Space museum hosted this event. It is about an hour 20 minutes. Well, good evening. Im chris brown the Deputy Director of the Smithsonian National air and space museum, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to tonights ge aviation 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 through the generous support from ge aviation. Private contributions like theirs are critical to our programs and exhibitions. And it is my privilege to acknowledge them for their long standing and valued support representing ge aviation with us tonight is the Digital Solutions leader of military Systems Operations at ge aviation. Lisa, to you and your colleagues at ge, we thank you for your substantial and enduring support. [ applause ] since we opened the museum here on the mall in 1976 and 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 trusts our curators, educators, 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 introduce heather penny most widely recognized for her service on september 11th, heather penny was part of the first wave of women who went directly into flights from Pilot Training. She grew up around aviation and war birds and applied to the Air National Guard to fly f16s as soon as she learned that 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 night time 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 air races. She has over 3,000 hours with commercial instructor, multi engine, and air transport pilot ratings, and volunteers with the foundation copiloting their b17 when her busy schedule permits u 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 lucky penny. So thank you all for coming out here tonight and lisa i thank you so much and to the generosity of ge to support this lecture series. What the museum, what the air and space museum does and what the ge aviation lecture series allows the museum to do is to tell these stories like mine so people like yourselves can experience aviation, experience history in a far more personal and hopefully impactful manner than when you simply see the signs next to the airplane. Thank you, lisa, for everything you and ge are doing to support the lecture series to make it possible so that for example people like me can come and listen to my heroes when they stand up on this podium. I am certainly not calling myself a hero at all because 9 11 was nothing that any of us planned. 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 ever hope for and experience. I had killed two migs, dropped bombs, been there for my time on target. We had just gotten back from that the prior weekend. We landed on saturday. Most people had taken that monday and tuesday and wednesday off to reconnect with their families. I was single at the time. 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 sortees are we going to be flying . We were traditional mostly at the time. We are a guard unit so a guard is comprised of a few fulltime staff that make sure that the unit runs and all the administration is taken care of so when the parttimers show up they can just jump in the jets and go and train. I was one of those few fulltime staff. Who needs check rides . Who is doing upgrades . We had just gotten back from red flag so the jets were fitted out with turs, external fuel tanks, pods, we had our training missiles on board. We were moving into a training phase of dog fighting, basic fighter maneuvering. We called it vfm. 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 a while to reconfigure the jets to go do to clean out so we had slick vipers, just go gr 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 flight. It was lou shooter campbell was bully one. Eric pakagenson was bully 2. Billy hutchinson was bully 3. They brief. They take off. Theyre headed down to North Carolina to go bomb for quarters and strafe because who doesnt like a little bit of low angle strafe . Everyone loves shooting the gun. By the way, ive never seen a Fighter Pilot ever pull the gun and not go, brrrr we all make the noise. [ laughter ] so theyre down bombing. Were sitting in an administrative meeting and we get this knock at the door. And a guy pokes his noggin in. It was david callahan. Chunks is what we called him. Dave says, an airplane just flew into the world trade center. We looked outside because our Conference Room was right on the flight line. It was a huge plate glass window. Were thinking, how does that happen . Because as you know, new york actually isnt that far away. Contrary to what traffic would have you believe, it is actually just kind of a stones throw as far as the bird flies. And we share a very similar weather pattern. We look outside and its that perfect, crystal, autumn day that we get here. How, what . Were thinking, you know, did someone pooch their approach into laguardia . I mean, it must have been one of those little sight seeing airplanes going down the hudson that just kind of made a wrong turn, maybe scud running. We made a couple jokes about little airplanes bouncing off buildings. And then, because we they certainly dont do any damage. They just 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. Of so people have asked how could this have been possible . Right . Didnt we have aircraft on alert . Well, once upon a time we sat alert but that was before we got our f16s. I mean, we gave up alert when we shifted from the thuds to the f4s so it had been a long time since we had sat alert because if you recall in 1991 when the wall fell and the soviet union fell, we didnt need it anymore. Right . The soviet bear threat was gone. So we really paired down our entire military through the peace dividend and on september 10th, on september 11th there were really only four units sitting alert looking out over the oceans and over the polar region to ensure that no stray bombers came over the north pole to nuke us. That was the paradigm we were living in. No one ever imagined that the threat would come from inside. We never we just had never conceived that something so ingenious in the most horrible way could be done. So nearly immediately, our d. O. At the time, i mean, he goes to the operations desk. Dan cain who was our weapons officers goes to me, lucky, i need you and iegor to build up some dcts. Get us maps, landing and takeoff data. I dont know what it needs to look like. Just make it happen. So brandon rasmussen, igor and i go to the Flight Mission planning room and start Mission Planning for something. We dont know what. Again, i mean, this is not the defensive counterair mission i had trained for that i knew i had to do. There was a certain point where you had a combat air patrol and i have a point im defending but defending against twho . We dont have awacs, just our own little bitty radars. 