Lecture. Since 1982, this lecture series has spotlighted more than 140 of the biggest names in modern aviation history. Like all of our public programs, this lecture is presented free of charge. This is possible thanks to the generous support from g. E. Aviation. Private contributions like theirs are critical to our programs and exhibitions. And it is my privilege to acknowledge them for their longstanding and valued support. Representing g. E. Aviation with us tonight is lisa balkly, Digital Solutions leader of military Systems Operations at g. E. Aviation. Lisa, to you and your colleagues at g. E. , we thank you for your substantial and enduring support. [ applause ] since we opened the museum here on the mall in 1976, and the Housing Center in chantilly in 2003, more than 350 Million People have walked through our doors to be informed and inspired by the history of flight and space travel. Drawing from the museums priceless collection of iconic artifacts and intellectual trust, our curators, educators, docents, volunteers and others endeavor to tell stories about aerospace and how it has defined and shaped the american experience. This evening, we are joined by a Father Daughter Team who by virtue of their professional roles on september 11th, 2001, offer us a unique glimpse into the horrors and tragedy of that fateful day. Not every aviation story is an uplifting or happy one. Indeed, for those of us professionally committed to the furtherance of aerospace, the horrific use of commercial jet airliners as weapons of terror was particularly disturbing. And yet, we endured as a community. And in the years since 9 11, the Aviation Industry has become more safe, more accessible, more affordable, more proficient, and even more influential than ever before. 9 11 for all its pain and tragedy is indeed a story to be told and remembered. To help do that, i would like to introducewidely recognized for service on september 11th, Heather Penney was part of the first wave of women who went directly into fighters from pilot training. She grew up around aviation and warbirds and applied to the Air National Guard to fly f16s as soon as she Learned Congress had opened combat aviation to women. The first and only woman in the 121st fighter squadron, heather deployed to Operation Iraqi freedom for initial combat operations in nighttime scud hunting in the western deserts of iraq. And also supported special operations teams. Heather flew the f16 for ten years before joining Lockheed Martin as a director of air force Aviation Training systems, specializing in Government Relations and strategic business development. Heathers passion for aviation has never faded. She has raced jets at reno air races, she has over 3,000 hours of commercial instructor, multiengine, and air transport pilot ratings, and volunteers with the callings foundation, copiloting their b17 when her busy schedule permits. She enjoys flying her own steerman. A 1950 cessna 170 along with her family and rescue dog fittingly named gilmore after roscoe turners lion. Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you this evening Heather Penney. [ applause ] so thank you all for coming out here tonight, and again, lisa, really thank you so much and to the generosity of g. E. To support this lecture series. What the museum, what the air and space museum does and what the g. E. Aviation lecture series allows the museum to do is to tell these stories, like mine, so that people like yourselves can experience aviation, can experience history in a far more personal and hopefully impactful manner than when you just simply see the signs next to the airplanes. So again, thank you, lisa, for everything you and g. E. Are doing to support this lecture series, to make it possible so that, for example, people like me can come listen to my heroes when they come and stand up on this podium. Im certainly not calling myself a hero at all, because 9 11 was nothing that any of us planned. And as you all know because you all have your stories, and your experiences of 9 11, every single one of us, every single american was somehow touched by that day. We all have our connections. We all somehow lost people, loved ones. So i appreciate the fact that you all are here today to listen to my 9 11 story. Because really, all i did that day was show up for work. Right . We had just gotten back from two weeks at red flag, which was at that point in my time as a young baby Fighter Pilot, the pinnacle of what i could, you know, ever hope for and experience. I had killed two migs. I had dropped bombs, i had been there for my timeline target. We had just gotten back from that the prior weekend. We had landed on saturday, so most people had taken that monday and tuesday and wednesday off to reconnect with their families. I was single at the time, and so i went home on sunday, did my laundry, and was ready to go to work. So that tuesday, were going through just the normal administration of running a fighter squadron. What jets do we have, what are we going to be flying . We were traditional mostly at the time, were a guard unit, so a guard is comprised of a few fulltime staff. They make sure that the unit runs and all the administration is taking care of so when the parttimers show up, they can jump in the jets and go and train. I was one of those few fulltime staff. Who needs check rides, whos doing upgrades . We had just gotten back from red flag so the jets were fitted out with external fuel tanks and we had our training missiles onboard, and we were moving into a training phase in dog fighting, basic fighter maneuvering. Bfm, just a lot of basic fun, if you ask me. But the maintainers, it was going to take a while to pull the external fuel tanks it was going to take them a while to reconfigure the jets to go do to clean them up so we had slick vipers. We could just go g our noses off. So we had three guys that we could send down to the air force ranges. Down in North Carolina. We call it bully flights. Lou shooter campbell was bully one. Eric was bully two, and then we had Billy Hutchinson was bully three. They brief, they take off. Theyre headed down to North Carolina to go bomb for quarters and strength, because nothing like a little low angle straights. Everybody loves shooting the guns. By the way, i have never seen a Fighter Pilot every pull the gun and not go brrr, we all make the noise. Theyre down, theyre bombing. Were sitting in an administrative meeting, and we get this knock at the door. And david callahan, chunks is what we called him, and dave says, an airplane just flew into the world trade center. And we looked outside, because our Conference Room was right on the flight line. It was a huge plate glass window. And were thinking, how does that happen . Because as you know, i mean, new york actually isnt that far away. Contrary to what traffic would have you believe, its actually really kind of a stones throw as far as the bird flies. And we share a very similar weather pattern. We look outside, and its a perfect, crystal, autumn day that we get here. What . So were thinking, you know, did someone pooch their, you know, their approach into laguardia . It must have been one of those little sightseeing airplanes going down the hudson that just kind of made a wrong turn, maybe it was scud running. We made a couple jokes about little airplanes bouncing off buildings, and then, because they certainly dont do any damage. They sort of fall to the ground. The airplanes, that is. And