Honoring the Fallen and Reclaiming Our Historical Narrative with Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell

Tim Barton

Welcome to the WallBuilders Show. This is the intersection of faith and the culture, where we look at events from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. My name is Tim Barton, I am the president of WallBuilders and I am joined by my father, the founder of WallBuilders, also known as America's Historian, David Barton. Normally we have our third amigo on the program with us, Rick Green, the founder, president of Patriot Academy, America's Constitution Coach. But the nature of all three of us traveling and speaking and all the things that we do, it's not uncommon that we have delayed flights or flight and travel issues, and there were some storms over the weekend and Rick got stuck somewhere, and so we said, hey, man, it's no problem, we will take care of it today. And then that it was a little weird to me, having been doing this with you guys for I don't know, maybe nearly a decade now, having to think wait, what does Rick normally say when we start the show? What are the words, what's the phrase he used?

I don't even know if I said the right thing, but I know we're the WallBuilder Show, I know we're getting into American history and, dad, today is a day we want to take a moment to kind of walk people through the reality of why today is a holiday in America, why do we have Memorial Day. And some people would say we celebrate Memorial Day depending on who you talk to. If you talk to some veterans and they would tell you the reason they did what they did is so that other Americans could celebrate. But when you talk to veterans themselves, what are they going to do on this day? They're going to tell you they don't celebrate on Memorial Day because this is a day they remember those that paid the ultimate price, their brothers and sisters in arms, those that are gone before. And so we thought we want to make sure that we take a little time to help walk people through some of this history, learn some of these stories for why we have Memorial Day. 

David Barton

Yeah, it is a big difference between the two days. And here we recently, not long ago, a couple of years ago, did a series called America's Hidden History and within that we did a series on the different holidays in America, and we did one on Veterans Day and we did one on Memorial Day. And on Memorial Day we were really blessed to have some genuine folks with us that were in some of the most incredible loss of life incidents in World War II and the war on terror, et cetera and so we're going to introduce those folks, we're going to talk to them. Today. We're going to talk to Brian Birdwell. Brian Birdwell is a state Senator in Texas, one of the best in Texas, but he was the guy who got directly run over by the plane on 9-11 at the Pentagon and survived. It covered up the jet fuel. He was set aflame. He had I don't know how many dozen surgeries, but Brian will talk to us about that, but also about the significance of Memorial Day, and we're going to do this for the next three days. We're going to look at different aspects of Memorial Day, different stories. They're all worth hearing.

Tim Barton

And, dad, as you mentioned, this TV special we did. This is something we thought the stories are important enough, the history is good. We people need to know this, so we want to share the special with you guys. We're going to start today. The highlight of today is going to be an interview, dad, as you mentioned, with Brian Birdwell, but we want to share this TV episode with you guys, starting today.

Narrator

Modern historians have revised, rewritten and even deleted entire chapters of american history. So what are we missing? What happened to the history that didn't make the books? Join historian David Barton Tim Barton and special guests as they uncover the facts some historians don't want you to know. This is America's Hidden History.

Tim Barton

Hello and welcome to the show. Today's show is covering Memorial Day and actually in our audience we have many members of the military, retired military, some family members who lost loved ones. To date, about 1.2 million Americans have given their life for the cause of freedom, so that you and I can enjoy all the freedoms and liberties we have here in America. Memorial Day actually has its roots tracing back just after the Civil War. Arlington National Cemetery is where it really began. Just stones throw away from Arlington National Cemetery is the Pentagon, which, ironically, is the setting where, on September 11th, one of the most horrific events ever on US soil happened, where a plane went and crashed into the Pentagon. Well, we have with us on the show today a survivor from that attack. He's currently a Texas state senator, but he's retired lieutenant colonel from the Army, Brian Birdwell. Brian, we are pleased to have you with us on the show today. Thanks, for being here.

Brian Birdwell

 My treat my treat. Thank you, thank you, my treat, my treat, thank you, thank you 

Tim Barton

Now, Brian? You have a certainly a long military career. I remember I was in college when 9-11 happened, but for you this is even a little more significant, considering where you were when this happened. Would you tell us some of your story?

