POLK COUNTY, Fla. -- Last weekend's commemoration of 20 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks brought many people back to where they were on Sept. 11, 2001.
Count Adam Putnam among them.
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But for Putnam, a former Florida congressman and the state's agriculture commissioner, reflecting on that day is a little different than most.
Putnam was with President George W. Bush on Sept. 11 at a Sarasota-area elementary school and was a witness to the extraordinary events of the day.
That included the president's staff informing him of the attacks, scrambling to a secure location and riding on Air Force One as the president and his staff began to deal with the full gravity of the day: that America was under attack.
"It's certainly a very serious anniversary but one that's important that we never forget how it changed all of our lives," said Putnam, who was 26 years old at the time and in his first year of the five terms he served in Congress.
On this week's episode of our To The Point Already podcast, Spectrum Bay News 9's Rick Elmhorst and Roy DeJesus talk with Putnam about that day and what it has meant to him since.
Putnam said he vividly remembers being on Air Force One as it was refueling in Louisiana and recalls huge amounts of food and supplies being loaded on the plane and realizing a disaster scenario was being implemented to keep the plane aloft and running the country for days at a time.
He said he also recalls the chilling moment when he realized President Bush had to authorize fighter jets to shoot down a commercial airliner if necessary to protect the U.S. government.
The fully loaded Air Force One departed but Putnam and other officials took flight on a second plane that eventually brought him back to Washington that evening.
Putnam said the days and years that followed were difficult but that a sense of purpose infused his work even more so.
"It was an incredible sense of purpose to be in public life at that moment," he said "There was a weight of history that was on us following 9/11 that was powerful and fulfilling."
ABOUT THE SHOW
Spectrum Bay News 9 Anchor Rick Elmhorst sits down with the people that represent you, the people fighting for change and the people with fascinating stories to ask the hard questions.
To The Point Already will cover people, politics and issues from a Tampa Bay perspective every Wednesday.