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 tibet two sets because some of the jets are clean and some of the jets are still heavy and dirty in the airtoground configuration. We print out maps of the entire local area. We put steer points on top of where we are government buildings are, memorials. We load up our Data Transfer cartridges, like these big bricks that are really kind of like thumb drives for your jet. Where you can take all of your data and put it into the jet and down load it so you can accelerate and program all of your avionics. We get that done and we go to hawk, the ops desk. Now, ill need to go through a little bit of bureaucracy because the national fwaurd in d. C. Is not like the National Guard in any other state. In other states the National Guard has two chains of command. Youve got your federal chain of command which only occurs when you get activated to deploy. In that case you chop to the active Duty Air Force and you are for all intents and purposes active Duty Air Force and that is 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 there is 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 was, that we were a resource that he had. Because his authority was traditionally delegated down to the secretary of the army. And that certainly is not what the secretary of the army was thinking pt is how do i get some defensive counter air up over d. C. That was not on his mind. So were trying to get activated so that we can were trying to get the chain of command energized and 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, our Wing Commander david whirly had come down from the wing building and he is sitting by the ops desk making phone calls. Hes trying to find someone to energize through his he is our top guy. Hes making as many phone calls as he can. Raisin cain, dan cain our weapons officer takes a risk and calls down to the bomb dump. Now, the bomb dump is where we keep all of our explosives. Its where we keep all of our training missiles, where we keep all of our bullets. Its where we keep all of our bombs. We 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 the systems. By the way, we dont keep the explosives and the fuses and the bodies whether or not it is a missile body or bomb body all built up ready to go. You 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 exactly how many bombs they need to build to actually put all that together to bring it out on the flight line to configure the aircraft. It doesnt happen instantaneously. So raisin calls down to the bomb dump and tells them to build us up some a 9s, heat seeking sidewinders. 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. You get a phone call from the weapons officer and he is 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 d. C. , again, something unique to operating out of andrews is we always had to deal with the hassle of airforce one. Any time a distinguished visitor moves on Andrews Air Force base especially when it is 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 quickly it is a big problem. We had been working with the secret service to try to develop better coordination so 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 flung them in the back seat of the f16s to prove we are actually good guys. So we know who they were and they knew who we were. As a result, it was when the pentagon was hit that Vice President chaney said dont we have some fighters at andrews . Somebody get those guys airborne. And they knew who to call. I mean, as i mentioned, when we have a peace dividend 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, norad if that authority had known we were at andrews 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 real world consequences. So, fortunately, we finally had the authorization from Vice President chaney. Get somebody airborne. Sass looks at me. He says, all right, lucky, youre with me. Raisin, you take igor. You guys wait until you have missiles onboard. Okay . I want to be sure you guys have missiles. Lucky, lets go. Sass and i run down the hallway to life support, putting on gsuit. And putting on my vest. Throwing my, you know, throwing on my harness making sure i have my helmet. Ive got my dtc. Ive got my lineup cards. Ive got my vest. Sass looks at me and he 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 their vertical and horizontal tails and the airplane just went straight in. There was nothing left. There is no way they could have pulled out, no way they could have controlled it. And the other thing is they wouldnt have fwliglided in. There would be no fan pattern of debris. It would just be straight down. So i knew i would take the tail. Were running out as fast as we can go. As fast as i can go. Sass is out running me. And, you know, he is a major, 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, recall that, you know, im just a brand new lieutenant. Youve recently become combat mission ready. I just went to my first red flag. As every pilot knows it is when you begin to deviate from your habit patterns 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 i grab the forms. Im going to look through the 781s, do my walkaround as fast as i possibly can and sass is already in the cockpit. He looks at me and he goes 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. Youll recall we had sent the three ship down. While we were working to try to get the authorization to launch, while i was making dtcs