continued on. It wasnt i mean, it wasnt really anything that triggered us. Until a few minutes later, chunks knocks at the door again and says, another airplane flew into the other world trade center. It was on purpose. We got up from our chairs and walked to the bar where we had the television. And we saw what everyone else in america saw that day. We saw the footage of these airliners crashing into the trade centers. And we were absolutely stunned. So people have asked, how could this have been possible . Right . Didnt we have aircraft on alert . Well, once upon a time, we had that alert, but that was before we had our f16s. We gave up alert when we shifted from the scuds to the f4s, so had it been a long time since we had alert, because if you were call recall in 1991 when the soviet union fell, we didnt need it anymore, right . The soviet bear threat was gone, so we really pared down our entire military to the piece dividends, and on september 10th and september 11th, there were really only four units alert looking out over the oceans and over the polar region to insure no stray bombers came over the north pole to nuke us. I mean, that was that was the paradigm that we were living in. So no one ever imagined that the threat would come from inside. We had never we just had never conceived that something so ingenious in the most horrible way could be done. So nearly immediately, mark sassville, who was our d. O. At the time, he goes to the operations desk, raising cane, dan cane, who was our weapons officers turns to me and says i need you to build up itcs, give us maps, takeoff and landing data. I dont know what it needs to look like, but just make it happen. So Brandon Rasmussen and i go to Flight Mission planning room and we start Mission Planning for something. We dont know what. Again, i mean, this is this is not the defensive counterair mission that i had trained for that i knew how to do. I mean, there was a certain point where you had a combat air patrol and i have a point im defending. But defending against who . We dont have a racks, we just have our own little bitty radars. And we dont know who is hostile, who is friendly. And were not i mean, nothing is clear. Everything is as confused as you could have imagined it. We do our best. We print out our lineup cards with our takeoff and landing data. We get two sets, because some of the jets are clean and some of the jets are still heavy and dirty and the air to ground configuration. We print out maps of the entire local area. We put steer points on top of where we know government buildings are, where memorials are. We load up our Data Transfer cartridges, our dtcs. Theyre like these big bricks that are really kind of like thumb drives for your jets, where you can take all of your data and then put it into the jet and download it so you can accelerate and program all of your avionics. We get that done. And we go to hawk, the ops desk. Now, i need to go through a little bit of bureaucracy because the National Guard in d. C. Is not like the National Guard in any other state. In other states, you know, the National Guard has two chains of command. You have your federal chain of command, which only occurs when you get activated to deploy. And in that case, youre chopped to the active Duty Air Force and youre for all intents and purposes active Duty Air Force and thats your federal chain of command. The civilian chain of command goes up to the states governor, and were seeing that now, where we have texas and florida and montana and washington and oregon activating elements of their National Guard to serve their domestic requirement to protect their people and their state. And so theres a very clear chain of command that goes up to the governor. Well, d. C. Doesnt have a governor. And our chain of command did not go to the mayor. Our chain of command on the civilian side went to the president of the United States. If you can imagine, he was pretty busy at that point in time. And honestly, i dont think he even realized that that was that we were a resource that he had. Because his story was traditionally delegated down through the secretary, to the secretary of the army. And that is certainly not what the secretary of the army was thinking about, how do i get defensive counter air up over d. C. . That was not what was on his mind. So were trying to get activated were trying to get the chain of command energized. Were trying to find someone who has the Legal Authority to tell us to launch. How do we get airborne . Because we cant just take off on our own. Theres a very real and important reason why civilians have the command of our military. So as much as we know we need to be airborne, we cant, so were grounded. Our general officer, commander david worley, had come down from the building, and hes sitting by the ops desk and making phone calls. Hes trying to find someone to energize through his hes our top guy. Hes making as many phone calls as he can. Raisin cane, dan cane, our weapons officer, takes a risk and calls down to the bomb zones. Thats where we keep all of our explosives, where we keep all of our training missiles, where we keep all of our bullets, its where we keep all of our bombs. We do have some live bombs. We do have some live missiles. But we dont fly with them every day. You certainly wouldnt want live bombs and live missiles flying over your house on a daily basis if we have no intention of dropping them or using them. And that wouldnt make any sense to us either because it would just simply wear out those systems, and oh, by the way, we dont keep the explosives and the fuses and the bodies, whether its a missile body or bomb body, all built up and ready to go. We have it all separated. You have to build it. It takes time. For example, when we go to war, its a threeday cycle from the planning process to come down to the wing for the bomb dump to know how many bombs they need to build, to put it together, to bring it on the flight line, to configure the aircraft. It doesnt happen instantaneously. So he calls down to the bomb dump and tells him to build us up some m9s, heatseeking side winders. Can you imagine if youre one of the enlisted airmen down in the bomb dump, youre not watching television. Youre probably in the middle of a card game. And you get a phone call from the weapons officer, and hes telling you, build me up some missiles. No, live ones. Just trust me. Can you imagine what would be going through your mind . You have no air tasking order. You have no legal paperwork, no paper trail to prove that this is a legal order for you to execute. So it really is a testament to the vision, the leadership, and the courage that raisin must have had to make that phone call, because we desperately needed those missiles. Even though in my case, it wouldnt be in time. Being in d. C. , again, something unique to operating out of andrews is we always had to deal with the hassle of air force one. Any time a distinguished visitor moves on Andrews Air Force base, and especially when its the president , the entire base shuts down. I mean, you cant drive around the perimeter. You cant take off. You cant land. And for very good reason, to secure the important leaders of our nation. But when youre a little tiny fighter that doesnt carry a lot of gas but burns a lot of it quickly, its a big problem. So we had been working with the secret service to try to develop better coordination so that we could facilitate our training as well as meet their security