Brian Birdwell

Sure Be more than pleased to do so. We'd watch events unfold up in New York, knew that this was a significant day in our nation's life. There's no thought that we were next, but we were doing exactly what everybody else around the country was doing is just watching the TV coverage phones were quiet. I'd had my morning Coke that morning at about seven o'clock, about 9.35, I told Sandy and Cheryl I was going to step out and go to the men's restroom. When I did, I walked through the crash site, which is again where the plane would make impact, went through that, turned left at the fourth quarter to go to the men's restroom, took care of business, came out and I'm about seven or eight steps and I'm about to turn right back into what crumbles when flight 77 makes impact. So I'm 15 to 20 yards from where the nose of that aircraft makes penetration of the building. Um, I, I should not have survived the initial impact. You could not hear the plane coming. Um, because one, the pentagon's huge, but um, but I heard the impact thought bomb in that nanosecond that I'm taking my next step, returning back to the office. And in the next nanosecond I'm tossed around like a ragdoll set ablaze and I go from a well-lit hallway in charge of my faculties and my surroundings to an earthly hell of fire and choking black smoke.

Break

Tim Barton

How were you burned? What was it that caused you to catch fire? In this case, maybe?

Brian Birdwell

the 757 even though the hijackers had flown it out, took control of it somewhere over West Virginia, it still had over 3,000 gallons still in it when it makes impact, 757 holds about 5,000 gallons. It's got about 3,000 still in it when it makes impact. So the jet fuel ignites, I'm set ablaze. I mean you've got an 80-ton bomb that's made penetration of the building and it makes impact at 530 miles an hour.

And in those moments, the panic that grips your heart when you realize you're dying that death and there's no way to escape it, that is far more agonizing than the physical pain of actually being burned. I thought about Mel and Matt that morning and how I'd said goodbye that morning and that the next time I'd get to speak with them or see them would be an eternity. 

Tim Barton

Mel is your wife. Mel is my wife, my commanding general. Mel is your wife. Mel is my wife, my commanding general. Our son, Matt was 12 at the time.

There are a number of people and places that the Lord brought into my life, that his sovereignty is what allowed me to live. I mean it's something of a humorous story, particularly many of the veterans that are in the audience that may have a Purple Heart as well. You know when people ask you know what were you doing when you got your Purple Heart. You know I was coming out of the men's restroom. You know that's just not very sexy with guys that have cleared buildings in Fallujah but 

Tim Barton

hearing your story right, knowing some details behind it, that your name should be on a wall like so many others.

Brian Birdwell

Yeah, the pentagon memorial?

Tim Barton  in the midst of god's providence to this point, how do you look at at your calling now, knowing that god's kept you alive for a purpose?

Brian Birdwell

yeah, um, it was the lord putting the right people in the right place at the right time with the right, sometimes, equipment. I would give just a couple of examples. In the building there were four men Bill McKinnon, Roy Wallace, john Davies and Chuck Knobloch that came out of the B-ring doors. Had they not come out of that area and grabbed me, which was in itself agonizing? Grabbed me, which was in itself agonizing. Then, when they take me through the B-ring door into an A-ring access door area to what would essentially be a hasty triage site, an Air Force doctor named John Baxter was evacuating the building, had his go-bag with him. There's a wonderful lady from the Navy, Natalie Ogletree, that will kneel down beside me and just say the Lord's Prayer, the 23rd Psalm, with me. She'll say the 91st Psalm over me. Dr Baxter will take my shoes off and the remnant of the socks left underneath the leather shoes, because everything above that is mostly burned away. My leather belt is still intact. I'm either covered in blood or charred. He'll put the morphine in the right foot, the IV in the left foot, eventually taken to Georgetown and this is the one that is most seminal is who's at Georgetown? When I arrive at Georgetown, there's no, nothing's flying and won't fly for a number of hours when I'm wheeled inside.

The attending physician at Georgetown University's hospital is primarily a teaching hospital, but the attending physician is Dr Michael Williams and Dr Williams, before his assignment there, spent two years in a trauma fellowship over at the Washington Hospital Center under the direction of Marion Jordan and James Jang. Marion Jordan, the director of the burn center, and Dr Jang is chief deputy and chief of research. So from the emergency room perspective of all the emergency rooms in DC, Arlington and Nova Fairfax I mean Walter Reed and the like I've got the third best burn doctor available to me and that's the Lord's providential hand, because normally in a burn center or in an emergency room it's airway breathing circulation. Once those three are stabilized, you're evacuated to specialized care. And I'm not going anywhere because DC as a city is being closed. No medevac helicopters are going to fly until about five o'clock that afternoon. So Dr Williams and they expect more casualties and I'm the only one that arrives. I have that entire hospital's undivided attention.