and lineup calls, 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 and 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 horse sense. Calls down to air force and tells the ranger send the bullies home. Tell em to bust her. Bust her means come home as fast as you can without using your after burner. Those guys are coming back at vmill as fast as they possibly can. Now, i didnt realize, none of us actually knew just yet when dog called us down there that bully 2 had run himself 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 eric off. He says you go home and well continue and finish the mission and do the strafing and finish the debrief later. So puck bully 2 is on his way home and dog gets a radio call from puck. Guard soft bully 2. Bully 2 guard soft go. Soft, theyre not washington doesnt want to let me in the air space. All right bully 2. You just keep heading on back home. Ill take care of this. Dog puts the phone down. You know, calls up center. So he can get bully 2 back hom. A couple other minutes puck calls back and says, guard soft bully 2. Bully 2 guard soft go. Soft, theyre asking me if ive got any missiles or bullets or bombs on board. Dont you worry about that bully 2. You just come on home. Center had been asking eric if he had those weapons on board 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 post 9 11 world. And what mattered, what defined 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 now living in that post 9 11 world. So puck has no idea what is going on. But he comes back home and he lands. And of course dogs called down to the ranger and we got bully 1 and bully 3 coming home so shooter and billy are coming back home. It wasnt until several weeks later that i had the opportunity to listen to pucks tapes. And it still gives me the chills to this day. As pucks coming in, he is getting ready to land. Hes pulling up the air drum terminal information system. It is a loop, an audio loop that is transmitted every hour to give pilots information they need to know in order to be able to land. So it gives you the weather, the barometric pressure, what the cloud ceiling is, what the landing runway is, or if there is any other information you need to know to prepare. And it lutens the work loads of the controllers. This is what pucks report said. This is Andrews Information bravo. Andrews air force base is closed. Washington class bravo air space is closed. Any aircraft attempting to enter washington class bravo air space will be shot down. So im in my jet and i now realize i got to 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, make sure youve down loaded and checked all of your system, gone through your builtin tests, configured all your navigation, your steer points, tibet your avionics set up right. If youre doing just a close, nearby little dog fighting mission, ten minutes most. And at that point we didnt have gps on the aircraft. We just upgraded to the really sophisticated ring laser gyroins system. It only took eight minutes not 16 minutes to erect. So we were pretty high speed. We didnt have 20 minutes. We didnt have ten. We didnt have eight. We needed to go. I dont bother strapping in. The mantra, the rhythm, the dance of the challenge and response that you do with your crew chief is out the window. Im relying on my knowledge simply to know the things i need to do. Star 2. 20 over the hump to idle. Im watching my rpm, my temperature, 40 , less than 750. Im good. And im yelling at my crew chief, pull the choks. Pull the choks. 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 ready to jump the choks with after burner. They pull the choks and im after sass and my crew chief is still plugged in and hes running underneath me and other crew chiefs are running underneath me pulling the pins out of my turs, pins out of my external fuel tanks, out of my gear, out of my chaff and flare. As were taxiing, on my tapes, i call 2s up. You can hear Billy Hutchinson taking off. Shooter and billy, bully one and bully two had landed. And dog says, we had finally gotten the authorization. Dog checks how much fuel they have. Shooter doesnt have enough but billy has like 1200 pounds. Dog says, okay. They think there is another one coming down the river. You got just enough fuel for one pass up and down the river. So billy takes off. He is the first one airborne. And he takes off. He stays low. He goes, you know, northwest over the pentagon up to great falls. Turns around. Down the potomac. Down to where the potomac turns, 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 the northwest and we never find anything. Sass and i were not heroes that day. The passengers on flight 93 were the heroes. So you can 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, every day americans. Who realized 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 luf in our Nations Defense they did give their life. So they were the true heroes. The d. C. Guard commanded the combat air patrol for two weeks after 9 11, which was unprecedented. Clearly an event like this 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 can 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 we can protect our Nations Capital . These were all the problems we were dealing with over the next few weeks. Not me. I was just a line flyer. Im getting in my jet and im 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 he is 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 youre air crew but you can decode what the patches mean, right . So tuna gets stopped in the pentagon by some guy who says, are you from the d. C. Guard . Tuna says, yeah. Let me tell you a story. This is the 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 south parking most likely got in their cars and drove away. People came out the metro entrance. But for the people who had to evacuate through to north parking they were trapped. Theyre coming out the river entrance. Theyre coming out to north parking. Theyre going over the bridge that goes over 110 and theyren getting stuck in that parking lot thats in between route 110 and the potomac river. 