Like all of our public programs. This lecture is presented free of charge. This is possible. Thanks. Through the generous support ge 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. Representing ge aviation with us tonight is lisa crerar barclay, Digital Solutions leader of military Systems Operations at ge aviation. Lisa, to you and your colleagues at g. E. , we thank you for substantial and enduring support. Since we opened the museum here on the mall in 1976 and the uber hazy in chantilly in 2003. More. 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, an intellectual trust our curators educate, docents, volunteers and others endeavor to tell stories about aerospace and how it has defined shaped the american experience. This evening are joined by a father team who, by virtue of their professional roles on. 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. And yet we endured as a community and in the years since 911, the Aviation Industry has become more more accessible more affordable, more proficient, and even more influential than ever before. 911 for all its pain, tragedy is indeed a story to be told and remembered. To help that, i would like to introduce heather lucky penny. Most widely recognized for her service 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 that congress had opened combat aviation to women. The first and only woman in the 121st Fighter Squadron and heather deployed to Operation Iraqi freedom for initial combat operations in nighttime scud hunting in the western deserts of iraq and also supported special teams. Heather flew the f16 for ten years before joining Lockheed Martin as the director of air force Aviation Training systems, specializing in government and strategic business development. Heathers passion for aviation has never faded. She has raced jets at, reno air races. She has 3000 hours with commercial instructor multiengine and air transport pilot ratings and volunteers. The Collings Foundation coping their b17 when her busy schedule permits, she enjoys flying her own stearman, a 1950 cessna 170. Along with her family and rescue dog. Fittingly she named gilmore after roscoe lion. Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great to introduce to you this evening. Heather lucky penny. So thank you all for coming out here tonight. And again, lisa i really thank you so much and the generosity of g. E. To support this lecture series, what the museum, what the air and space museum does and what the ge aviation lecture series allows was the museum to do is to tell these stories like mine so that people, like yourselves, can experience can experience history in a far more personal and hopefully impactful manner than when you just see the signs next to the airplane. So, again, thank you, lisa, for everything you and ge are doing to support 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. Now, im certainly not calling myself hero at all because. 11 was nothing that any of us planned and as you all know, because you all have your stories and your experiences of nine, 11, everything go one of us every single america was somehow touched by that day. We all have our connections. We all somehow lost either people, loved ones. So i appreciate the fact that you all are here today to listen to my 911 story because really all did that day was show up for work right right. We had just gotten from two weeks at red flag which at that point in my time as a young baby Fighter Pilot, the pinnacle of what i could ever hope for an experience. I had killed two migs. I had dropped bombs. I had been there for my time on target. And weve just gotten back from that that weekend we 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 they were going through just the normal administration of running Fighter Squadron, right. What jets do we have . What sorties are we going to be flying . We were traditional mostly at the time were a guard unit. So a guard is is comprised of a few full time that make sure that the unit runs and all the administer action and is taken care of so that when the part timers show up that they can just jump in the jets and go and train. I was one of those few full time staff. Who needs check rides, whos doing upgrades. We just got back from red flag, so the jets were fitted with ters and external fuel tanks, ecm pods, and we had our training missiles board and we were moving into a training phase of dog fighting fighter maneuver. And we called it fm, just a lot of basic fun, if you ask me. But the maintainers were it was going to take a while to to to pull the the external fuel tank. And the ters there. It was going to take them a while to reconfigure jets to go do them to to clean it up. So we had slick, slick vipers. We could just go g r g our noses off, you know, i mean, so we had three guys that we could send down into the air force. Dare county arranges it down in North Carolina. We call it bully flight, whos a loose shooter, campbell was bully one. Eric parkinson was bully two. And then we had Billy Hutchison was bully. So they brief they take off. Theyre headed down to North Carolina to go bomb four quarters and strafe because its in like a little bit of low angle strafe. Everyone loves shooting the gun. And by the way, ive never seen a Fighter Pilot ever pull the gun and not go for we all make the noise so theyre down there theyre theyre bombing were sitting a in an administrative meeting and we get this knock at the door and an enlisted guy his noggin in with david chunks is what we call them. And dave says an airplane just flew into the World Trade Center and we looked outside because our room was right. The flight line, it was a huge plate window. And were thinking, how does that happen. Because as you know, i mean new york actually isnt that far away. Contrary what you know, traffic would have you believe actually really just kind of a stones throw as far as the bird flies and we share very similar weather patterns. We look outside and its a perfect crystal autumn day that we here how what . So were thinking know did someone poach their you know their their approach into laguardia. I mean it must have just been one of those little sightseeing airplanes going down the hudson. It kind of made a wrong turn, maybe. Was scud running. We made a couple of jokes about little airplanes bouncing off of buildings and. And then because we they dont do any damage, they just sort of fall the ground their planes, that is. And and continued on it wasnt i mean it wasnt really anything that triggered. Until a few minutes later chunks knocks on the door again says another airplane flew into the other World Trade Center it was on. 