go into the meeting with Cleland, but didn’t realize it was a terrorist attack (see Shortly Before 9:00 a.m. September 11, 2001). He therefore proceeded with the meeting, which began at around 9:00 a.m. [Armed Forces Radio And Television Service, 10/17/2001; MSNBC, 9/11/2002; Myers and McConnell, 2009, pp. 7-9]
Myers and Cleland Have Been Talking about Terrorism – After briefly discussing the incident in New York, Myers and Cleland had a “little conversation about national security,” Myers will later describe. [Council on Foreign Relations, 6/29/2006; Myers and McConnell, 2009, pp. 8] Ironically, one of the subjects they talked about was terrorism. [Washington Post, 7/3/2003] They have been “discussing the need to boost our conventional forces, to look at the question of terrorism and attacks on the United States,” Cleland will recall. [US Congress, 9/13/2001] They were “discussing the future of American defenses, particularly against worldwide terrorism,” he will say on another occasion. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6/16/2003]
Cleland and Myers Possibly See the Crash on TV – At some point, they learn of the second crash, which takes place at 9:03 a.m. (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001), although accounts will conflict over exactly when and how this happens. According to Cleland, they learn of the crash when they see it on television. He will recall that while they are talking, his secretary, Elaine Iler, bursts into the room in an agitated state and says, “You’ve gotta see the TV.” Myers and Cleland follow her out to where the television is. “Almost as soon as we got into the room, we saw the second plane hit the tower at the World Trade Center,” Cleland will describe. “For a moment, I thought it was a replay of the first plane hitting the tower, but it quickly became apparent there were two planes involved and neither of them was little,” he will add. [Cleland and Raines, 2009, pp. 170]
Staffer Alerts Cleland and Myers to the Crash – Myers, though, will recall that, rather than seeing it on television, he and Cleland learn of the crash after it occurs, and, on most occasions, he will say they do so when someone tells them about it. On some occasions he will state that they learn of the crash shortly after their meeting began. “A couple of minutes into the meeting, one of the aides came in and said the second building had been hit,” he will say in an interview in 2011. [American Forces Press Service, 9/9/2011] He will give a similar account in his 2009 memoir, writing: “[Cleland] had started preparing a pot of tea, but we hadn’t taken a sip when a staff person came in from the outer office and informed us that the second tower had been hit. We both knew the interview was over and started out to the TV to see the South Tower erupting with smoke and flame.” [Myers and McConnell, 2009, pp. 8]
Notification of the Crash Possibly Occurs Later On – In an interview in 2002, he will indicate that he and Cleland are alerted to the crash later on during their meeting. “Somewhere in the middle of that meeting, [someone] came in and said the second tower has been hit,” he will tell NBC News. [MSNBC, 9/11/2002] On another occasion, he will be less specific, mentioning only that after the second crash occurred, “The meeting was over very quickly.” [Council on Foreign Relations, 6/29/2006]
No One Alerts Cleland and Myers to the Crash, according to One Account – However, in an interview five weeks after 9/11, Myers will claim that no one interrupts the meeting to tell them about the crash and they only learn of it after the meeting ends. “Sometime during that office call the second tower was hit. Nobody informed us of that, but when we came out, that was obvious,” he will say. [Armed Forces Radio And Television Service, 10/17/2001; American Forces Press Service, 10/23/2001]
Cleland and Myers Realize This Is Terrorism – Myers and Cleland realize immediately that the US is under attack when they learn of the second crash. “It was pretty clear from the time that second tower was hit that we were under attack,” Myers will comment. “That’s when we figured out something: that America, or at least the World Trade Center, is under attack,” he will say. [MSNBC, 9/11/2002] The second crash was “no light aircraft accident, but certainly an act of unthinkable terrorist savagery,” he will write. [Myers and McConnell, 2009, pp. 9]
Myers Takes No Action in response to the Crash – However, Myers does nothing in response to the attacks at this time. He will tell the 9/11 Commission that he “did not recall making any decisions or taking any actions between the time the second tower was hit and the time the Pentagon was struck,” which is 9:37 a.m. (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 2/17/2004 ] Furthermore, despite noting that the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon is “essentially my battle station when things are happening,” he will only head back to the Pentagon sometime after the Pentagon attack occurs (see Shortly After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). [US Congress, 9/13/2001; MSNBC, 9/11/2002; Council on Foreign Relations, 6/29/2006] General Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is currently out of the country, flying across the Atlantic Ocean for a NATO meeting in Europe (see 7:15 a.m. September 11, 2001), and so Myers is the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in his place. [American Forces Press Service, 9/8/2006; George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, 8/3/2012] Until Shelton returns to the US, therefore, he is the nation’s highest-ranking military officer. [Shelton, Levinson, and McConnell, 2010, pp. 432; North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 11/7/2019]