requirements, and as part of developing that relationship, we had brought some of the secret service over to our unit and thrown them in the back seat of the f16s to prove to them we are actually good guys. So we knew who they were, and they knew who we were. As a result, it was when the pentagon was hit that Vice President cheney said, god, do we have some fighters at andr andrews . Somebody get those guys airborne. And they knew who to call. I mean, as i mentioned, when we have the peace in the 1990s and we drew down all of our forces and we drew down our alert forces and we were no longer sitting alert either, even if even if the First Air Force of norad, if that authority had known we were at andrews, i dont even know they would not have had the Legal Authority to be able to activate us. Its a really unfortunate lesson that bureaucracy actually matters and organization actually matters, and it has realworld consequences. So fortunately, we finally had the authorization from Vice President cheney. Get somebody airborne. He looks at me, says all right, lucky, youre with me. Raisin, you take igor. You guys wait. I want to make sure you guys have missiles. Lucky, lets go. We run down the hallway to the life support, putting on g suits and putting on my vest, throwing on my harness, making sure i have my helmet, i have my dtc, my lineup cards, my vest, and he looks at me and says, ill take the cockpit. I knew that i would take the tail. I remembered my dad had been involved in a Safety Investigation analyzing a crash of a 737 out of colorado springs, and they had lost the vertical and the horizontal tails, and the airplane just went straight in. There was just nothing left. There was no way they could have pulled out, no way they could have controlled it, and the other thing is they wouldnt have glided in. There would be no pattern of debris. It would just be straight down. So i knew that i would take the tail. We were running out as fast as we can go, as fast as i could go. Hes outrunning me, and hes a major. Hes an old guy. You know, with all my flight gear, it nearly doubled my body weight. He runs to the first jet on the line. And i run to the next one. Again, were called, you know, im just a brandnew lieutenant. I recently had become combat mission ready. I just went to my first red flag. And as every pilot knows, its when you begin to deviate from your habit pattern that mistakes are made. So i run up to my jet. And i put my gear down and i shake my crew chiefs hand and grab the forms and im going to look through the 781 and walk around as fast as i possibly can, and staff is already in the cockpit and says, lucky, what the hell are you doing . Get in the jet. It wasnt because i was being negligent. It was because i knew that if anything in my life mattered, that was it. And i could not screw it up. You recall that we had sent down to the air force. While we were working to try to get the authorization to launch, while i was making dtcs and lineup cards, while raisin was calling down to get missiles built up, our supervisor of flying, phil thompson, dog thompson, dog thompson had gone to Fighter Weapons school in the f4. He had this big fluffy vietnam mustache, and he was just a crusty old Fighter Pilot, and i loved him. I respected him. He had such good tactical sense. Calls down to the air force and tells the rangers, send the bullies home. Tell them to buster. Buster means come home as fast as you can without using your afterburner. So those guys are coming back as fast as they possibly can. Now, i didnt realize, none of us actually knew just yet when dog calls down there that bully two had run itself out of gas. Not really, he had reached bingo, which meant that he no longer had fuel to play on the ranges. But rather puck had to come home because he had just enough fuel to come home with the necessary reserve. So shooter clears puck off, says all right, you know, eric, you go home. And well continue, and well finish up the mission, well finish the debrief later. So puck, bully two, hes on his way home. And dog gets a radio call from puck. Guard to bully two. Bully two. Puck, washington doesnt want to let me in the air space. All right, bully two, you just keep heading back home. Ill take care of this. Dog put the phone down, calls up center. So he can get bully two back home. And a couple other minutes, puck calls back and says, guard bully two. Theyre asking me if i have any missiles or bullets or bombs onboard. Dont you worry about that, bully two. You just come on home. He had been asking eric if he had those weapons onboard because they needed to know in case they could somehow find a way to use them. Now, the bullies were still living in that pre9 11 world, right . We all know there was a pre9 11 world and a post9 11 world. And what mattered, what defines that doorway was if you had seen the images. On that day, some of us were still living in a pre9 11 world because who could have imagined Something Like that happening . And those of us who had seen it, we were not liw living in that post9 11 world. So puck has no idea whats going on. But he comes back home, and he lands. And of course, dogs called down to the ranger. We have bully one and bully three coming back home, so shooter and bully are coming back home. It wasnt until several weeks later that i had the opportunity to listen to pucks tape. And it still gives me the chills to this day. As pucks coming in, hes getting ready to land. Hes pulling up the air drum terminal information system. Its a loop, an audio loop that is transmitted every hour to give pilots the information they need to know in order to be able to land. It gives you the weather, the barometric pressure, what the cloud ceiling is, what the landing runway is, if theres any other information you need to know to prepare, and it lightens the workload of the controllers. This is what pucks atdis said. This is Andrews Information bravo. Andrews air force base is closed. Washington class bravo air space is closed. Any aircraft attempting to enter bravo air space will be shot down. So im in my jet. And i now realize that i gotta throw the book out. I dont even bother strapping in. I mean, normally, its about a 20minute process to strap in, to wake your jet up, to make sure that you have downloaded and checked all of your systems, gone through your builtin tests, configured all of your navigation, your steer points, get your avionics set up right. After viewing a close nearby dog fighting mission, ten minutes most. And at that point, we didnt have gps on gps on the aircraft. We actually just upgraded to the really sophisticated ring laser gyro ins system, it only took 8 minutes, not 16 minutes to erect. So we were pretty high speed. But we didnt have 20 minutes. And we didnt have ten. And we didnt have eight. We needed to go. I dont bother stopping in. The mantra, the rhythm, the dance of the challenge and response that you do with your crew chief, its out the window. Im relying on any knowledge just simply to know the things that i need to do. Jface master start on and over the hump to idle and im watching my rpm and less than 50 and im good and im yelling at my crew chief, pull the chalks. Pull the chalks. I dont have a radar. There is no data link in the aircraft. All i have right now is my engine and im waking up the rest of the airplane as i can and im getting to jump the chalks and they pull the chalks and im taxiing after sass and my crew chief is still plugged in and hes