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 lute and out it was l and out of the southwest. So it is blowing the smoke and the ashes in the air up over the center and actually right over north parking. And theres a Child Development center still there but its closed now, the women are evacuating the babies out of the Child Development center, like dod daycare. Again, their procedures are for fire drills. So theyre pushing out these cribs with four toddlers four babies to a crib and six toddlers to a buggy. But they cant stay next to the building. They have to tibget up the stai and over the bridge to go to north parking but they dont have enough people to do that. I mean, because it wasnt something they were manned for and 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. Can 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. If you remember this is before everyone had a cell phone in their pocket. If you were really somebody you might have a pager. They know there is Something Else coming. But they dont know what. They dont know when. Now theyre no longer at their desk. They cant get the information refresh so they are 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 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 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 individuals who are in the towers, who helped each other get out, save each others lives. And then think of this, the people who cleaned up the towers. Going to work every day, knowing they would die from what they were doing, and they they did it every day anyways. So when i look back on that day, with the years to be able to reflect on what it might mean, its 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 that day has been for our nation, it gives me hope. Thank you. applause thank you heather, we do all have stories where we were, and how that they impacted us. And as i segue into the next part of our program, and make our next introduction, allow me a moment to sort of share the context that might help with the introduction. On 9 11, i was the airport manager at reagan international. 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 leader. But i think as you know, we were closed to national not for three days, but we remain close following after all the other airports reopened. It was rather disconcerting, and we didnt know whether to mothball the airport, to put it on life support, close it. You may recall from my opening remarks, we opened the in 2003, there were people to me who suggested in 2001, why dont we turn the terminal reagan into an annex for the haji. Frankly, most people did not think that national was going to reopen. Secretary, excuse me Vice President told me. 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 the day, 18,000 aircraft were within 30 minutes time a flight of reagan international. So whether sound things put in place afterwards, in retrospect you wonder, didnt make much sense . But many of us work very hard to go ahead to take the actions necessary to reopen again, reagan. For my perspective, from a background and flying, and carrier flying, its startling to me that there was this idea that somehow the Nations Capital couldnt be sufficiently protected in a way that would allow aviation to proceed. Because, on Aircraft Carriers, we sail in harms way all the time. We had very distinct procedures that you had to follow to get back on that ship, and we were 100 miles off of lebanon. I can assure you, in an f 14 coming back to the ship, if we didnt follow very prescribed flight procedures so forth, we were going to get shot down. So i met, i had the occasion to meet with secretary norman area, one of this countrys great great americans, who arguably was the one who shut down the airspace on that day. And as a side note, when air traffic did that day is heroic. And a story in itself, he took it down but i remember going to his office, my colleagues at the time. And showing them a picture of an Aircraft Carrier they said think of national as an Aircraft Carrier what we need to do is device procedures, profile, squat check in. Two Way Communications all the various things that we would do on the ship you do that and you can get airplanes in and out in here. You may not know there were missile barrier set up, you can see them from the airport so someone didnt follow those procedures, there was a rule of inc. Engagement to take to shoot them down i dont know if that suggestion carried the day, but i do know what came out of it was this idea that yes you can in fact fly into a high threat area, and do so safely and successfully. If you have the proper prescribed procedures. The idea that you had to stay seated for 30 minutes before a flight, that kind of went away for obvious reasons. At the end of the day, three and a half weeks later, the decision that the president made, he made the decision to reopen and i recall going back over to secretary office, i think it was a tuesday and he said. I went into his four year, and who was in their smoking a cigarette, verb cal her, and don korte and a bunch of ceos were sitting there. Im looking at her saying i dont think you can do that here. Secretary minetta had some in the ceos, and those who can make it were on the telephone. He said the president wants to reopen national, can you do it in 48 hours . Im sitting there thinking, every cabdriver, restaurant operator, rental collar worker, everyone was gone. Im thinking, this is sort of like starting a jet. And normally takes time to get back into the game. Without skipping a beat, every ceo said, yes sir will be up and ready. Im just looking around saying you dont even know where your people are. But the reality is, we did reopen but it was as you may remember, very limited, ten flights a day. We eventually joined the rest of the Aviation System and reopened. Sometimes its the day after what happened after 9 11 that is ice informative and impressive in my mind as many of the actions people took on that day itself. Among the commercial airline pilots, who boldly return to the cockpits and helped restore our nations