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 to the trade centers. And we were absolutely. So people have asked, how could this have been possible . Right. I mean, didnt we have on alert . Well, once upon a time, we sat, but that was before we got our f16s, i mean, we gave up alert when we had shifted from, you know, the the thuds the to the air force. And so wed been a long time since we had that alert because if you recall, in 1991, when the wall fell, the soviet union fell, we didnt need it anymore. Right. The soviet bear threat was gone. And so we really we pared down our entire military through the peace dividend. And on september 10th and on september 11th, there were really only four units sitting alert, looking out over the oceans and over polar region to ensure that, no stray bombers came over the north pole to newcastle i mean that was that was the paris that we were living in. So no one ever imagined that that the threat would come from inside. Guide we had never we just had never conceived that something. So. Ingenious in the most horrible way could be done. So nearly immediately. To mark cecil, who is our deo at the time, he he really he to the operations desk raising cain dan cain was our weapons officer turns me goes lucky i need you i got to to build up some duties get us some maps, get us some takeoff and landing data. I dont know what to look like, but just make it happen. So brandon rasmussen, eiger and i go to the Flight Mission planning room. We start Mission Planning for something. We dont know what again, i mean, this is this is not the defensive air mission that i had for that i knew how to do. I mean, there was a certain point where you had a combat air patrol, and ive got a point that im defending, but defending against who . We dont have awacs. We dont have you know, we just have our own little bitty radars and we dont know who is hostile, whos friendly. And were not. I mean, nothing is clear. Everything is as confused is you could have imagined, but we do our best we we print out our our lineup cards with our take off and landing data. We get to sets. Some of the jets are clean and some of the jets are still heavy and dirty and our 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 Data Transfer cartridges. Our data sees theyre like these. Theyre like these big bricks that are really kind of like thumb drives your jet where you can take all of your data and then put it into the jet and download it so that you can accelerate and program all of your avionics. We get that done. And i go and i go to hawk the ops desk. Now ill need to go through a little bit of bureaucracy because. The National Guard in dc is not like the National Guard in any other state, in other states, you know, the national has two chains of command. Youve got your federal chain of command, which only occurs when you get activated to deploy. And that in that case chat to the active Duty Air Force and youre for all intents and purposes, active Duty Air Force. And then thats your federal chain of the civilian chain of command goes up to the states. And were seeing that now where we have texas and florida and montana and washington, oregon, activating elements of their National Guard to serve their domestic requirement to protect their people in their state. And so theres a very 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 authority was traditionally he delegated down through the secretariat to the of the army. And thats certainly not what the secretary of the army was thinking about. How do i get some defensive counter error up d. C. . Thats that was on his mind so were trying to get activated so that we can were trying to get the chain of command energized. Were trying to find who has the Legal Authority to tell us to launch how do we get. Because we cant just off on our on our own theres a very real and important reason why the civilian have the command of our military. So as as as much as we know, need to be airborne. We cant. So were grounded our general officer, her Wing Commander david worley had come from the wing building and hes sitting by the office desk and hes making phone. Hes trying to find to energize through his you know, hes hes hes our top. Hes making as many calls as he can raise. And cain, dan cain, our weapons officer. Two 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. It was where we keep all of our bullets, where we keep all of our bombs. We do have some bombs. We do have some live missiles, but we dont fly with them every. You certainly wouldnt want bombs and live missiles flying over your house on a daily basis if we have no intention of dropping them, were using them and that make any sense to us either because would just simply wear out those systems and. Oh, by the way, we dont keep explosives and the fuzes in the bodies or not some missile body or bomb body all built up, ready to go. You have it all separated. You to build it. It takes time, for example, when we go to war, its a three day cycle from the planning process to come down 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, to configure the aircraft. It doesnt happen instantaneously. So raising calls down to the bomb dump and tells them to, build us up some nines, some 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 and you get a phone call from the weapons officer and telling you, build me up some missiles. No live ones, just trust me. Can you imagine what be going through your mind . You have no air tasking order, youve got no legal papers work, no paper trail to that. This is a a legal order for you to execute. So it really is a testament to the vision, the and the courage that rayson 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 dc again. Something unique to operating out of andrews is we always to deal with the hassle of force one any time a distinguished visitor moves on Andrews Air Force base. An especially when its the president the entire base shuts down. I mean, you 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 little, tiny fighter, that doesnt carry a lot of gas, but burns a lot of it quickly. Its a big problem. So we been working with the secret service to try to develop better coordination so that we could facilitate our training 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 flown them in the back seat of the f16s to prove them that we are actually good guys. So we knew who they were and they knew who we were as. A result it was the pentagon was hit that Vice President cheney said, do have some fighters at andrews. Somebody get those guys airborne. And they knew who to call. I mean, as i mentioned, when we had a peace dividend in the 1990s and we drew down all of our forces and drew down our alert forces, and we were no longer sitting alert either, even if even if. The First Air Force of nora, if that is authority had known that we were at andrews i dont even have heyward, they would they would not have the Legal Authority to be able to activate. Its its a really unfortunate lesson