WEBVTT

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I was one of the flight members that

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was scrambled From Langley Air Force

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Base on September 11 . I was full

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time Chief of Safety at the time at the

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wing and we rotated , the pilots

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essentially rotated weekly out to

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sit a sit alert at Langley and it was

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just my turn in the bucket , so to

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speak , arrived that monday night

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actually and was

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there was a local training sortie

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scheduled with the first fighter wing

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at Langley with F fifteens and I

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was , since I had just gotten there the

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night before , I was trying to wrangle

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my way into that sortie with a couple

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other guys . So they were planning that

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sortie . Um , I was begging and

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pleading , tried to get on that sort of

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to no avail . But then shortly after

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that one of the crew chiefs came up and

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say you guys should turn the tv on , we

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turned the news on and that was shortly

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they were showing the replays of the

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first tower getting hit well kind of I

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thought it was funny I guess that , you

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know , all the theme was , it was a

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very crystal clear day that day ,

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probably east coast , a lot of haze ,

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but today was almost like a um

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north Dakota fall day where you can

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just see for hundreds of miles . Um ,

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so we didn't think , we all assumed it

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was just either someone that was lost ,

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not paying attention , but we didn't

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think at that time it was a terrorist

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activity . Shortly after that we got

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put on battle stations , which is

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essentially get ready to go get dressed ,

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getting airplanes , airplanes aren't

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started or running yet but it's

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potentially something is happening or

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it could happen shortly after that .

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Then when the second tower got hit we

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were scrambled to

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support uh new york city . At the time

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we got essential airborne and the

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we were just initially given a vector

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out to out over the water just as just

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to get us basically airborne and into

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the sky . Um And then en

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route to the particular fix which is

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a um is when the pentagon got hit

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at that time we didn't know the

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Pentagon got hit . But shortly after

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that we got direction from our ground

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controllers to vector to the west . And

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shortly after that we could see the

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smoke coming from the D . C . Area here

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again . At that time we didn't really

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know where the smoke was specifically

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coming from . But once we got a little

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bit closer and then you could you could

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pick out get landmarks . Kind of um

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your situational awareness . Oh

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and you could tell it was a pentagon

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that was on fire . We initially set up

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a combat air patrol cap by

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direction of the our ground controllers

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that were based actually out in new

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york . Yeah and at that time we were

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given instructions for one of the

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pilots to there was

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unidentified target low level . Um so

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we talked and then uh Colonel uh Eckman

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we just determined would go down and

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check out that aircraft while uh myself

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and the other flight member would uh

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maintain a cap over D . C . Um

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And for the rest of the day we

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basically uh capt um for

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about I was about 6 6.5 hours um

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intercepting different aircraft . Um

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and doing different missions

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essentially assigned by the North

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eastern Air defense sector which is our

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ground controllers . And um we

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throughout the whole day it was just it

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was almost surreal . You know

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the radio calls you would hear um

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you know the one with you know certain

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airspace is shut down . You know

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intruders will be shot down . Um

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The airplanes are directed to

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land at any suitable airfields

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not your destination but any suitable

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airfields . Um So it was

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just it was almost an eerie feeling

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as you were waiting for

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another mission to come . Um

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We you know started with uh three of us

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in the over the D . C . Area . And you

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know shortly after um the

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Andrews unit with their f sixteen's

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came up into the cap . We kind of

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coordinated with them determined they

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would actually take the low part of the

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cap airspace deconfliction . And then

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we would stay in the high part of the

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cap . And we had a tanker was

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out in uh doing a training sort out on

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uh the eastern part of the country . So

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they were diverted over to D . C . And

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we had some navy aircraft show up . So

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for most part that whole afternoon

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airplanes fighter type aircraft were

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coming basically to defend

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D . C . And new york city from future

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attacks because at that time no one

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really knew or had a handle on how many

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airplanes were going to be involved in

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the tax that day . Um

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So after about 6.5 hours we

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determined that we probably there was

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enough airplanes there that we would go

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back to Langley Refuel went

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back , flew back to Langley , I got

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some gas and then shortly after that we

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were scrambled um again

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for some incoming aircraft that it was

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actually a a navy cargo aircraft .

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That was uh that lost radio

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communications . Um So we were

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scrambled on that aircraft , determined

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by the time we got there that it was ,

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you know , a Navy navy aircraft and

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then flew over the Langley area for

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until we're out of gas which is about

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2.5 hours . And then

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Um we after the on September 12

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essentially we got into a flow with

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the other fighter units up and down the

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east coast that maintain essentially a

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24/7 hour 24/7 cap

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over the D . C . And the new york city

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area . Mhm . So that's

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essentially I guess my story . So