Meet you tonights lecture. Since 1982 this lecture series has spotlighted more than 140 biggest names in modern aviation history like all of our Public Programs this lecture is presented free of charge. This is possible through the general support, of 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 support. Representing ge aviation with us tonight, is lisa the Digital Solutions leader, of military operations ig evaluation. Lisa to you and your colleagues it ge, we thank you for your substantial and enduring support. Well since we opened the museum here in the mall in 1976 and enchanted lee in 2003, more than 350 Million People have walked through our doors to be informed and inspired by the history of flight and space travel. Drawing from the museums priceless collection of iconic artifacts and intellectual trust our curators educators, volunteers and others endeavor to tell stories about aerospace and how it has to find 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 that fateful day. Not every aviation story is an uplifting are happy one, indeed for those of us professionally committed to the furtherance of aerospace, the horrific use of commercial jet airliners has as weapons of terror, was particularly disturbing. Yet we entered as a community. And in the years since 9 11 the Aviation Industry has become more safe and more accessible, and more affordable, more efficient and more influential than ever before. 9 11 for all its peyton tragedy is indeed a story to be told and remembered and 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 fighters from pilot training. She grew up around aviation and ward birds, and apply to fly f 16s, as soon as she had learned that congress had opened aviation combat to women. The first and only woman, in the 121st fire squad. She applied to iraqi freedom, for nighttimes god hunting, in the western deserts of iraq. Also supported special operation teams. She flew the f 16 for ten years, before shining lockheed martin, for the position of director of operations. Her passion for aviation has never faded, she has raced jets, she has over 3000 hours of commercial instructor and multi engine pilot flying, and cool piloting the be 17, when her busy schedule permits. She enjoys flying her own plane, and assess no one 70, along with her family and rescue a dog fittingly named gilmore. And they listen gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to you to introduce heather lucky penny. So thank you all for coming out here tonight and again lisa i thank you so much for your generosity of gee disappoint this lecture series and what the museum and, what the Aerospace Museum does and what the ge aviation lecture series does they allow the museum to do is to tell the stories. Like mine. So that people like yourselves can experience aviation and can experience history in a far more personal and impactful manner than when you just simply see the signs next to the airplanes. So thank you lisa for everything that you and ge are doing to support this lecture series and make it possible so that for example people like me, can come and listen to my heroes when they come and stand up on the spotlight. I am certainly not calling myself a hero at all because 9 11 was nothing that any of us planned and as you all know because you will 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 and 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 we show for work. Right. We had just gotten back from two weeks that red flag, which was at that point my time as a young baby Fighter Pilot, the pinnacle of what i can hope for i have dropped all ms. I had been there for my time on target and we just gotten back from that that prior weekend. We had landed on saturday, so most people had taken that monday and tuesday and wednesday off to reconnect with their families and i was single at the time so i went home on sunday and did my laundry and was ready to go to work them so that tuesday, we were going through just a normal administration of running a fighter squad. What jets do we have, what are we going to be flying and we are traditional mostly the time the guard unit. So this is comprised of a few fulltime staff to make sure that the unit runs and all the administration is taken care of so on the part timer shows up they can just jump in the jets and go and train. And i was one of those few fulltime staff who is doing upgrades we just gotten back from red flag so the jets were fitted with external fuel tanks, and we had a training missiles on board and we are moving into a training phase of dog fighting. Basic training moves. A lot of fun if you ask me. But it was going to take a while, to pull the external fuel tanks and even to figure the jets to clean them out so we had slick vipers and we go gee our noses off so we had three guys that we could send down to North Carolina and. We call it a bullet flight. , so a bully fight. And we had three police. So they brief and take off, and they are headed down to North Carolina to go its like a low angle straits, everyone loves shooting a gun. And ive never seen a fire Fighter Pilot, pull gun and not go burr. We all make the noise. So they are bombing, and we are sitting in an administrative meeting and we get this knock at the door and they poke in and it was David Callaghan and david says an airplane just