And so Dr Williams, not only does the emergency room aspects of my injuries but he also begins the very brutal things that have to be done because he learned under one of the best in the world and certainly, in my view, the best in this nation, Dr Jordan, of what has to be done to that burn survivor. That emergency room experience is something that you will never forget. It's one of the most emotional things that when I recall it getting wheeled in and my eyes are nearly closed. Dr Williams comes to the left-hand side and I can see in his eyes the nature of how serious this is, because I knew that I could be very well speaking my last words and I'd been thinking about that on the drive over and in the back of that Ford and Dr Williams says you know, colonel Bird, we're going to do the best that we possibly can for you. And they talked about cutting the wedding ring off. But I didn't want it cut off. So when I turned to Dr Williams after he tells me who he is and what he's going to do I told him I wanted to take the wedding ring off and give it to Mel and tell her that I loved her.

And Judith Rogers, one of the nurses that had answered the all hands on deck, call. Judith reaches for the ring and the body is like that steak that you cook on the grill. It's like that steak that you cook on the grill tender when it comes off, but as it cools and sits there it hardens and the body melts long before gold does. And so part of my, the flesh of the finger, had adhered to the ring and Judith gives it, grabs it with her gloved hand and gives it a slight tug and she it just. It's like it just the gloves, the finger. Blood begins streaming out of the base of my hand. John Collison, major Collison, had accompanied me in the back of that Ford and I looked at John very deliberately and said give that to Mel and tell her that I loved her, because I was saying goodbye to my wife and my son through the symbolism of that ring.

Break

Brian Birdwell

When I'd ask for the hospital chaplain to come to the side and she just led that prayer that recognized that. Okay, Lord, if you've brought Brian here under the direction of Dr Williams and the team here at Georgetown and he survives, we'll salute that flag and we'll move out with that mission. But if you've brought him here to quietly call him into eternity under the peace and the quiet and the comfort of his fellow Americans, we'll salute that flag too. And when that prayer was over with it was not with the strength of a soldier but in my faith in Christ that I could look at Dr Williams and say let's get on with it. And it is as vivid to me today as it was in those moments when they placed that mask over my face with the cannulas, tilted my head back and that would be the beginning of a very agonizing four-year process to be medically put back together. The Lord put the right people in the right time at the right place to fulfill his purposes.

Tim Barton

There's an image where President Bush goes and visits someone in the hospital. At the time, you know, we had no idea who it was and actually to this day, if we didn't know it was you, we might not know it was you because you were completely covered, I think. I've heard you say you were mummified.

Brian Birdwell

Mummified.

The amount of bandaging and the like is yeah, 

Tim Barton

Do you have any recollection of the president coming to visit you?

Brian Birdwell

No, I can tell the story because Mel's told it to me, so I'm pleased to tell it. It's a really neat story. Obviously, Mel and I had cell phones at that time. She had her cell phone, I had cell phones at that time, she had her cell phone. She gets a call from a 202 area code, which is DC, that morning at about eight o'clock that morning. She's like I don't know who this is, but I guess I better answer it. And on the other end it's Mrs Birdwell. Yes, this is Agent Smith from the Secret Service.

President and Mrs Bush would like permission to visit, you know, you and your husband at the Washington Hospital Center this morning and anybody that gets a call from the Secret Service on behalf of the president. You know there's a certain way you respond and Mel responded that way and she said how did you get my cell phone number? And of course, the Secret Service member answered the same way you'd expect. She says ma'am, we're the Secret Service, you know. But she said yes, secret Service cleared, president and Mrs Bush, come in. Dr Jordan, who's the director of the Burns Center, an exception, just a number of exceptional. There's only one great physician, but there's some exceptional ones out there and he's one of them. Mrs Bush comes in first. Mel is with me, to the left, um, and she tells Mrs Bush, you know well, you know Brian's from fort worth and Mrs Bush's eyes light up, you know, oh, you know, if you're from Texas, you know that little Texas happy dance when Texans meet each other when you're not, when you're not in the state of Texas. And she says colonel Birdwell, I brought someone to see you and nothing happens. And so she turns over her left shoulder and says Colonel Birdwell, I brought someone to see you.

And the president comes in on the second call, like most husbands, you know it takes two times. The president comes in and he's already seen and visited with five other of the critical burn survivors and he's already seen and visited with five other of the critical burn survivors. He comes to the foot of my bed and renders the salute and on instinct I am trying to return that salute. And he holds his salute and Mel says you know you can see tears running down his eyes and then I dropped this and I'm doing this on instinct. I remember trying to salute, but I don't have any context of what was happening at the time.

