Senate page during 9-11 wields pen as weapon against terror
By David Kranz - dkranz@argusleader.com
Published: November 24, 2006
Joe Kippley wasn't looking for a life-changing experience when he went to Washington, D.C., in September 2001.
It was a mission of career reassurance for the Brookings High School student, a chance to learn about government and determine whether he wanted a career in public service.
At 16, Kippley already had framed his political philosophy as a George W. Bush conservative. Yet he would go to Washington to serve as a page for Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.
Kippley wasn't a conservative wearing liberal clothing, though. He wanted to look at government from all sides - a chance to compare philosophies. Nothing could be more contrasting than working for Daschle. After all, Daschle was now the most powerful senator in the nation, and he represented Kippley's home state.
A few days after his arrival in Washington, Kippley became an intimate part of one of the greatest nightmares in this country's history.
His time of learning would be seen through the horror of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, now engraved eternally as 9-11.
After some time absorbing the impact of that day, he needed to put it in writing, a close-up account of the trauma and emotions that remained with him.
His newly released book, "A Page in History," is a powerful commentary on the the way the terrorist attacks affected him.
The book offers a poignant look at members of the Senate and Kippley's fellow pages - how they reacted to that day - in unexpectedly rich emotional descriptions.
"Moments ago it had been an average morning, but now I found myself running for my life," he wrote about their fast exit that day from the Capitol.
Once outside, Kippley recalls the image. "I could see smoke coming from the Pentagon. That is when the situation began to move from surreal to real."
Then he saw a plane that was apparently trying to land at a Washington airport.
"It was too high and not headed in the right direction to be an immediate threat to the Capitol, but I had just seen planes turned into weapons on a television in the cloakroom, and I couldn't help but be slightly frightened by one in the sky directly above me."
He recalls the pages' hurried trip away from Washington to a safe place, speeches from senators about the attack, a resolve to stand against terrorism.
"I didn't know where exactly we planned on going or how long it would take to get there. The element of shock gave way to a new sense of fear of the unknown," he wrote.
He couldn't help to think, through all the turmoil, about the day before and a prophetic speech to pages by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., dean of the body of 100.
Byrd spoke to the pages about the infinite wisdom of a Supreme Being just a day before everyone's faith would be tested.
"God's plan is so much more than our minds can comprehend," Byrd said in the Senate lobby. He turned to Kippley and knocked on his head for a visual aid. Kippley looks back to that day to keep his life in perspective.
When he returned home to Brookings he finished high school, addressed his class at graduation ceremonies and concluded with a challenge to classmates, speaking the words of Todd Beamer, a passenger on United Flight 93, which crashed presumably after the passengers rose up against the hijackers.
"Let's roll," Kippley told his classmates.
Haunting memories of what he had been through went with him as he enrolled at the University of Notre Dame, where he will graduate in December with a degree in political science and economics.
Now it became more important for him to write the book and talk about his feelings, his mission. He would tell about the horrific event that gave him courage, strengthened his faith and brought a resolve to defeat terror.
"It changed my life, gave me a purpose," he said in an interview. "The events of that entire fall, not just 9-11, the whole timeline focused on all Americans and on a future career for me in public service."
In writing the book's introduction, Daschle calls the pages "unsung heroes," saying no other class had an experience like Kippley's and fellow pages'.
"Memory should not dull the courage that was required of these young men and women. The Capitol was to have been the target for United Flight 93, which ultimately crashed in Pennsylvania. No one knew what was coming next. And yet these teenagers, many of whom were living away from home for the very first time, found the courage to come to work every day," he said.
Each year since the attacks, Joe Kippley marks that day - often by reading the book Beamer's wife, Lisa, wrote.
"I read parts of it every year - where they take decisive action when they take the fight to the terrorists. It is very dear to my heart, very personal," Kippley said.
This year, he went to the field in Shanksville, Pa., where that flight came to an end.
Going to this site was important because of the possibility that Flight 93 was meant for Washington, D.C., meant for the U.S. Capitol, meant for him and all who govern there.
"I see my personal challenge to win that war on terror as my grandparents saw defeating Nazism and my parents saw the fall of the Berlin Wall," he said.
"Liberty calls to be defended again, and victory will be this generation's challenge."
David Kranz's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at dkranz@argusleader.com or 331-2302.
