 Even though he had been retired for seven years from the New York City Fire Department, he grabbed his old gear and bluffed his way past the blockades and barricades that had been set up and began helping with bucket brigades and missing person searches.On September 14, after Beckwith and some men had unearthed a fire engine buried in rubble from the fallen buildings, they tested its stability as a stand from which to speak, and a Secret Service agent ordered him to help President Bush onto the platform.Beckwith handed Bush a bullhorn with which to address the crowd of responders and workers and was told to climb down by the Secret Service and Karl Rove, but Bush insisted that Beckwith stay with him.