most critical transportation infrastructure, is heathers father john. Born in race in california, john was appointed to the air force academy where he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in 1970. During his academy years, he built model airplanes, sale planes, and earn a degree in aeronautical engineering. He philistine his Pilot Training in 1971, and went on to fly 140 combat missions in on the a seven in vietnam. After the war he so doesnt instructor, and how to tour he left the air force in 1979, and after his prove brief stint, john landed a job with me or cooperation at the airport, where he worked for the next five and a half years as an engineer and test pilot. During his tenure in reno, john became associated with enjoying the rare bear and flu in his First National trumpian ship erase in 1985. While living in reno, john kept his hand and military aviation by joining the nevada interNational Guard. He also started his own business, big masters, flight testing and instructing and numerous types of u. S. And foreign aircraft. Including the make 15, mick 21, and others. His perspective is an accomplished aviator and commercial pilot with united, the job that he just then rejoined after. On 9 11 and as the father of a doubter tossed with defending our skies that day is truly unique. We will hear from both of them now. I invite heather and john back to the podium. applause thank you chris, its 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. I would like to thank lisa and the ge corporation, and todd and bill who are here sponsoring this event. Its an honor to be here and to speak to folks. Id like to share with you a few things events that happen on the day of 9 11, and some perspectives that we gained from those events that day. And things that happened that affected us as a family, as all airline pilots, and all americans. The morning of 9 11, actually my wife and i were starting the first 30 days of our vacation that i had stored up for a couple of years. The activities that morning were pretty much nor normal morning activities. Breakfast, 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 its 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 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. So we got on the phone and try to call heather, immediately, and of course as im sure all of you all know, the telephone lines were jammed there was no way to get through. So my wife stephanie, she gets on the computer and emails to heather, whats going on. After heathers First Mission, when she got on the ground, she emailed back and said im ok, said ive been fine, im busy. And that was about it, and she said she would call us tonight. Were all call later. Sometime soon thereafter, heathers twin sister jail called us and said i need to talk to my sister, i need to talk to her now. The phone lines were jammed so she couldnt get through, and we cannot get through. Heather did call that evening, and she said im at home, iphone twice, im really tired and im going to bed. Ill talk to you again sometime. We didnt know the full story out of what happened, with her mission the First Mission that she described when they were sent out, and they were trying to search out the location of united flight 93. That day, and for several days thereafter our house a neighborhood in colorado, the only noise we heard in this guy were the f 16 that were patrolling from the interNational Guard base, in denver. Some of them came over low, and some of them were an after burner. And folks thats jet noise and thats the sound of freedom. We found out also that day, jason, captain jason was a captain on united flight 93. A friend of ours, his wife called and told us about what had happened with jasons airplane. As you all know, that airplane crashed in pennsylvania. Now, theres a threeway link between heather, jason, and myself. As i said, jason was a captain of united flight 93, and united flight 93 was the aircraft that heather and Lieutenant Colonel sasse field were searching for after they launched out of the air force base. Unbeknownst to them, unbeknownst to abc, flight 93 had already crashed, even as they were getting airborne. So thats why they never found it. The airplane crashed in james field. Captain jason doll and i shared an Office Cubicle at United Airlines Flight Training center. We were both standard captains. Jason and i had a couple he had a picture of his son matt, who i believe at that time was still in high school. And of his lovely wife, sandy. Whenever jason and i had a chance to chat, he would talk in just brag about his son how smart he was, and everything he was doing and all the things they did together the fund they had. And his love for his wife sandy. I after the events of 9 11, there was a Memorial Service and denver at the church that jason, sandy and matt had went to. There were about 400 united pilots, i think even more than, that we were all in our uniforms. This was not a major church, i guess you would call it an auditorium or theater, it was big as what you are sitting in right now. It was standing room only, again all of us were in our uniforms, the eulogy that day was delivered by matt, jason sun. 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, another friend and a united pilot, said john, tomorrow lets put our uniforms on and lets go out to Denver International airport and go into the terminal and just talk to the passengers. I said thats a great idea. We did that, we got into the next day, went out to deiaea spent several hours out there going up and down the terminal talking to passengers. Trying to reassure them about the security and the safety of of traveling on the airlines, or all airlines. For some people it was very emotional, and they were very touched. For other folks, they were very stoic and they showed a lot of courage, to be good, loyal americans. And get up in the sky and travel again. So we hope that that was a meaningful experience for them. And it certainly was, for it happened to myself, i can guarantee that. There were some anecdotal accounts by other pilots, of things that happened on 9 11 and afterwards. After the initial attack, out here Ground Control in the tower, anybody they could get a hold of that they have not gotten airborne, they turn them around and send them back to the gates. At dulles airport. I talked to actually one of the captions, and they said as soon as they parked and shut down in the open the doors several young males, middle eastern in appearance, jumped up and ran forward out the door of the aircraft. And disappeared into the crowds in the terminal. It can only be supposed, what might have happened had that airplane gotten airborne. I can only theorize about that, but i think you may know. The four airplanes were used as where weapons were not the only ones they had planned for that day. 