President drops his salute, comes to the side of the bed and he says you know, colonel Birdwell, you're a great American. This is not going to go unanswered. We're going to stop tolerating the culture of terrorism and accepting it as a criminal activity. And then, Mrs Bush, you know, they asked if they could pray for us and then absolutely said yes. And then Mrs Bush says George, colonel Birdwell's from Texas, and of course, president Bush's eyes light up and we did the Texas happy dance and he and Mel, you know, had a discussion about various things. But what's instructive of that visit is not me being the focal point of the visit. It's that the president understood what this visit meant and was going to mean, because the decisions he was going to have to make to protect the American people, which is his primary constitutional function, was going to render other military personnel in the same physical condition. And he still had the courage as he was making decisions during that time frame for our nation.

Break

Brian Birdwell

I got a call from the president when I won the state senate seat and it was. It was fun, I mean, it was just neat to. We've gotten to visit with President Bush a number of times after September 11th, but we love him and respect him immensely.

Tim Barton

So after he leaves, you then go into surgery and that's just kind of the beginning of your recovery uh it, it is uh what you say recovery, yes, but there's a lot of bad. I mean there what happens in a burn center and because of the nature of flamants on the battlefield, there's a lot of burn injuries that come with with arm conflict. Um, so I had a number of problems that, medically, should have killed me. I mean they're just without a long discussion. My chances of survival when I arrived were less than 1%. I mean, I just like I said I should have been killed in the building. There were a number of places that I should have passed in the medical recovery.

But every man or woman that's ever put on the uniform, whether they served in peacetime, wartime, you know, were a clerk or a frontline, you know, foxhole fighting soldier. They were willing to bear that burden and it's, you know, it's emblematic of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. He willingly subordinated himself to government, subordinated himself to the Father, just as the soldier does to government, some greater cause, greater than himself. And that's what makes our vets, and particularly those on memorial day that we remember, because they died in uniform in service to the nation, that our men and women in uniform are most Christ-like among our nation 

Tim Barton

and we just we're really grateful for who you are, for the service to our nation.

But we also appreciate you coming on the show today.

Brian Birdwell

 Hooah, my treat,

Tim Barton

 Colonel Burwell, thank you so much, thank you.

Brian Birdwell

Hooah, thank y'all.

Chamberlain

My great-grandfather, Jack Chamberlain, was probably the biggest influence on why we should remember during Memorial Day, why we should remember our fallen. He said, before you go, I want to give you something and I said okay. So I hung around and he comes out with this, this cigar box, and I knew what was in it. He said I want you to have these and I said no, grandpa, I can't take those. Those are your brothers. He said you will take them because I know you will keep Frank's memory alive, and I have. If you go to my congressional office today in Washington DC, there's Frank's picture and there's his pipe. There's his artifacts. I have a picture of his grave on my wall because Frank was 19. My great-grandfather, when he died he had over 60 descendants, Me being one of them, and he was a powerful male figure in my life.

Frank never got that chance, Like so many. He was 19 and he died. A lot of the soldiers I lost were 19. They never knew the joys of marriage. They never knew love and raising their children. They never knew love and raising their children. They never lived to a ripe old age working in some capacity that they enjoyed, enjoying the freedoms that their sacrifice paid for never got to see their grandchildren. So we should do that. We should pause from the barbecue and lake trips and go down and reflect on names on a wall and maybe look one or two of them up and find out who were they, who were their lives, what was their impact and what was the life they never got to live. Like Frank compared to Jack.

Tim Barton

So, even though the history of Memorial Day goes all the way back to just after the Civil War, looking at Arlington National Cemetery most Americans today still don't know much about Memorial Day, don't really know why we have a day to commemorate or remember, or even really when it began. All right, we are taking a break here for today. We're going to pick up tomorrow, continuing on with this TV special that we did, going through more history of Memorial Day. You guys heard from Brian Birdwell. He's somebody that I would encourage you to follow online. He's got a book sharing his testimony Just incredible stuff. But these are the kind of stories that more people need to know. To find out more obviously, you can go to our website, wallbuilders.com and find out more, or just tune in tomorrow as we will continue along in the history of Memorial Day with some incredible interviews. We'll see you all tomorrow, thank you.