that. Bureaucracy actually matters and organization it actually matters. And it has real world consequence forces. So fortunately, we finally the authorization from president from Vice President cheney get somebody airborne. Sas looks at me, he says, all right, lucky youre with me. Reason you take iger. You guys wait till you have missiles on board. Okay. I want to make sure you guys have missiles lucky lets go sas and i run down the hallway to life support or putting on a suit and putting on my vest and throwing my know, throwing on my harness and making sure ive got my helmet on my my dtc. Ive got my lineup cards, ive got my vest. And sas looks at me and he says, ill take the cockpit. I knew that i would take the tail i remember my dad had been involved in a Safety Investigation analyzing a crash of a 737 out of colorado springs. And they had lost their empanadas, had lost the vertical in the horizontal tails, and the airplane just went straight in. There was just nothing left. There is no way they could have pulled out, no way they could controlled it. And the other thing is, if they did, they wouldnt have glided in, would be no fan pattern of debris it would just be straight down. So i knew that i would take the tail were running out as fast as we can go as fast as i can go. Sas is outrunning me and you know, hes a major, hes an old guy. I you know, with. With all my flight, with all my flight gear had nearly doubled body weight he runs the first jet on the line and i run to the next one again. Recall that you. You know, im just a brand new lieutenant. Ive recently become combat mission ready. I just went to my first red flag. And as every pilot knows, 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 is grab the forms. Im going to look through the 70, 80 ones. Im doing my walk around as fast as i possibly can and sas already in the cockpit. It looks like a lucky. What the hell are you doing again . The jet. It wasnt because i was being negligent. It was because i knew that if anything in my life, that was it. And i could not screw up. You recall that we had sent the three ship down to air force dare while we were working to try to get the authorization to launch while. I was making dates and lineup while raizen was down to get missiles built up. Our supervisor of flying, phil thompson. Doug thompson. Doug thompson had gone to fight a Weapons School in the air four and he had this big fluffy mustache and he was just a crusty old Fighter Pilot. And i loved him. I respected him. He had such good horse sense calls down to air force dare tells a ranger, send the bullies home. Tell them to buster. Buster means come home fast as you can without using your afterburner. So those guys are coming back at vmi ill as fast as they possibly can. Now, i didnt realize none of us actually, just yet when dog was down there, bully, too, had run himself out of gas. Not really. He had reached bingo, which meant that he no longer had fuel to play on the rangers but rather park had to come home because he had just enough fuel to come home with the necessary reserve. So shooter clears pick off says all right you know, eric, you go home and well continue and well finish up the mission. Well do all our strafing. Well well the debrief later so pack bully two hes on his way home and dogs its a radio call from from puck guards office bully bully to guard tough go. So if theyre not there washington doesnt want to let me in the airspace. All right bully to you just headed on back home. Ill take care of this dog puts a phone down calls up center so he can get billy to back home and couple other minutes, pat calls back and says, guard softly to bully, to guard tough go. So if theyre asking me if ive got missiles or bullets or bombs, board, dont you worry about that bully to you just come on home center 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 pre 911 world right. We all know there was a print 11 world in a post911 world. And what mattered what defined that that doorway was if you had seen images on day, some of us were still living in a pre 911 world because who could have imagined Something Like that happening and. Those of us who had seen it, we now living in that post911 world. So pak has no idea whats going. But he he comes back home and he lands and of course dogs called down to the ranger and we got bowie and boy three coming back home so shooter and billy are coming back home. It wasnt until weeks later that i had the opportunity to to listen to two parks tapes and it still gives me the chills to this day as pugs coming in hes getting ready to land hes pulling up at us airdrome terminal Information System its a its a loop an audio loop thats transmitted every hour to give pilots information need to know in order to be able to land so it gives you the weather the barometric pressure, what the cloud ceiling is with the landing runway is or theres any other information you need to know to prepare. And it lightens the workload of the of the controllers. This is what parks eight is said. This is information. Bravo, andrew. Zero, first base is closed. Washington class bravo airspace is any aircraft attempting to enter washington class bravo airspace will be shut down. So. Im in my jet and i now realize i got to throw the out i even bother strapping in i mean normally its about a 20 minute process thats just drop to wake your jet up to make sure that youve downloaded and checked all of your system, gone through your built in tests, configured all navigation, your steer points, get avionics setup right. If youre doing just a a close nearby little dogfighting mission, 10 minutes most and at that point we didnt have gps on the aircraft we had actually just upgraded to the really sophisticated ring laser gyro iron system. It only took 8 minutes, not 16 minutes to to erect. So we were pretty high speed, but we didnt have 20 minutes. We didnt have ten and we didnt have we needed to go. I dont bother in the mantra, the rhythm, the of the challenge in response you do with your crew chief. Its out the window. Im relying on my knowledge simply to know the things that i need to do. Just master battery on j4 star two 20 over the hump to idle and im watching my rpm my temperature 40 less than 750. Im good and im yelling at my crew chief paula chocks all the chocks i dont have a radar there is no data link 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 tracks with afterburner. They pull the chalks and im taxiing after sas and my crew chief is still plugged in and hes running underneath me and other other crew chiefs are running underneath me, pulling the pans of my turns. Theyre pulling the pins out of my external fuel tanks. Theyre pulling the pins out of my gear and out of my chop and flare. As were taxiing on my tapes, i call to up and you can hear Billy Hutchison taking off. Shooter