Situation Room Director on Tragedies

Situation Room Director on Tragedies

'Pray, never forget Sept. 11 and live your life,' she urges

by Nancy Stout
The Catholic Telegraph
December 7, 2001
http://www.catholiccincinnati.org/tct/Archive/dec0701.htm

SPRINGFIELD DEANERY - United States Navy Captain Deborah Loewer, at home in Springfield for the Thanksgiving holiday, recently spoke to a gathering of 50 people at St. Joseph/St. Raphael Church in Springfield about the Sept. 11 attacks on America.

Loewer, a Springfield native who was raised in St. Joseph Parish, is currently the director of the White House Situation Room. She was the one who informed President George W. Bush of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The daughter of Hubert and Marilyn Loewer, longtime St. Joseph parishioners, Captain Loewer traveled to Florida with President Bush on Sept. 11 to visit a school. She received the message from her deputy in the White House Situation Room about the plane crashing into the first tower, and she described running from her car in the motorcade to the president's car to pass along the information.

Once they reached the school, they watched events unfold on television, along with others in America. A short time later, she recognized the attacks for what they were and reported, "Mr. President, I think it's terrorism."

Loewer was on Air Force One with the president when they departed Florida and flew to the first of two secure locations. It wasn't until they returned to Washington, D.C., that evening and Loewer left the helicopter on the south lawn of the White House that her parents spotted her on TV and knew she was all right.

In a telephone interview the day before her talk, Loewer said that in those initial moments of the flight, obviously many calls needed to go out. So, she asked the president, "Who do you want to talk to first?" President Bush replied, " 'I want to talk to my wife.' "

After reaching the First Lady and reassuring each other that they were okay, the president folded his hands and was ready to begin the work at hand. Loewer said the president's faith in God and family is "phenomenal," and it should be "reassuring to the American people to know this."

The director said she is "proud to see what diplomacy has done for us internationally," adding that intelligence sharing has been critical in the days and weeks following the attacks.

Two hundred countries around the world are sharing information, she said, and 50 countries have arrested terrorists associated with the attacks. Financial assets of more than 180 organizations around the world have been frozen. All of this has been possible because of the government's efforts at establishing a global coalition against terrorism.

Loewer told the gathering what she believes is most important in responding to the attacks:
First, "the power that we have is prayer," she said, emphatically. "There is nothing more powerful. I pray every morning and every evening. It keeps me going."

Second, she said, "Never forget Sept. 11. This was the World Trade Center that was attacked. Eighty-two countries were represented by those who died."

Third, "Do not let fear stand in our way. Keep living life," she said.

Loewer also suggested Americans get to know their neighbors and find out what they can do to help them. Greet people on the street and in stores, she said. It is vital that Americans "open up these communication routes that we haven't taken time for in our busy lives," an activity she believes she is seeing more of since Sept. 11.

Loewer is a parishioner at Blessed Sacrament Church in Alexandria, Va., "Whenever I return to D.C., that's my first stop," she said, "Blessed Sacrament Church. It's a huge, busy church with lots of kids and activities, like where I grew up at St. Joe's."

Loewer considers it a "blessing" to be where she is and to be doing the work she does. She believes that St. Francis, her patron saint, has "helped her to do the right thing at the right time. He has guided me to unique places in my life," she said.

This belief has been particularly strong since she took a pilgrimage to Assisi about 15 years ago and visited and prayed at the monastery.

Loewer has served in her current position since May 2, 2001. She interviewed for the position and was selected by National Security Adviser Condaleeza Rice. She has served in the Navy for 26 years. Thirteen of those years she spent on six ships, two of which she commanded. She is the first female officer to do so.

She spent the next 13 years in a variety of major staff positions, including long range strategic planner for the Navy. She served two secretaries of defense, where she functioned as a "sort of office manager" coordinating a staff of some 130 people, making security arrangements, handling letters, protocol, coordinating events, particularly travel, for the secretaries.

Her political, intelligence and military background has enabled her to "break down the roadblocks" between different agencies, she said.

"It is not always easy for the public to understand how these various levels interface with each other," Loewer said. She considers the work she does "a dream job" after working her way up the ladder to reach this senior level of government.

Loewer serves "at the pleasure of the president," usually a two-year term with the chance of an additional third year. With a smile in her voice, she added, "I've already been given fair warning that I may be staying longer than the two years.

Loewer said that the most important thing for people to recognize is that this is a "global and long-term war" and that the president's total focus is to "round up the terrorists of the world.
"I have never seen an individual more committed to the eradication of global terrorism," she said of President Bush. "We need the American people to maintain the same resolve."

Loewer said the government has identified 62 organizations linked as international terrorist groups. There is a strong sponsorship throughout the world and they are dedicated to "destroying the American culture," she said. "They dislike our way of life."

Loewer is aware that this is hard for most of us to understand. "We take our freedoms for granted," she said. "We can no longer do this. These groups have been around for a long time, and other groups are out there. Their goal is to bring down democracy and ruin our economy."

It is a mistake to think that after the situation in Afghanistan is under control "and once the Taliban is gone, life is good. This is just not so," she said.

At the close of her talk, she gathered her niece and nephew into her arms. With tears in her eyes, she said, "This is what it's all about. The work we do is for them and for their future. We will not fail in our efforts. These and the other little ones in our lives are the reason we will not fail."

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