For those who lived through it, Sept. 11, 2001, is a day that cannot be forgotten. All Americans have a different story of how they found out the country was under attack. One person, however, had to break the news to former President George W. Bush, and that difficult task fall on then-Chief of Staff Andrew Card Jr.

Card's whisper into Bush’s ear that morning 22 years ago became a picture that was captured for the ages.

“The images of that day still haunt me," Card said Monday in Whitesboro. "People screaming, people jumping out of buildings, planes crashing into buildings, smoke. It’s haunting to know that it was real. It was not made up.”

That morning, Card was with Bush at an elementary school in Florida. The president was there to read a book to second-graders. When they arrived, they were initially told a small plane had hit one of the twin towers at the World Trade Center site in Manhattan.

“I then learned that it was not just a small twin-engine plane. It was a commercial jetliner," Card said. "And then I learned that there was another plane that had also crashed into the World Trade Center. So two planes crashing into the World Trade Center couldn’t be a coincidence, couldn’t be an accident. It had to be a deliberate attack.”

That led to an iconic photo of Card relaying the horrific news to Bush.

“I knew that I was delivering a historic message," Card said. "It was an awkward venue to have to deliver the message. The president was in a classroom with second graders and sitting in front of a press pool. So, the message that I was delivering was very rare, not one that many presidents have had to receive.”

He believes that image perfectly represents what that day was like to him.

“And to have a picture of that is really defining for the nature of that day," he said. "It was a perfect day. You’re celebrating young people getting educated. And all of a sudden, you’re delivering a message that just is disconnected from the reality of the day.”

Now, Card tells the story to people who didn’t experience 9/11. He hopes we remember the people who lost their lives and sacrificed their own lives not just on 9/11, but every day.

“I feel an obligation to talk to the generations of people who were not in a position to remember what happened that day," he said. "Reintroduce them to it and call attention to the flaws in humanity that allowed this to happen.”