and billy. Billy and bully two head landed and doc says wed finally gotten the operation dog checks how much fuel they have and shooter doesnt have enough but billys got like 1200 pounds and says okay they think theres another one coming down the river. You got just enough fuel for one pass up and down the river. So billy takes off. Hes the first one airborne and takes off. He stays low. He goes northwest over the pentagon up to great falls, turns around, down potomac, down to where the potomac turns and hooks 90 left into the into the bay. And then he comes back home and he lands and sas and i take second after him. And we take off and we head northeast and to a serene and peaceful and silent sky. Theres no one airborne. We head out to the northwest and we never find anything. Says 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 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, taken an oath to give their life in our nations defense, they did. So they were the true heroes. The dc guard, the combat air patrol. For two weeks after 911, which was unprecedented. Clearly an event this unprecedented, but the National Guard to own authorization of that combat air patrol was truly unique and different different. And we did it because there was lot of untangling to do after that day. As you can imagine, trying to through what went wrong and then figure out the appropriate lines of authority, the 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 capital. These were all the problems that we were dealing over the next few weeks, not me. I was just a line im getting in my jet and im im pulling in midnight to 4 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, that works, you know, not only with a flight suit, you know, your aircrew. But you can decode what the patches mean, right . So tuna gets stopped in the pentagon by some guy says, are you are you from the dc garden to says, yeah. Let me tell you a story. This is a story that he told tuna and the story that tuna told. Was when the pentagon was hit, they 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 through to north parking were trapped. Theyre coming. The river entrance, theyre coming out to north parking, theyre going over the bridge that goes over 110 and theyre getting stuck in that parking lot. Thats thats in between route 110 and the potomac river. And they cant go anywhere because evacuation procedures were built for fires, not Something Like this. And the wind was light. It was perfect day. It like an out of the southwest. So its blowing the smoke and the ashes in the up over the center and actually right over a north parking. And theres a Child Development center. Its still there, but its closed now. The women are evacuating the babies out of the Child Development center. Its like daddy daycare. And again, their procedures are for fire drills. So theyre pushing out these cribs with four toddlers. To you know, for babies to a 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. I mean, 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 them all away. Can you please get them safety get them off of the bridge. Theyre babies away. But once they get to north parking, theyre trapped. And the ashes falling on them and the is accurate and smoky. And it was the pentagon burned for four weeks for months afterwards. And they know somethings coming. And if you remember this is before everyone had a cell phone in their pocket. Right i mean if youre somebody, you might have a pager. They know theres else coming, but they dont know what. They dont know when. And now theyre no longer their desks. They cant that information refresh . So theyre just simply waiting and trapped and that billy co zoom in right over those guys in full afterburner. And out of silence they are up to the cheers because they know that we are now airborne that American Air Force fighter jets are airborne and we arent going to let anyone them. Theyre going to be okay. I think back now with years between 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 because again, only because of passengers on flight 93 proved it. But when you look what everyone up in new york did, they are the First Responders running towards the towers and not away the individuals who were in the towers who helped each other get saved, each others lives. And then think of this the people cleaned up the towers, going to work every day knowing that they would die from what they were doing. And they did it every way, every day. And anyways. So when i look back on that day with the years to be able reflect on what it might. 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 ourselves, that are more important our own personal safety. And that risk is 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, life. These are things matter. The things that bring us together together. So when i think back as hard as that day has for our nation, it gives hope. Thank you. Thank you, heather heather. We do all have stories as where we were and, how that day impacted us. And as i segway into the next part of our program and make our next introduction. Allow me a moment sort of share a context that might might help with the introduction on 911, i was the airport manager at reagan national, and so i saw it from from the 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 for questions from you all later. But i think, as you know, we closed at national not for three days, but we remained following after all the other airports reopened. And it was rather disconcerting and we didnt know whether to mothball the airport to put it on life support, to close it. You may recall from my opening remarks, we opened the agency in 2003. Well, there were people suggested to me in 2001, why dont we turn terminal at reagan into an annex for the agency frankly most people did not think that National Going to reopen secretary or pardon me Vice President cheney and the service were dead set against it. And it was interesting because would say we cant have aircraft close to the airport and yet when the system reopened 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 you kind of wonder did it make much sense . But many of us worked hard to go ahead to to take the actions necessary to reopen reagan 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 would allow aviation to proceed because on aircraft carriers, we sailed into harms way all the time. But had very distinct procedures you had to follow to get back on that ship. When we were 100 miles off the lebanon, the bridge blew out. I can assure you. And the f14 coming back to the ship. If we didnt follow very prescribed procedures squawk and so forth, we were going to get shot down and so i met had the occasion to meet with secretary norm mineta. One of this countrys great great american, who arguably was the one who