running underneath me and other crew chiefs are running under me pulling the pins out of my fuel tanks and out of my gear and out of my chafe and flare. As were taxiing, on my tapes, i call twos up and you could hear Billy Hutchison taking off. Shooter and billy, bully one and bully two, had landed and dog said wed finally gotten the authorization, dog checks how much fuel they have and shooter doesnt have enough and billy has like 1200 pounds. And dog said, okay, they think there is another one coming down the river. You have one more fuel for one pass up and down the river. So billy takes off. Hes the first one airborne. And he takes off, he stays low, he goes northwest over the pentagon, up to great falls, turns around and down the potomac, down to where the potomac turns and hooks 90 left into the bay and then he comes back home and he lands. And sass and i take off seconds after him. And we take off and we head northeast into a serene and peaceful and silent sky. There is no one airborne. We head out to northwest and we never find anything. Sass and i were not heroes that day. The passengers on flight 93 were the heroes. So you could see why i believe that what i was willing to do that day was nothing special. Because anyone would have been willing to do what i was willing to do and what they actually did. They were average, everyday americans. Who realized that there were things in this world that are more important than themselves. And although they might not have raised their hand and taken an oath to give their life in our nations defense, they did. So they were the true heroes. But d. C. Guard commanded the combat air patrol for two weeks after 9 11. Which is unprecedented. Clearly an event like this is unprecedented. But for the National Guard to own the authorization of that combat air patrol was truly unique and different. And we did it because there was a lot of untangling to do after that day. As you could imagine, trying to go through what went wrong, and then figure out the appropriate lines of authority and lines of command, and even something as mundane as how do you schedule and how do we force provide to ensure that we can protect our nations capitol. Those were all of the problems that we were dealing with over the next few weeks. Not me. I was just a line flier. Im getting in my jet and pulling a midnight to 4 00 a. M. Night combat air patrol. Our Ops Group Commander jeff johnson, tuna, was in the pentagon doing a lot of that work. And hes wearing his flight suit and hes got his patches on. And if you understand how that works, you know, not only with the flight suit do you know your air crew but you could decode what the patches mean, right. So tuna gets stopped in the pentagon but some guy that says, are you from the d. C. Guard . And tuna says yeah. Let me tell you a story. This is a story that he told tuna and the story that tuna told us. When the pentagon was hit, they of course evacuated everyone. People went flowing into southparking, most likely got in their cars and for the people who had to evacuate through to north parking were trapped. Theyre coming out of the river entrance, theyre coming out to north parking,i going over the bridge that goes over 110 and getting stuck in the parking lot that is in between route 110 and the potomac river. And they cant go anywhere. Because our evacuation procedures were built for primarily fires. Not Something Like this. And the wind was light. It was perfect flying day. It was light and out of the southwest. So its blowing the smoke and the ashes and the air up over the center and actually right over north parking. And there is a Child Development center, still there but it is closed now, the women are evacuating the babies out of the Child Development center. It is like d. O. D. Day care. And again their procedures are for fire drills so their pushing out cribs with four toddlers, foush babies to a crib and six toddlers to a buggy, right. But they cant stay next to the building. They have to get up the stairs and go over the bridge to get to north parking but they dont have enough people to do that. Because it wasnt something they were manned for. It shouldnt have been. I mean, it was so these women are giving babies away. As people are coming out of the pentagon, theyre literally handing babies to strangers, i cant take them all away. Could you please get them to safety. Get them over the bridge. Theyre giving babies away. But once they get to north parking, theyre trapped. And the ashes are falling on them and the air is acrid and smokey. And it was the pentagon burned for weeks, for months afterwards. And they know something is coming. And if you remember, this is before everyone had a cell phone in their pocket, right. If you were somebody, you might have a pager. They know there is Something Else coming. But they dont know what. They dont know when. And now theyre no longer at their desk so they ket get the information refresh, so theyre simply waiting and theyre trapped. And then Billy Hutchison goes zooming right over those guys in full after burner. And out of silence they erupt into cheers. Because they know that we are now airborne. That American Air Force fighter jets are airborne and we arent going to let anyone hurt them. Theyre going to be okay. I think back now with years between me and that day, and, again, i was there just simply because i showed up for work. And anyone would have been willing to do what i was willing to do. And i know that, because again not only because of passengers on flight 93 proved it, but when you look at what everyone up in new york did. The heroism of the First Responders running towards the towers and not away. The vifds in the towers who helped each other get out and saved each others lives. And think of this, the people who cleaned up the towers. Going to work every day knowing that they would die from what they were doing. And they did it every day and anyways. So when i look back on that day, with the years to be able to reflect on what it might mean, strange to say this but i actually have hope. Because we showed who we are as americans. That we are not a fearful people. That we are not a weak people. That we do not shy from hardship. And that we know that there are things in this world that are more important than ourselves. That are more important than our own personal safety. And that risk is worth taking. Its worth taking for this thing that is us collectively, all of us together, america. Our constitution, baseball, mom, apple pie, freedom, our way of life. These are things that matter. The things that bring us together. So when i think back, as hard as day has been for our nation, it gives me hope. