With Bush in ruins

9/11 icon Bob Beckwith dies at the age of 91

This image of Beckwith with then President Bush is etched in the collective memory of Americans.

(Bild: APA/AFP/PAUL J. RICHARDS)

He became one of the faces of the 9/11 terror in New York City: firefighter Bob Beckwith, at whose side the then US President George W. Bush went after the devastating attacks to give the population a megaphone message of perseverance. Beckwith has now died at the age of 91.

The New York Fire Department announced the sad news on Monday. Chief Laura Kavanaugh spoke of a "both inspiring and heartbreaking" moment that will forever be associated with Beckwith's face as he - then already 67 years old and actually retired - stood next to the president in the rubble of Manhattan.

"We had no idea the president was coming"
He didn't push himself into the limelight after that, and it slowly became quiet around Beckwith, who, according to the US media, struggled with forgetfulness in his final years. "We had no idea the president was coming. And if we knew, we had forgotten," he recalled on the 20th anniversary of the horror in 2021.

He had just been standing on a destroyed fire truck when Bush appeared, Beckwith continued. "And he comes straight at me, and he puts his arm out, and I pull him up." From that iconic moment, he has kept the US flag the president was holding at the time. He cherished it in his Long Island home.

Bush praises "bold and resilient spirit"
The second protagonist has not forgotten the scene either: Former President Bush responded to the news of his death with a detailed statement:

Throughout the years, he had remained in contact with the "patriot" Beckwith, whose courage "represented the bold, resilient spirit of New Yorkers and Americans after 9/11".