shut down the airspace on that day. And as a side note, what air traffic did that day is heroic and a story in itself. But he took it down. But i remember going to his office. My colleagues at the time and and showing them a picture of aircraft carrier. And i said, think of national as an aircraft carrier. What we need to do is devise procedures, profiles, squawk, check in to a communication all the various things that we would do on a ship. And you do that and you can get airplanes in and out here and oh, by the way, you may know that there were i have missile batteries up in anacostia. You could see them from, the airport. So if somebody follow those procedures, there was a rule of engagement to take to shoot them down. So i dont know if that suggestion carried the day, but i do know that what came out of it was this idea that, yes, you can in fact fly into a high threat and do so safely and successfully if you have the proper prescribed procedures. But the idea that you had to stay seated for minutes before flight, that kind of went away for obvious reasons. But at end of the day, three and a half weeks later, the decision president made the decision to reopen and. I recall going back over to secretary office. It was i a tuesday and he said and i went into the software and who was in there smoking a cigaret. Herb kelleher and don carty and a bunch of the ceos sitting there and im looking at herb thinking i, dont think you can do that here, but secretary mineta had summoned the and those that couldnt make it. Were on a telephone and said president wants to reopen national. Can you do it in 48 hours now im sitting there thinking every cabdriver Restaurant Operator rental car worker theyve gone and so im thinking this is sort of like sort like starting the jet. It normally takes time to sort of get back into the game and without skipping a beat, ceo said secretary. Yes sir will be up and ready. And im just looking around going, you dont even know where your people are. But the reality is we did, but it was as may remember, very limited flights a day. And we we eventually joined rest of the Aviation System and reopened reopened and sometimes its the day after happened after 911. That is as informative and impressive in my mind is as many of the actions that people took on that day itself. But among the commercial Airline Pilots who boldly to their cockpits and helped restore our nations most transportation infrastructure is heathers father, john born and raised in california. John was appointed to the air force academy. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in 1970 during his academy, he built model airplanes, flew sail planes, and earned a degree in aeronautics engineering. He finished pilot at Vance Air Force base in 1971 and went on to fly 140 combat missions in the seven in vietnam. After the war, he served as an 87 instructor and had a tour as a forward air controller. He left the air force 1979, and after his first brief stint with the airlines with united, john landed a job with leer fan corporation, reno airport, where he worked for the next five and a half years as an engineer and test pilot. During his tenure, reno john became associated with and joined the rare bear air racing team and flew in First NationalChampionship Air race in september 1985 while living in reno, john kept his hand in military aviation, joining the nevada Air National Guard flying there four phantom. He started his own business. Mcmasters flight testing and instructing in numerous types of u. S. And foreign. Including the mig 15, mig 17, mig 21, and others his perspective, an accomplished aviator and commercial with united the job that he then rejoined after the furlough on 911. And as the father of a daughter tasked with defending our skies that day is truly. Well hear both of them now and i invite heather and john back to the podium podium. For chairs. Thank you, chris. Its an honor to be here evening to talk to all of you folks and share with you some perspectives. As a father of a Fighter Pilot, an airline pilot, now retired from United Airlines. And id like to thank lisa and the g corp and todd and bill, who were here sponsoring this event and thats its an honor to be and speak to you folks. Id like to share with you a few things. Events that happened on that day of 911 and some perspectives that were that we gained from those events that day and things that happened that affected us as a family as all airline of united and and all americans. The morning of 911, actually, i was my wife. I were starting the first of 30 days of vacation that i had 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 says, is your tv on . I said, no. So turn on the tv. So we turn on the tv and its everywhere. At that time, both the towers had been hit and it was obvious the United States was under attack. At that point. My wife, stephanie was very distraught at that, and i did everything i could to reassure her. I said, heathers okay, shes airborne. Of course, little. I know the what was going on, but it seemed to calm some of her fears and pardon me. So we got on the phone and tried to call heather immediately and. Of course, as some of us, im all of you know, the telephone lines were just jammed. No way to get through. So my wife, stephanie, she gets on the computer and emails to heather, know whats going on. After heathers First Mission, when she got on the ground, she emailed back and said, im okay, said, ive been flying im busy. And that was about it. And ill you tonight or ill call later sometime soon thereafter. Heathers twin sister, jill, called us up, said. I need to talk to my sister on here to talk to her now now. The phone lines are jammed so she couldnt get through and we couldnt get through. Heather call that evening and. She said, im at home. Ive flown twice. Im really, really tired. Im going to bed and ill. Ill talk you again sometime. We didnt know. The full story of what had happened with her mission, that First Mission that she described when they sent out and they were trying to search out the location of united flight 93 that day for several days thereafter at our house there. And everybody in colorado the only noise we heard in the skies were the f16s that were patrolling from the Air National Guard base at buckley force base in denver and, boy, some of them came over low. Some of them were an afterburner. And folks, thats jet noise and thats the sound of freedom. We found out also that day that jason dahl, captain jason dahl was the captain of your flight. Flight united flight 93, a friend, ours. His wife called and told us about what had happened. Jasons airplane and you all know that airplane crashed in pennsylvania. Now there is a three way link between Heather Jason and myself. As i said. Jason was a captain of united flight three and united flight 93 was