flew into the World Trade Center. And we looked outside because our Conference Room was right on the flight line and it was a huge plate glass window and were thinking how does that happen . Because as you know new york actually is not that far away contrary to what traffic would have you believe its a stone flow stones throw as far as you know distance. And we look at side and its that perfect crystal autumn day that we get here and what were thinking did someone coach their approach into laguardia . What happened . It must be one of those little sightseeing airplanes that made a wrong turn. We made a couple of jokes about little airplanes bouncing off buildings, because they certainly dont do any damage to the airplanes that is and it continued on and it wasnt really anything that triggered us until a few minutes later and chuck knocks at the door again and says another airplane flew into the other World Trade Center and then it was on purpose we got up from our chairs and walk to the bar where we had the television and we saw what everyone else in america saw that we saw the footage of these airliners crashing into the trade centers. And we were absolutely stunned. So, people have asked how could this event be possible . Didnt we have air traffic on alert . Well once upon a time we were on alert, but that was before we got our f 16s. We gave up alert when we had shifted from, the to basically shift to the force. So is a long time since we have had alerts because. You recall in the 1991 when the wall fell, and the soviet union fell we did not need any more. The soviet threat was gone. So we pared down our entire military you know and on september 10th, or on september 11th, there were only four units sitting alert looking out over the ocean and over the polar region to ensure that no stray bombs game over the north pole to nuke us. That was the paradigm that we are living in, so no one ever imagined that the threat would come from inside. We had never we just had never conceived that something so ingenious in the most horrible way, could be done. So, nearly immediately hearty l at the time, he goes to the operation desk and dan kaine, who was our weapons officer, said lucky i need you and igor to build up some de tcs. So i gore and i we Start Mission planning for something, we dont know what. Again this is not the defensive Mitch Mission that i trained for that i knew how to do. There were theres a point that im usually defending but defending against two . We dont have week we just have our own bit radars, and we dont know who is hostile, who is friendly . Two and nothing is clear, everything is confused as you can imagine it would be. But we do our best, we print out our line of cards with our take up with our takeoff and landing data. We have two jets, some are clean but some are dirty in the air to ground this configuration. We point out maps of the local area. We put points where we know where the buildings, our where memorials are, we basically load up our Data Transfer cartridges. Where you can take all of your data, and download it to your jet, so you can accelerate and program all your avionics. We get that done. And igor and i go to the desk, and i need to go through a bit of bureaucracy, because the National Guard in d. C. , is not like the National Guard and any other state. And in other states you know, the National Guard has two teams of command. Yet your federal chain of command, which only occurs when you get activated, to deploy and in that case you are on the active Duty Air Force and for all intents and purposes your active Duty Air Force. And that your federal chain of command. But the civilian chain of command, goes up to the states governor. And we are seeing that now where, we have texas in florida and montana in washington, in oregon oregon activating elements of their National Guard to protect their people in their state. So there is a very clear chain of command that goes up to government. Well d. C. Does not have a governor. And a chance command does not go to their. Our chain of command on the civilian side, goes to the president of united states. If you can imagine he was pretty busy at that point in time, and honestly i do not think even realized that we were a resource that he had. Because his authority, was traditionally delegated down through the secretary of the army. And that certainly was not with the secretary of army was thinking, its like how do i get some defensive counter air up in d. C. That was not on his mind. So we are trying to get activated, so that we can you know were trying to get the chain of command energized. So how do we get airborne . Because we cant just take off, on our own. There is a very real, an important reason why civilians have the command, of our military. So as much as we know we need to be airborne, we cant. So we are grounded. Our general officer, and commander david rowley, had come down from the wing building, and he is making phone calls. Hes trying to find someone to energize through his you know like hes our top guy, and hes making as many phone calls as he can. And dan cain, our weapons officer takes a risk, and calls down to the bomb dump. Thats where we keep all of our explosive, and thats where we keep our training missiles, our bombs are bullets. We do have some live bombs. We have some live missiles. But