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you, heather. We do all have stories as to where we were and how that day impacted us. And as i segue into the next part of the program and make our next introduction, allow me a moment to sort of share context that might help with the introduction. On 9 11, i was the airport manager at reagan national. So i saw it from the ground like most of us. And i dont want to take your time now because actually if i do my job well im going to save enough time for questions from you all later. But i think, as you know, we were closed at national, not for three days, but we remained closed following after all of the other airports reopened. And it was rather disconcerning. And we didnt know whether to moth ball the airport, to put it on life support, to close it. You may recall from my opening remarks, we opens the hazi in 2003 and people suggested in 2001, turn the terminal at reagan into an an ex for the hassy. Most people didnt think that it would reopen. Vice president cheney and the secret service were dead set against it. And it was interesting because they would say we cant have aircraft close to the airport. And yet when the system reopened in the course of a day, 18,000 aircraft were within 30 minutes time of flight of reagan national. So there were some things put in place afterwards that in retrospect, you wonder did it make much sense. But many of us worked very hard to go ahead and to take the actions necessary to reopen reagan. And from my perspective, from a background in navy flying and carrier flying, it was startling to me that there was this idea that somehow the Nations Capital couldnt be sufficiently protected in a way that allow aviation to proceed. Because on aircraft carriers we sailed in harms way all of the time. But we have very distinct procedures to follow to get back on the shop when were 100 miles off the lebanon when the barracks blew up. I can ashoe you, if with you didnt follow very prescribed flight procedures, squawk and so forth, we were going to get shot down. And so i met, i had the occasion to met with secretary norm mannetta, a great, Great American who was arguably the one who shut down the air space on that day. And as a side note, what air traffic did that day is heroic. And a story in itself. And he took it down. And i remember going to his office with my colleagues at the time. And showing them a picture of an aircraft carrier. And i said think of national as an aircraft carrier. But what we need to do is devise procedures, profiles, squawk, check in, 2a communications, all of the various things that you do on a ship and you do that and you could get airplanes in and out of here. And oh, by the way, you may not know but there were ihop missile batteries in anacostia. You could see them from the airport. So if somebody didnt follow the procedures, there was a rule of engagement to take to shoot them down. I dont know if that suggestion carried the day. But what i do know is that you can fly into a high threat area and do so successfully if you have the proper procedures. Idea you had to stay seated for 30 minutes before flight, that went away for obvious reasons. But at the end of the day, three and a half weeks later, the decision, the president made the decision to reopen. And i recall going back over to secretary manetas office and i think it was a tuesday and he said, and i went into his foyer and who was in there smoking a cigarette, rob callahard and im looking at herb and im thinking i dont think you can do that here. But secretary manetas had summoned the ceos and those who couldnt make it were on the telephone, the president wants to reopen national, can you do it in 48 hours. Now im sitting there thinking, every cab driver, restaurant operator, rental car worker, theyve gone. And so im thinking, this is sort of like starting the jet, it normally takes time to sort of get back in the game. And with a hop, skip and a beat and everybody said yes, sir, well be up and ready. And im looking around and saying you dont know where youre people are. But we did reopen. And it was very limited. Ten flights aday. And we eventually joined the rest of the Aviation System in reopen. And sometimes it is the day after, what happened after 9 11, that is as informative and impressive in my mind as many of the other actions that people took on that day itself. But among the commercial Airline Pilots who boldly return to their cockpits and helped restore our nations most critical transportation infrastructure is heathers father john. Born and raised in california. Join was appointed to the air force academy where he was commissioned to second lund in 1970. During his Academy Years he built model airplanes and flew sail planes and easterned a degree in aeronautical engineering. And he went on to fly 140 combat missions in the a7 in vietnam. After the war, he served as an a7 instructor and had tours of ford air controller and left the air force in 1979 and after his first brief stint with the airlines, with united, he landed a job with lear fan corporation at Reno Stead Airport where he worked for the next five and a half years as an engineer and test pilot. During his tenure in reno he joined the air bear air racing team and flew until the First NationalChampionship Air race in september of 1985. While living in reno, he kept his hand in military aviation by joining the nevada Air National Guard flying the fanom. He started his own business, flight testing and instructing numerous time of u. S. And foreign aircraft, including the mig 15, the mig 17, mig 21 and others. His perspective is as an aco accomplished aviator on 9 11 and the father of a daughter tasked with defending our skies that day is truly unique. Well hear from both of them now and i invite heather and john back to the podium. [ applause ] thank you, chris. It is an honor to be here this evening. To talk to all of you folks and share with you some perspectives as a father of a Fighter Pilot, as an airline pilot, now retired from United Airlines and id like to thank lisa and the Ge Corporation and todd and bill who were here sponsoring this event and that is an honor to be here and speak to you folks. I would like to share with you a few things, events that happened on that day of 9 11 and some perspectives that were gained from those events that day and things that happened that affected us as a family, as all Airline Pilots, united and all americans. The morning of 9 11. Actually i was, my wife and i were starting the first of 30 days of a vacation that i had stored up for a couple of years. The activities that morning were pretty much normal morning activities. Getting breakfast and making coffee. Until my younger brother eric called up on the phone and said is your tv on . I said no. He said turn on the tv. So we turn on the tv and it is everywhere. At that time, both of the towers had been hit and it was obvious that the United States was under attack at that point. My wife stephanie was very distraught at that time and i did everything i could to reassure her. I said heather is okay. Shes airborne. Of course, little did i know what was going on, but it seemed to calm some of her fears. Pardon me. So we got on the phone and tried to call heather immediately and, of course, as some im sure all of you know, the telephone lines are just jammed. There is no way to get through. So my wife stephanie getting on the computer and emails to heather, what is going on . After heathers First Mission, when she got on the ground, she emailed back and said im okay. Said ive been flying. Ive busy and that was about it and ill call you tonight. Or ill call later. Sometime soon thereafter, heathers twin sister jill called us up and said, i need to talk to my sister. I need to talk to her now. The phone lines are jammed. So she couldnt get through and we couldnt get through. Heather did call that evening. And she said im at home. Ive flown twice. Im really tired, im going to bed and ill talk to you again sometime. We didnt know the full story of what happened with the First Mission that she described when they were sent out and they were trying to search out the location of the united flight 93. That day and for several days thereafter at our house in colorado, the only