the aircraft. Heather and Lieutenant Colonel sarsfield were searching for after. They launched out of Andrews Air Force base. Unbeknownst to them, unbeknownst atc flight 93 had already crashed. Even as they were getting airborne. So why they never found it . The airplane crashed there in shanksville. Now, captain jason dahl and i shared an Office Cubicle at the United AirlinesFlight Training center. We were both standards captains. And jason and i had a couple of deaths, and he had a picture, his son, matt, who i believe at that time he was still in high school and it was lovely wife, sandy and jason. I had a chance to to he would talk and just brag his son how smart he was and everything he was doing and all the things they did together and the fun they had and his love for his wife, sandy. After the events of 911. There was a Memorial Service in denver at the church that jason, 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. This was not a megachurch they went to. But i guess you call i dont know if you call it an 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 our uniforms. The eulogy that day was delivered by matt, jason, son. He was poised. He was very it a beautiful eulogy. There was not a dry eye in. The house. To this day, i dont know. He stood there and did that pretty after the service. Another and a united pilot said, hey, john, tomorrow lets put uniforms on. Lets go out to Denver International airport and into the terminal and just talk to the passengers. And i said, hap, thats a great idea. We did. We got in there the next day, went out to dia. We spent several hours out out there and went up and down the terminal talking to passengers trying to reassure them about the security and the safety traveling on, at least the United Airlines or all airlines. And for some people, it was very emotional and were very touched. And for other other folks to they were very stoic and they showed a lot of courage to be, you know, good, loyal americans and get up in the skies and travel. So we hope that that was a a meaningful experience for them and it certainly was for happen to myself. I can guarantee you that. There were some anecdotal accounts by other pilots of things that happened on 11 and afterwards after the initial attacks out here at dulles Ground Control and the tower anybody they could get a hold of who had not gotten airborne yet they turned around and sent them back to the gates at 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 in an appearance, jumped up and ran forward out the door of the aircraft and disappeared into the into the terminal. It can only be suppose used what might have happened had that airplane gotten airborne airborne. We can only theorize about that. But i think you may know because the four airplanes that were used, terror weapons were not the only ones that had planned for that day. There are other accounts from some flight attendants and some other pilots. I talked to a after 911 that when they were up in and cruising, that there were incidences once twice of, again, young men that probably came that part of the world, the get up and were moving rapidly up the aisle towards the cockpit area and then they would stop and turn around and go back and sit in their seats. So again, we can only surmise that perhaps maybe were trying to probe. Who knows . I dont what came of any reports of those and you know where the people were searched and by the fbi or the secret service. I had my own personal experience. It was prior to 911. We had heard some reports at united of some airline crews. Uniforms had been stolen, some their Layover Hotel rooms had been into and i think in encounter a hotel room, a guy answered the door and somebody knocked on it and they subdued and they overpowered him and stole his uniform ran off. Now back at that time, prior to 911, you might only surmise that perhaps they were just trying to get a free ride in the cockpit as a jump seater, much like who is that in that movie . Whats the name of the movie here . Catch me if you can. Yes, i dont know if the movie was made here, but that was the scenario good uniform and try to get free free ride in the cockpit where you want to go . I had a layover there. I think you all are obviously local to washington, d. C. Is it the courtyard marriott of Dulles Airport . Is that the airport . Thats right next to the terminal . I think it is. Anyway, i had a trip i had a layover at the hotel there, right at the and early in the morning as a knock on my door. So i get up and i look and guess the gentleman looks like was outside that door. And i said, is it is this engineering sir, we have the report of a problem with the air conditioning. I said, just a minute, let me put my clothes. I ran back and got on the phone and called the the front desk and i said, have you sent anybody from engineering to come and work on my air conditioning. I said. I went back to the door, looked at the people and there was nobody there. Foolishly, i opened the door to another look and could have been hiding, but then looked up and down the hallway. And there the person was gone. So i got dressed immediately, went down to the desk and i said, somebody came knock my door, said some engineering. I dont know whats going on. Now, remember that was prior to 911. It only a few weeks prior. So that was a dot that could have been connected to some other dots, some other things were going on regarding some of people getting training at some flight schools who said, i dont want to learn how to land the airplane, only to fly it. And some of those reports are made to the fbi and nothing was done. They didnt with the secret service or anything at that time we didnt have Department Homeland security. So those were not being connected. And the date that i saw that morning, i must admit that i didnt try get it connected to anything. Many of you helping the audience or some of you up in the audience, almost everybody, this country has a tie to something that happened on that day on 911 or somebody, whether they were involved in some activities or they were tragically killed as a result of the terrorist acts on the court where we live, my wife stephanie and i 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 911. Obviously, my wife stephanie and i with our daughter heather. And the the mission that she performed on that day with honor right across our court the gentleman and his wife and wed been there he had been an executive at a Financial 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 us that they lost about 12 maybe was 13 friends that morning morning down at the bottom of the court. The couple there, their son, joe, who worked in a for a company, was either at the bottom of one of the twin trade towers or in a building immediately next to it. On nine, ten or nine, ten, you only hear 