Bob's Story
He walked down 39 floors. He's been walking toward purpose ever since.
9/11 Survivor. U.S. Marine Veteran. Author. Keynote Speaker.
“September 11 was not where this story started. Nor was it where it ended.”
When Bob Jenkins first sat down to write his memoir, he believed he was recording the story of September 11, 2001. That was understandable. After all, he had spent the morning of that terrible day on the thirty-ninth floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, where an ordinary business meeting became a fight for survival.
But as he started writing, something became clear. September 11 was not where this story started. The real question wasn't what happened that morning. It was what kind of life gets a person ready for a morning like that — without ever knowing it's coming.
“Cpl. Jenks, remember this: it’s better in life to be respected and not liked, than to be liked and not respected!”
The Beginning
Steps No One Sees Coming
The staircase at the center of this story does not begin on the thirty-ninth floor of the North Tower. It begins years earlier — with a frightened left-handed boy struggling to fit into a Catholic school classroom.
It winds through a difficult childhood, boarding school, the demanding discipline of Marine Corps boot camp, the deserts of Twentynine Palms, a swimming pool in Okinawa Japan, friendships forged through hardship, lessons learned from remarkable leaders, mistakes honestly admitted, and countless moments that seemed ordinary when they occurred.
None of those experiences announced themselves as important. They were just things that happened. Only later — much later — did it become clear that they were adding up to something.
September 11, 2001
Inside the North Tower
Bob Jenkins was on the 39th floor of the North Tower when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the building. What followed was not the story of a hero. It was the story of an ordinary man who kept moving — one floor at a time — drawing on things he had learned long before he knew he would ever need them.
The Marine Corps had taught him not to panic. A difficult childhood had taught him to keep going when things got hard. Leadership lessons from men he respected surfaced in the stairwell in ways he never could have anticipated. None of it felt like preparation at the time. It just felt like life.
He does not ask for admiration. He does not ask for sympathy. He simply tells the truth as he remembers it. Sometimes that truth is frightening. Sometimes it is heartbreaking. Quite often, it is surprisingly funny.
The Deeper Truth
What He Figured Out Later
Bob will tell you he was not a hero on September 11. He was a guy who kept moving. What he couldn't explain for a long time was why — when everything around him was chaos — he was able to do that.
The answer, he eventually realized, was that he had been in hard situations before. Not situations like that — nothing like that. But situations where the only option was to keep going. The Marine Corps. A difficult childhood. Years of learning from people who didn't let him quit.
He didn't know any of it was preparation. At the time, it was simply his life.
The Book
Stairway to Heaven
This is not a history of September 11. It is a firsthand account written by a man who was on the 39th floor of the North Tower when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the building — and who spent the rest of that morning finding out what he was actually made of.
It is also the story of everything that came before that morning. The years that built him. The people who shaped him. The experiences that seemed unremarkable at the time and turned out to matter more than he knew.
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop and look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
September 11 was not where this story started. Nor was it where it ended.
Bob didn't know he was being prepared. He was simply living his life. Only years later did he begin to understand how those experiences had prepared him for September 11.
Perge, sed caute
Proceed with caution
Bring Bob's story to your audience.
Bob speaks at corporate events, military gatherings, leadership conferences, and memorial ceremonies.