noise we heard in the skies were the f16s at Buckley Air Force base in denver. And, boy, some of them came over low and some of them were in after burner. And folks, that is jet noise and that is the sound of freedom. We found out also that day that jason dahl, captain jason dahl was a captain of flight 93. A friend of ours, his wife called and told us about what has happened with jasons airline. And you know that airplane crashed in pennsylvania. Now, there is a threeway link between heather, jason dahl, and myself. As i said, jason was the captain of the united flight 93. And united flight 93 was the aircraft that heather and Lieutenant Colonel sassfield were searching for after they launched out of Andrews Air Force base. Unbeknownst to them and atc, flight 93 had already crashed as they were getting airborne. So that is why they never found it. The airplane crashed there in shanksville. Now, captain jason dahl and i shared an office cubical at United AirlinesFlight Training center. We were both standards flight captains. And jason and i had a couple of desks and he a picture of his son matt who i believe at that time who was still in high school. And it was his lovely wife sandy. And whenever jason and i had a chance to chat, he would talk and just brag about his son, how smart he was and everything he was doing and all of the things they did together and the fun they had. And his love for his wife sandy. After the events of 9 11, there was a Memorial Service in denver at the church that jason and sandy and matt went to. And there were about 400 united pilots, i think even more than that, we were all in our uniforms, and this was not a megachurch they went to, but i guess you call it an auditorium or a theater. It was as big as what youre sitting in right now and it was standing room only. And again all of us were in our uniforms. The eulogy that day was delivered by matt, jasons son. He was poised. He was very articulate. It was a beautiful eulogy. There was not a dry eye in the house. To this day i dont know how he stood there and did that. Pardon me. After the service happened, another friend said, hey, john, lets put our uniforms on tomorrow and go out to Denver International airport and go into the terminal and just talk to the passengers. And i said, thats a great idea. We did that. We got in there and the next day went out to dia and spent several hours there and went up and down the terminal talking to passengers trying to reassure them about the security and the safety of traveling on at least United Airlines or all airlines. And for some people it was very emotional and they were very touched. And for other folks, they were very stoic and showed a lot of courage to be good loyal americans and get up in the skies and travel again. So we hope that that was a meaningful experience for them and it certainly was for myself, i could guarantee you that. There were some anecdotal accounts by other pilots of things that happened on 9 11 and afterwards. After the initial attacks, out here at dulles airport, Ground Control and the tower, anybody they could get ahold of, they turned them around and sent them back to the gates out at dulles airport. And i talked to actually one of the captains and he said as soon as they parked and shut down, and they opened the door, several young males middle eastern in appearance jumped up and ran forward out of the door of the aircraft and disappeared into the crowds into the terminal. It could ome be supposed what might have happened had this airplane gotten airborne. Could only theorize about that but i think you know. The four planes used as terror weapons were not the only ones they had planned for that. There were other accounts from some flight attendants and some other pilots that i talked to after 9 11 that when they were up in altitude and cruising that there were incidents, once, twice, of, again, young men that probably came from that part of the world, would get up and moving rapidly up the aisle toward the cockpit area and stop and return around and go back and sit in their seats. So, again, we could only surmise that perhaps maybe they were trying to probe, who knows. I dont know what came of any reports of those incidents and more people were searched by the fbi or the secret service. I had my own personal experience. It was prior to 9 11. We heard some reports that united of this air crews had been stolen. Some of the layover hotels rooms had been broken into and in one encounter a guy answered the door when somebody knocked on it and they subdued they overpowered him and stole his uniform and ran off. Now back at that time, prior to 9 11, you might only sur mice that perhaps they were just trying to get a free ride in the cockpit as a jump seater, much like in that movie, what the name of that movie, heather . Catch me if you can, yes. I dont know if the movie was made yet but that is the scenario. Get a uniform and try to get a free ride in the cockpit wherever you want to go. I had a layover, i think yall are obviously local to washington, is it the courtyard marriott out of dulles. Is that next to the terminal . I think it is. Anyway, i had a lay over at the hotel there at the airport and early in the morning there is a knock on my door. So i get up and i look out and guess what the gentleman looks like who is outside of that door. And i said who is it. This is engineering, sir, we have a report of a problem with the airconditioning. And i said just a minute, let me put my clothes on and i ran back and got on the phone and said have you sent anybody from engineering to come and work on my airconditioning and they said no. And i went back to the door and looked out of the peep hole and there was nobody there. Foolishly, i opened the door to take another look. He could have been hiding but then looked up and down the hallway and the person was gone. So i got dressed and immediately went down to the desk and said somebody came to knock at my door from engineering, i dont know what is going on. Now, remember, that was prior to 9 11. Only a few weeks prior. So that was a dot that could have been connected to other dots. Some other things were going on regarding some of the people getting training at some flight schools. Who said, i dont want to do land the airplane, only how to fly it. And some of the reports were made to the fbi. And nothing was done. They didnt communicate with the secret service or anything. At that time we didnt have the department of homeland security. So those dots were not being connected an the dot that i saw this morning, i must admit that i didnt try to get it connected to anything. Now, many of you up in the audience, or some of you up in the audience, almost everybody in this country has a tie to something that happened on that day on 9 11 or somebody, whether they were involved with some activities or tragically killed as a result of the terrorist acts. On the court where we live, my wife stephanie and live in evergreen, there are four families on that court. Three out of the four families on that court had a tie to something or someone from 9 11. Obviously my wife stephanie and i with our daughter heather. And the mission that she performed on that day with honor. Right across our court, the gentleman and his wife who had been there, he had been an executive at a Financial Services company that had their offices up on one of the upper floors in one of the twin towers. And if i recall correctly, i think he told me lost about 