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 they were incidents, once, twice. Of again, young men that probably came from that part of the world, would get up and were moving rapidly up the aisle towards the cockpit area. And then they would just stop, turn around and sit back in their seats. So again we can only surmise that perhaps maybe they were trying to probe, who knows, i dont know what came of any reports of those incidents. I know people were searched by the fbi, where the secret service. I had my own personal experience, it was prior to 9 11, weve heard some reports that united of some Airline Crews whose uniforms had been stolen. Some of their Layover Hotel rooms have been broken into, and i think in one encounter, a hotel room a guy answer the door when someone knocked on it. And the subdued overpowered him, and stole his uniform and ran off. Back at that time, prior to 9 11, you might surmise that they were just trying to get a free ride in the cockpit, as a jump cedar. Much like who was that movie . Whats the name of that movie heather . Catch me if you kenyas i dont know if the movie was made yet, but that was the scenario, get a uniform and try to get a free ride in the cockpit for wherever you want to go. I had a layover, i think you are all local to washington, it was the marriott out of dulles airport, right next to the terminal. I had a trip, i had to lay over at the hotel there right at the airport. Early in the morning there was a knock on my door. So, i get up and i look out, and guess what the gentleman looks like. Whos outside that door. I said who is it, he said we have a report with a problem with the air conditioning. I said just a minute let me put my clothes on. Iran back and got on the phone and called the front desk, and has said how do you sense anybody from engineering to come in work on my air conditioning. They said, no. I went back to the door looked at the people and there was nobody there. Foolishly, i opened the door to take another look. He couldve been hiding, i looked up and down the hallway and the person was gone. So i got dressed, immediately went down to the desk and said hey someone came to knock on my door and said they were from engineering, i dont know whats going on. I remember that was prior to 9 11, only a few weeks prior. So that was a dot, it could have been connected to some other dots. Other things were going on regarding, some of these people getting training, in some flight schools. Who said i want to learn i dont want to learn how to land the airplane, only how to fly it. Some of those 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. And the dot that i saw that morning, i must admit that i i didnt try to get it connected to anything. Many of you, up in the audience, or some of you up in the audience, almost everybody in this country has a tie something that happened on that day on 9 11, or somebody. Whether they were involved with some activities, or they were tragically killed as a result of a terrorist act. On the court where we live, my wife stephanie and i, we 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 gentlemen and his wife who moved in there, he had been an executive at a Financial Services company. That had their offices up on one of the upper floors and one of the twin towers. If i coop recall correctly, i think he told us that they lost about 12, or maybe 13 friends that morning. Down at the bottom of the court, the couple down there, their son joe worked in a company that was either at the bottom of one of the twin trade towers, or in the building immediately next to it. On 9 10, do you ever hear 9 10 . Joe worked very very light that night, and into the next morning, and he decided to sleep in and didnt come into work that morning. Whether or not he would have perished, whether he couldve been been one of the people who escaped, will never know. But he on a normal course of events would have been going into work that morning. If i had gone past theres nothing id like to talk about briefly here in closing. There have been a lot of media stories that are written about our daughter heathers activities on the morning of 9 11. Launching in her f16 with sass and everything that transpired afterwards. I had been interviewed about that also, they have you some Artistic License and trying to save the heather could have thought that she was maybe taking off and couldve shut down an airliner that i may have been kept enough. I have been to the east coast, okay fact. I had in fact recently flown some flights from the east coast, and when i was only over here, when i arrived or when i was getting ready to leave i would give heather a call. Fact, as i said i had called heather when i was here. And another fact, does she know if i was flying that morning . No she did not. Fact, heather, as youve seen from her story was totally focused. On the mission at hand. To perform her duties as f16 pilot in a correct manner, and be a good wing man for sass and do whatever was required that morning. To try and protect our country. Now the supposition by some of these news writers, to try to again, use dramatic licenses, the try to make it sound as if our daughter heather was running out to the airplane or getting airborne, and then hitting on now looking for united flight 93. They didnt know was 93, was that she