911. On 910. Joe, very, very late that night into the next morning. And he decided to sleep in and didnt in to 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 he on a normal course of events would have been to work that morning that a lot of 10 minutes, chris. I mean if ive gone past that get the hook or hit guy and ill ill be down here okay. Theres Something Like to talk about just briefly here and closing there have been a lot of media stories that are written about our daughter activities on the morning of 911, launching in her f16 with sas and everything that transpired right afterwards. And i had been interviewed about that also, they have used some Artistic License and trying to say that heather could have thought that she was maybe taking off and could down an airliner that i may have been the captain of. And i had i had been to the east coast. Fact, i, i had, in fact, recently flown some flights from the east coast. And when i was a layover here, i either when i arrived or when i was getting ready to leave, id give heather a call. Fact. You, as i said, i had called heather. I was here on those layovers. In another fact, did she know if i was flying that morning . No. Didnt fact heather, as you seen from her story, was totally focused on the mission at hand to perform her duty as an f 16 pilot and a correct manner and be a good wingman for sas and. Do whatever was required on that morning to try to protect our country. Now, the supposition by some of these news writers to try to again using dramatic license was to try to make it sound. If when our daughter heather was running out to the airplane and getting airborne and when they were airborne on out looking for a united 93 and they didnt know it was 93, just and somebody was inbound was that she was thinking oh my gosh, you know my, dad might be a captain on on this and i might have to bring down an airplane from my dad is on board that was not the case at all. She was totally focused on mission at hand. So there a lot of artistic taken by people who have written stories about this and and that that gives me some concern. Heather talked about the true heroes on united 93. She has been called a hero by some people have written and she has as you heard by her selfdeclaration she was not. She discounts being called a hero on that day and as she didnt use the terminology but shes before you said that she was an accidental witness to history on 911 along with mark cecil and so many other people that were involved in protecting our nation and responding and as you said, the true heroes of in that chapter. Of what happened on 911 regarding flight 93, where those passenger doors who prevented the terrorists from turning united flight 93 into a weapon terror. And we should all never forget that they were a small group of heroes who did that very, very small group, along with all the heroes that and did what they did at the pentagon in the years in the air over washington, dc. And, you know 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 my drivel and i guess were going to start some question and answer here. Thank you very much. Thank you, john. And well, im kind of going a little bit over. Hopefully ill keep my job. But i think its important to provide you all at least a few minutes an opportunity to ask a question because, you know, it is so important not just to tell the story and remember the story, but to get get the facts right and who better to answer to that than, john and and heather, question up here. Heather, ive got a lot of this one of them was being in my house about two miles southwest national, seeing an f16 trying to would have been final on the unused runway, the northeast southwest runway of national low. I think landing configuration, definitely nose up and quite slow. Only a couple feet off the ground. Was that, you. I dont i dont think i need to repeat the question. I think probably everybody heard that i know the question is the gentleman witnessed or says that there was an aircraft on short final the national and wondering if it was in fact heather. No although id to put dca in my logbook i didnt i. Never. I never got into a situation like that during the course of that day we did a number of intercepts, small aircraft which if youre flying assess, youre flying an f16, they go very different speeds. So one of the more convenient ways to slow to get to a closer or speed thats more cessna like is to throw your gear down because that automatically deploys flaps. We need to have a flap override of the f16 to manually deploy the pilots because thats not something we ever normally do. So the only thing that i can 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 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 up with the timing of what you witnessed, but do know that when when the aircraft system was was effectively being shut down, we did have arrivals into reagan coming in and it was at that determined better to get them on ground even if its reagan then 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 in fact watching 757 come in and having that same type of question over here sir, you talk about specifically mission prior to 911, you said youd be for bearers and something coming over. But if you on hot standby prior the nineties or if someone was on hot as a as a procedure, what would that have gained for you for your mission after 2001 in another . Do you want repeat the question . I think for that i will. The question is really, really about and you can correct me if im wrong, youre interested in of those units were still sitting alert what what was their what was their response as you were on and so if had had a alert at dc what would that have been like so the aircraft that were sitting alert, they had preplanned flight profile where when they you when they were scrambled they would jump in their aircraft and they would actually take over the atlantic. So thats why you have the aircraft that were detached, langley actually taking and flying east over atlantic. And while you have the aircraft were sitting alert at otis flying over the atlantic before theyre turned around to respond to the threat that actually internal so had andrews been sitting alert would that have solved the problem. I cannot i cannot speculate in educated manner because there are a number of things that would need to happen within the not just what would their profile have looked like, how long would have it taken them to turn around . Whats the chain of command, etc. And what would have triggered that kind of response . So unfortunately, i dont think its fair to what it could have should have the situation it just is a gentleman in the red shirt. Yes. I was one of those rescue workers working that day and thank, you know, i want to thank you because they put us away from doing what we was