Special Guest: Major Gen. Mark Pillar

The five Springfield Rotary Clubs will join together for their annual joint gathering.  In addition to celebrating Rotary in Springfield we will have as our special guest Major General Mark A. Pillar USAF (Retired).  Mark is a Rotarian from Columbus Indiana.  His presentation will be about one of the most memorable and terrible days in our history.

On September 11, 2001 Pillar was a brigadier general taking part in a homeland security exercise at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska, when he was unexpectedly summoned to watch events unfold from the East Coast on a large-screen television.  President George W. Bush arrived at Offutt later that day from Florida, Pillar found himself helping to field questions in conference calls with such leaders as Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.  Mark will tell his story of the events of that day and provide us with an inside view of how our leaders handled the crisis our nation faced that day.