Positioned in the middle of the United States, Nebraska has played an outsized role in disrupting terrorism across the country over the past 25 years, since the most significant terrorist attack in our nation’s history on Sept. 11, 2001.
At 3:07 p.m., just hours after the twin towers and the Pentagon were struck by airplanes full of innocent passengers, then-President George W. Bush landed at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Neb. This destination was strategic — Offutt had the most secure communications that allowed Bush to assemble his full National Security Council simultaneously, to make sense of what had happened and to formulate a plan for the U.S. response. Greeted by Adm. Richard Mies, the then-commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, Bush was quickly moved to an underground bunker that was 40 feet underground and designed to withstand whatever enemy fire came next.
President Bush was in Nebraska roughly an hour before he felt safe enough to fly back to Washington, D.C., to address the nation that evening from the Oval Office: “Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack.”…