trained do for years at that moment until, those fighters showed up. We she and you absolutely correct. We were trained for air and we were thanking you for showing to save us, to look out for us and want to thank you. I want to thank you. You. Right here, sir. You said that you didnt have missiles, but did you have any weapons charged, any working weapons on your f16 . So we routinely carry 35 of you. Repeat the question, because i know theres some corners here. Didnt the question and the question was we didnt have missiles, but what did we have any kind of weapon . Loadout. And we routinely flew 105 rounds of bullets in the nose partly for a waiting balance issue but those bullets were kinetic bullets they were led they were just led. When we go to combat, we fly with high explosive, incendiary rounds and 510 of them, the cannon, the f16 fires its rounds 6000 rounds a minute. So 510 rounds is a little over 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, the 200 rounds would be utterly insofar to take down the airliner. In the back. Sir. Was declared a the craft coming down and as the day progress out who had authority or took authority to authorize shoot down as a civil aircraft after that was a narrator to 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 it down, typically within combat operations, the rules of engagement, the we have a have a very specific matrix that you have fulfill in order to be able to shoot somebody, we need to know what the aircraft is. We need to know where it originated from. We need to know what it doesnt have hostile intent, things like that. The rov that we had that was actually provided later during that sortie, we were provided free fire, which meant that as an individual fighter, pilots sitting my f16, i Heather Penney make the decision to shoot down an aircraft. I need to ask mother, may i . There was no no going up chain of command, which i mean to things. The level of risk that was, i assume, by enabling us to make that decision, it was necessary because of the confusion and the chaos that going on within within all the military elements. Because as mentioned, there was no clear chain of command was there was nothing set up to be able to support that kind of role. We my other observation of that free fire authorization is that nobody used. So within the chaos the fog of war that confused john and as you can also imagine the anger all of those emotions every american was feeling that morning. It was overcome by the professionalism and discipline of every Fighter Pilot who was airborne that morning, that they chose not to use it because the skies were still of airplanes. There were people that had you know there was a that was a time when you didnt have to file. You flew, you did have to file a flight plan. You didnt have to talk on the radio. So if you didnt listen to the radio, if you didnt listen to your favorite top or, you know, watch, watch the news that morning, you just got up and went out to your little airplane and, waxed on a little bit, poured in some oil and took off. You had no idea that we just suddenly shut down the entire national airspace. So i think it is also a testament to the professionalism of all of us who were airborne day that we did not actually get trigger happy. I thumped a ton little airplanes that day and i and i have lot of guilt for what it must have done to their poor little wings owning little airplanes. I just scared heck out of them. But. But, but we did. And we kept everyone safe. And heres the thing i actually want to bring up and and chris is a little bit kind of tied to your story is how potomac track is in our response to 911, i would love to kiss those controllers because theyre for mental agility and transitioning from keeping aircraft separated in, sequencing them for the most efficient and effective to get them on final landed and taken and on as is now, of course some as many times too, because im sitting there trying to take off and i cant get my ifr clearance clearance. But they were so competent when sas says, okay, hey potomac, i know guys, do you have any military background . No. Okay. All right. So lets just lets just call the the national vortex. Lets call that lets call that bullseye. I can you do that. Okay, now you got the right. Do you have that on your scope. Okay. Awesome. You got the coming off of there. All right so you got the radials and youve got the ranger. Okay. So if you see a contact if you get a radar contact thats due east and you know its 30 miles away, heres i want you to say you contact bullseye. 904 30. And if you can get an altitude cut, give me the altitude as well. And like that the controllers swapped their approach, they swapped their pair of dimes, they adopted our Fighter Pilot language and they helped facilitate our ability to clear the airspace. And then as airspace got super congested with all the responder cars, the helicopters, the medevac acts, the army flights, not only did they call out the the bogies, but then they also called out the aircraft that we knew friendlies and. They would say, hey, thats medevac flight 90, whatever. Theyre there. This is their bullseye cut. Theyre going, this is destination. This 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 on those bogeys and keep everyone safe. So i really think that potomac was theyre Unsung Heroes here. Absolutely. I we are going a little bit over but well take one more question if theres another question in the audience in the back. Yeah, we used to fly out of my airport the airport near annapolis and we were in near the arrivals of bwi. After 911. It was just eerily quiet. I know you dont call yourself a hero. The only thing we heard were the f16. It was an extra comfort when i knew it was you and. On that note, a fitting note, i think well well go ahead and wrap up. I want to thank all of you for taking time this evening to listen to this story. As mentioned, it is a its an important story. Its a story to be remembered and its a story to be told and retold so we were very fortunate. John and penny join tonight. Again, thank you for taking time, both of you, and for what youve done for aviation as country. I would appreciate that we will not be able to provide autographs tonight, know that thats sometimes something we do. But given the hour will not be able to do that again. Lisa to g. E. And your entire team, i want to thank you for sponsoring this event. The past events and the future events. You so much. And and i guess i would just close by saying, i hope, in a few days time on the 11th of september, each of will in your own way remember that day what it meant to this nation and to what it meant to us individually, collectively. And take a moment, thank those people that sacrificed so much that and that live on in our memories. Thank you and have a great evening