12, maybe 13 friends that morning. Down at the bottom of the court, the couple down there, their son joe worked for a Company Either at the bottom of one of the twin trade towers or a building immediately next to it. On 9 10. Do you ever hear of 9 10. You only hear of 9 11. Joe worked very light that night and into the next morning. And he decided to sleep in and didnt come into work that morning. And whether or not he would have perished, or whether he could have been one of the people who escaped, well never know. But he on a normal course of events would have been going to work that morning. I was allotted ten minutes. If ive gone past that, hook the gong and ill be gone here. Okay. There is something i like to talk about briefly near in closing. There have been a lot of media stori stories written about our daughter heathers activities on the morning of 9 11. Launching in her f16 with sass and everything that transpired afterwards. And i had been interviewed about that also. They have used some Artistic License in trying to say that heather could have thought that she was maybe taking off and could shot down an airliner that i may have been the captain of and i had been to the east coast. Okay, fact. I had in fact recent my flown some flights from the east coast and when i was on a layover here i either when i arrived or get ready to leave, i would give heather a call. Fact, i had called heather when i was here on the layovers. And another fact. Did she know if i was flying that morning. No, she didnt. Fact, heather, as youve seen fr from her story, was totally focused on the mission at hand to perform our duty as an f16 pilot and as a correct manor and be a good wing man for sass to do everything to protect our country. Now the supposition by some of the news writers using dramatic license try to make it sound as if our daughter heather was running out to the airplane or getting airborne and when they were airborne headed out looking for united flight 93 and they didnt know it was 93, just something inbound was that she was thinking, oh, my gosh, my dad might be a captain on this airline and i might have to bring down an airplane that my dad was on board. That is not the case at all. She was totally focused on the mission at hand. So there was a lot of Artistic License taken by people who had written stories about this and that gives me some certain. Heather talked about the true heroes on united flight 93. She has been called a hero by some people who have written and she has, as you heard by herself, she was not she discounts being called a hero on that day. And as she did use the terminology but before you said she was an accidental witness to history on 9 11, along with mark sassfield. And so many other people involved in protecting our nation and responding. And she said the true heroes in that chapter of what happened on 9 11 regarding flight 93 were those passengers who prevented the terrorists from turning united flight 93 into a weapon of terror. And we should all never forget that. They were a small group of heros that did that, very, very small group along with all of the heros that responded and did what they did. But the pentagon, in the air over washington, d. C. , and who responded at the twin trade towers, doing what they could to save as many lives as they could. So again, thank you very much for listening to our driveling and i guess were going to start some questionandanswer here. Thank you very much. [ applause ] thank you, john. And well, ive kind of gone a little bit over. Hopefully ill keep my job but i think it is important to provide you you all a opportunity to ask questions. Because it is so important, not just to tell the story and remember the story, but to get the facts right. And who better to answer to that than john and heather. Question up here. Heather, i have a lot of questions. One of them was being in my house about two miles southwest of nashua and seeing an f16 turn on to what would have been final of the un used runway at national. Low in landing configuration, definitely nose up and quite slow, only a couple of hundred feet off the was that you . I dont i dont think i need to repeat the question. I think everybody probably heard that . No. The question is the gentleman witnessed said there was an eric on the short final to national and was wondering if it was in fact heather. Although i would love to put dca in my logbook, i never got into a situation like that. During the course of that day we did a number ever intercepts on small aircraft which if youre flying assess gnaw, an f16, they go very different speeds so one of the convenient ways to slow down to get to a closer speed that is more cessna like is to throw your gear down because that automatically deploys the flaps. We need to have the flap override system in the f16 to manually deploy the flaps because that is not something we normally do. The only thing that i could speculate is that someone, and i did not do that, i did not make that kind of intercept that day. Is that someone later that day who took off might have been trying to intercept a small aircraft and would have put his aircraft into that configuration to achieve that kind of speed. But that wasnt me. Im not sure if it syncs up with the timing of what you witnessed but i do know that when the air traffic system was being shut down, we did have arrivals into reagan, coming in and it was at that point that it was determined better to get them on ground even if it is reagan or national at the time rather than somewhere else. So i do know that in the midst of everything happening, we were getting some final arrivals into national. Dont know if that was it. I know, watching a 757 coming in and having that thought. Over here, sir. Prior to 9 11 you said you were looking for bears or something coming over. But if you were on hot stand by prior to the 90s or if someone was on hot stand by as a procedure, what would that have gained for your mission after 2001. Heather, do you want to repeat the question. The question is really about, and you could correct me if im wrong, the units still sitting alert, what was their response . You were on alert. And so if we had alert at d. C. What would that have been like. The aircraft, they had preplanned flight profiles and when they were scrambled they would jump in their aircraft and take off over the atlantic. Sos that why you have the aircraft that were detached to langley taking off and flying east over the atlantic and why you have the aircraft that were sitting alert at otis flying over the atlantic before their turned around to respond to the threat that was actually internal. So had andrews been sit ating a would that have solved the problem, i could not speculate because there were a number of things that needed to happen not just in the profile, how long would it have taken them to turn around, what is the chain of command, et cetera. And what would have triggered that kind of response. So unfortunately, i dont think it is fair to would have, could have, should have the situation. It just is. Gentleman in the red shirt. Yes. I was wondering if the rescue workers working that day. Thank you. No, i want to thank you. Because they pulled us away from doing what we was trained to do for years at that moment. And until those fighters showed up, we wore and youre absolutely corrected, we were cheering for yall and thank you yall for showing up so save us. To look out for us. And i want to thank you. I want to