was thinking oh my gosh my dad might be a pet captain on this airplane. And i have them bring up an airplane which my dad is on board. That was not the case at, all she was totally focus at the mission on hand. There was a lot of, Artistic License taken by people who written stories about this. And that gives me some concern. Heather talked about the two heroes on united flight 93, she has been called a hero by some people who have written. And she is as herself the declaration, she discounts being called a hero. On that day, and she didnt use the terminology, but she before used that she was an accidental witness to history on 9 11, along with mark sass. And so many other people that were involved in protecting our nation and responding. She said the true heroes, in that chapter, of what happened on 9 11 regarding flight flight 93 where 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 heroes that did that, a very very small group. Along with all the heroes that responded and did what they did, the pentagon, in the air over washington d. C. Who responded at the twin trade towers, doing what they could to save as many lives as they could. Again thank you very much for listening to i guess were going to start some question and answers here. Thank you very much. laughs applause . , thank you john hopefully ill keep my job, i think its important to provide you all at least a few minutes an opportunity to ask questions. It is so important not just to tell the story remember the story, but to get the facts right. Who better to answer to that then john and heather. Question up here. Heather inaudible being in my house, two miles southwest of nashua, seeing an f 16 on turn on to what would have been final and unused runway. North southwest runway of the airport. Low i think atlanta, definitely and quite inaudible was that you . laughs i dont think i need to repeat the question, i think probably everyone heard that. No . The question is, the gentleman witness and was wondering if it was in fact heather . No although i would love to put dca my logbook, i never got to it in a situation like that. During the course of that day, but we did a number of intercepts on small aircraft. Will if youre flying an f 16 legal very different speeds. One of the more convenience way to slow down to get to a closer speed that is more like is to throw your gear down because that automatically deploys the flaps. We need to have the flap override system in the epstein to manually reply the response. Thats not something everyone would normally do. The only thing that i could speculate, is that someone and i did not do that i do not make that kind of intercept that day. Is that someone later that day, who took off might have been trying to intercept a smaller aircraft and would have put his aircraft in that configuration to achieve that kind of speed. But that wasnt me. Im not sure if it sinks 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, determined better to get them on ground even if its reagan than international at that time. Rather than somewhere else. I do know, that in the midst of everything happening we were getting some final arrivals in the international. I dont know if that was, it i know in fact looking at 7 57 coming in, and having that same thought. Question over here sir. Specifically your mission prior to 9 11, you said you were looking for if you were on hot standby, prior to the nineties, or someone was on hot standby as a procedure. What would that have gained for your mission after 2001 . Do you want to repeat the question . The question is about correct me if im wrong, of those units that were still sitting alert, what was what was their response . So if weve had alert at d. C. , what would that have been like. So the aircraft that were sitting alert, they had preplanned flight profiles. Where when they, when they were scrambled, they would jump into their aircraft and actually take off over the atlantic. So thats why you have the aircraft that were detached to langley, actually taking off and flying east over the atlantic. And why you have the aircraft that were sitting alert in otis flying over the atlantic. Before they were turned around, to respond to the threat that was actually internal. So had andrews been sitting alert, would that have solve the problem . I cannot speculate, in an educated manner because there are a number of things that would have needed to happen not just with the profile wouldve look like. How long it wouldve taken them to turn around, with the chain of command etc. And what would have triggered that kind of response. Unfortunately, i dont think its fair to would have, could have, should have the situation. But it justice. Gentlemen in the red shirt. I was one of those wreck you workers working that day. I want to thank you, because they pulled us away from doing what we were trying to do for years. At that moment, to those fighters showed up. And you are absolutely correct, we were trained. And we were thanking you all for showing up, to save us. To look at for us, and i want to thank you. I want to thank you applause . Right here sir. Heather, you said that you didnt have missiles, but did you have any weapons charged . Were there any weapons on your f 16. Can you repeat the question sorry . The question was, we didnt have missiles, but do we have any kind of load out. We return we flew with 105 rounds of bullets and they know, its partly for a weight and balance issue. But those bullets were kinetic bullets, they were led knows, they were just little lead balls. When we go to combat, we fly with high explosive rounds, and 110 of them. The f16 fires its rounds at 6000 rounds a minute. So 510 rounds is a little over five seconds of gun, and 100 rounds as one second of gun. We knew taking off that between the two of us, even with perfect aim, the 200 rounds would be utterly insufficient to take down an airliner. In the back sir. inaudible and as the day progressed who had authority, or took authority to authorize shoot downs of civil aircraft. Did it come from the white house . We were provided, the