President George W. Bush embraces firefighter Bob Beckwith while standing in front of the collapsed World Trade Center
Firefighter tells story behind iconic moment with George W. Bush
By Jess Wisloski, Yahoo! New York City Editor
"Bob Beckwith, a retired New York City firefighter, is one of the best-known faces of the rescue efforts in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.
The photo of him wearing his old fire helmet, standing alongside then President George W. Bush atop the ash-covered remains of a fire truck, became legendary. It graced the cover of the next day's New York Post and, later, Time magazine.
It also catapulted the retiree into the nation's spotlight.
Beckwith, 79, still lives in the same house in Baldwin, Long Island, that he has shared with his wife, Barbara, 77, since 1958.
"I was just an old man, just getting older and enjoying my retirement. Then 9/11 came," he says.
On that grave morning 10 years ago, he had already encountered one terrifying shock: His 14-year-old grandson was hit by a car while he was biking to school. Beckwith rushed to the scene, fought his way through a crowd, and waited at the boy's side for the ambulance to arrive. A short time later, he stopped home on his way to the hospital, heard the news on the radio about what was happening at the World Trade Center, and turned on the television.
"I heard a small plane went into the tower," he says. "I'm looking at this and the smoke on the upper floors, and then the wind took the smoke. I said, 'Well, that's a bit bigger than a small plane.' ... I couldn't understand what was happening."
Less than an hour later, he was in the emergency room in nearby Mineola, glued with others to the TV. That's where the former firefighter, who had been retired for seven years, watched the south tower collapse. From that hospital, where it appeared his grandson was going to be OK, he knew where he needed to go next.
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