thank you. [ applause ] here, sir. So heather, you said that you didnt have missiles, but did you have any weapons charged, any working weapons on your f16 . So we routinely carry. If you could repeat the question. The question was we didnt have missile but did we have any kind of weapon load out. And we routinely flee with 105 rounds of bullets in the nose partly for a weight and balance issue. But those bullets were kinetic bullets. They were just lead balls. When we go to combat we fly with 510 of them. The cannon in the f16 fires rounds at 6,000 rounds a minute. So 510 rounds is a little over 5 seconds of gun and 100 rounds is one second of gun. We knew taking off that between the two of us, even with perfect aim, that 200 rounds would be utterly insufficient to take down the airliner. In the back, sir. [ inaudible ] coming down as the day progressed, who had authority or took authority to authorize shoot down of aircraft after that, was it norad or did it come from the white house . The question is after all of the civil aircraft were grounded, who had the commanding and control and the authority to declare a aircraft hostile so we could take it down. Typically within combat operations the rules of engagement, the roe, have a very specific matrix that you have to fulfill in order to shoot somebody down. We need to know what the aircraft is, where it other nat where it originated from and does it have hostile intent, things like that. The roe that we had that was provided later, we were provided free fire. Which meant as an individual Fighter Pilot sitting in my f16, i could, Heather Penney, make the decision to shoot down an aircraft. I didnt need to ask mother may i. There was no going up the chain of command, which, two things, the level of risk that was assumed by enabling us to make that decision was necessary because of the confusion in the chaos that was going on within all of the military elements. Because, as you mentioned, there was no clear chain of command. There was nothing set up to be able to support that kind of roe. My other observation of that free fire authorization is that used it. So within the chaos, the fog of war an the confusion and as you could also imagine, the anger, all of those emotions that every american was feeling that morning, it was overcome by the professionalism, and the discipline of every fighter fielt who was airborne that morning that they choose not to use it. Because the skies were still full of airplanes. There were people that were that was a time when you didnt have to file before you flew. You didnt have to file a flight plan or talk on the radio. If you didnt listen to your favorite wtop or watch the news that morning, you just got up and went out to your little airplane and waxed on her and poured in some oil and took off. You had no idea that we had just suddenly shut down the entire national air space. So it is a truly a testament to the professionalism of all of us airborne that day that we did not actually get trigger happy. I thumped a lot of airplanes that day, owning little airplanes myself. But we did and we kept everyone safe. And here is what i want to bring up. And this is tied to your story. Is how underappreciated potomac tray con is in our response to 9 11. I would love to kiss those controllers. Because their mental agility in transitioning from keeping aircraft separates and sequencing for to get them on final and landed and taking off, now im cursed them many times too because im sitting there trying to take off and i cant get my clearance. But they were so competent when sass said, okay, paotomac, do yu have any military background . No. So lets just call the national vor tack, lets call that bulls eye. You could do that. Now do you have that on your scope . You have the radials coming off of there and the range rings, okay. So if you see a contact, if you get a radar contact that is due east and it is 30 miles away, here is what i want you to say. Contact bulls eye 090 for 30. And if you could get an altitude cut, give me the altitude as well. And like that, the controllers swapped their mental approach, they swapped their paradigms, they adopted our Fighter Pilot language, and they help facilitate our ability to clear the air space. And then as the air space got super congested with all of the responders, the helicopters, the med evacs, the army flights, not only did they call out the unknowns, the bogeys, but then they also called out the aircraft that we knew were friendlies. And they would say, hey, that is med evac flight 90 whatever. Theyre bulls eye cut, theyre theyre bulls eye cut, theyre going to their destination,dv[9 is their hospital. So we didnt have to waste our time on friendlies that were helping take care of people, helping respond. And we could focus really on those unknowns, those bogeys an keep everyone safe. So i really just think that potomac, theyre Unsung Heroes here. Absolutely. And i know were going a little bit over but well take one more question if there is another question in the audience. In the way back. Yeah. Heather, used to fly at my airport, lee airport near michelle. Hi, michelle. And we were near the arrival of bwi. After 9 11, it was just so eerily quiet. I know you dont call yourself a hero, the only thing we heard were the f16s. It was an extreme comfort when i knew it was you. Thank you. [ applause ] on that note, a fitting note, i think were goal ahead and wrap up. I wan to thank all you for taking time to listen to the story. It is an important storych it is a story to be remembered and it is a story to be told and retold. We were very fortunate to have john and penney join us tonight. Again, thank you for taking time for both of you and what youve done for aviation in this country. I would appreciate that we will not be able to provide autographs tonight. I know that is something that we do but given the hour we will not be able to do that. Again, lisa, to ge and your entire team, thank you for sponsoring this event. The past events and future events, thank you so much. [ applause ] and i guess i would just close by saying i hope in a few days time on the 11th of september each of you will in your own way remember that day, what it meant to this nation and to what it meant to us individually and collectively and take a moment to thank those people that sacrificed so much that day and that live on in our memories. Thank you and have a great evening. [ applause ] every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan3, go inside a Different College classroom and hear about topics ranging from the american revolution, civil rights ab u. S. President s to 9 11. Thanks for your patience and for logging into class. With the impact of the coronavirus, watch professors transfer teaching to a virtual setting to engage with students. Gorbachov did most of the work to change the soviet union. But reagan met him half way, reagan encouraged him, reagan supported him. Freedom of the press, madison called it freedom of the use of the press and it is indeed the free tom to print and public things, not what we refer to as institution atly as the press. Lectures in history on American History tv on cspan3 every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Lectures in history is also available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. Tracy walder is coauthor of the unexpected spy, from the cia to the fbi, my secret life taking down some of the worlds most notorious terrorists. Up next