question is. After all the civil aircraft were grounded, who had the command and control, who had the authority to declare an aircraft hostile, so that we could take a down . Typically, within combat operations, the rules of engagements have a very specific matrix that you have to fulfill in order to be able to shoot somebody down. We need to know, what the aircraft is, we need to know where it originated from. Does it have hostile intent, things like that. The are ohy that we had was actually provided later during that we were provided free fire. Which meant as an individual Fighter Pilot sitting in minus 16, i could heather penny, make the decision to shoot down an aircraft. I didnt need to ask, may i . There was no going up the chain of command. Which, i mean, two things. The level of risk that was assumed by enabling us to make that decision, was necessary, because of the confusion and 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 our only. My other observation in the free fire authorization is that nobody used it. So, within the chaos, the fog of war the confusion, and as you can also imagine. The anger, all of those emotion that every american was feeling that morning it was overcome by the professionalism, and the discipline, of every Fighter Pilot who is airborne that morning. That they chose not to use it. Because the skies were still full of airplanes, there were people that had you know there was a time where you didnt have to file before you flew. You didnt have to file a flight plan, you didnt have to talk on the radio. So if you didnt listen to your favorite wto pea or watch the news that morning, you just got up and went out to your little airplane and waxed on some, port some oil into cough. You had no idea that we had just sit shut down the International Air spurs. So i think its also truly a testament, to the professionalism of all of us who were airborne that day. That we did not actually get triggerhappy. I saw a ton of airplanes that day, owning little airplanes myself. Thats a scary i must of scare the heck out of them. But we did and i kept everyone safe. Chris this is a little bit tied to your story. Is how underappreciated, potomac trade khan is in our response to 9 11. I would love to kiss those controllers, their mental agility in transitioning from keeping aircraft separated and sequencing them for the most effective operations. Ive kirsten as many times to, because im sitting there trying to take thought, and i want clearance. But they were so competent. When sass says hey potomac, do you have any military background . No. Lets just call the national bortac, lets call that bullseye. Can you do that . Do you have that on your scope . You have the radios coming off of there, you have the radios, you have the range rings. So if you see a contact, if you get radar contact thats due east, and. Its 30 miles away heres what i want you to say. Contact, bullseye zero and if he can get an altitude cut giving the altitude as well. Unlike that the controllers swamped their mental approach, they swamp their paradigms, they adopted our Fighter Pilot language and they helped facilitate our ability to clear the air space and then as the airspace caulk superclean jested with all the responders, the helicopters, the medevacs, the army flights, not only today call out the unknowns, but in the also called out the aircraft that we knew were friendlys. They would say thats a man of medevacs flight 90 whatever, this is their bullseye cut, this is their destination, this is a hospital. So we didnt have to waste our time on friendlies they were helping take care of people, helping respond and we could focus really on those unknowns and those rogue easy and keep everyone safe. So really just think that that the potomac is unsung heroes. Here absolutely, i know were going a little bit over, but well take one more question if theres another question in the audience . All the way back . My airport near apple us. I. We were near the arrivals near b w. Why. After 9 11, it was just so quiet. I know you dont call yourself a hero the only thing we heard where they have 16s it was an extreme comfort when i knew that i was a 15s. On that note affecting overthink well wrap. Up i want to thank you all for taking the time to listen to the story. As mentioned, its an important story, its a story to remember and its a story to be told and retold. We were very fortunate to have this penny join us tonight. Again, thank you for taking your time for what youve done, for aviation in this country. clapping clapping we will not be able to provide autographs tonight but given the hour we will not be able to do that. On behalf of the ge in the whole team, i want to thank you for sponsoring this event, past events and future events. Thank you so much. clapping and i guess i would just close by saying that i hope in a few days time on the 11th of a september, each of you awe will remember this in your own way what it meant to this nation and what i meant was individually and collectively and take a moment to thank those people that sacrifice so much that day that live on in our memories. Thank you and have a great evening. clapping weeknights this month, weve feature American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan 3. Tonight, a look at history through photographs. During the Great Depression and world war ii, photographers working for the u. S. Governments Farm Security administration and later the office of war information created about 1600 color photographs depicting life in the United States and or production activities. Collection curator beverley brennan of the library of Congress Talks about the photographers and their images. Watch tonight beginning at eight eastern. Enjoy American History tv this weekend every weekend on cspan 3. Tracy walter is coauthor of the unexpected spy from the cia to the fbi. A secret life taken down what some of the worlds most notorious terrorist. Up next, she doesnt interview about her time as a say i a special Operations Officer in the immediate
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