we do not fly with them every day. You certainly wouldnt want live bombs and missiles flying over your house on a daily basis. And that would not make any sense to us either, because it simply would where the systems and by the way. We do not keep the explosive, and the bombs and the fuses all built up ready to go. We have it all separated, youd have to build it and it takes time. For example when we go to war, its a threeday cycle. From the planning process, to come down to the wing for the bomb dump, to know how many bombs they need to build and put that together, to bring it down on the flight line and to configured to the aircraft. Doesnt happen instantaneously. So they tell them to build us up so many bombs. Some peak heat seeking side wonders. Can you imagine if youre one of the listed airman, down in the bomb dump. Youre probably in the middle of a car game, and you get a phone call from the weapons officer, and he is telling you build me up some missiles. Live ones. Just trust me. Can you imagine what would be going through your mind . You have no air task in order, you have no legal paperwork, no paper trail the proof 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 they 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 doing to operating, because we always had to deal with the hassle of air force one. Anytime, a distinguished visitor moose on enders air force base, especially if its the president , the entire base shuts down. You cant drive around the perimeter, you cant take off you can land. And for a very good reason, to secure the important leaders of our nation. But when you are little fighter, that doesnt carry a lot of gas but burns it quickly, thats a big problem. So we had been working with the secret service, to try to develop better coordination. So we could facilitate our training as well as their security requirements, and is part of developing that relationship we had brought the secret service over to our unit, put them in the back of the f 16s to prove that we are good guys. And we knew they were and they knew what we were. As a result it was when the pentagon was hit that Vice President cheney said dont we have some fighters at anderson, someone get those guys airborne. And then hudak all, and as i mentioned when we had a peace dividend in the 1990s and we drew down all of our forces, overlook forces and we were no longer sitting alert either even if the First Air Force if norad, if that authority had known that we are at andrews, i dont know if they would but they would not have had the Legal Authority to activate us, it is an unfortunate lesson, that bureaucracy matters, and has real world consequences so fortunately we finally had the authorization from the Vice President from Vice President cheney. Get somebody airborne. So they say ok lucky you are with me, and the other one was for i that was going was. So we run down the hallway to life support, and were putting on a gee suit, putting on my vest, and throwing on my harness, we sure got my helmet, my de tc, lineup cards, my vest, and they look at me and say i will take the cockpit. So i knew that i would take detail, and i remembered my dad had been involved in the Safety Investigation analyzing, a crash of a 7 37 out of colorado springs, and they had lost the tails and the plane went straight in there is nothing left. So there was no way they couldve pulled it out or controlled it, and the other thing was it wouldve glide it in there be no pattern of debris, it would be straight down. So i knew that i would take the tail. And we are running out, as fast as we can go this fast as i can go, and the major hes an older guy hes running out in front of me, but with all my flight gear, i nearly doubled my body weight, and he runs the first jet on the line and iran to the next one. Again, we are called im just a brandnew lieutenant, ive recently become a combat mission ready. I just recently got my first red flag. And as every pilot knows, its when you begin to deviate from your patterns, that mistakes are made. So i run up to, my jet, i put my gear down, and i look through the forms and i shake their hand, and the other probably is in the plane and hes yelling to me what are you doing get in the jet. And it wasnt because i was being negligent, but is because i knew that if anything in my life mattered, now is it and i could not screw that up. You are called that we had sent. While they were calling down to get missiles built up and we are busy with other things, our supervisor of flying, phil thompson, he had gone to Fighter Weapons school, and he had this big fluffy vietnam mustache, he was just a crusty old Fighter Pilot and i loved him and i respected him. He had such good tactical horse sense. He calls down and says to the ranger, tell them to buster. And that means come home as fast as you can without using your after burner. Now, i did not realize that when doug calls down there that bully to had run out of gas which meant he really didnt have fuel to play on the ranges, but he had to come home. Because he had just enough fuel to come home. So shooter clears pucks off, and he says eric you go home and we will continue and finish up the mission and we will finish the debrief later so he is on his way home and we get a radio call from top, so washington does not want to look me in the air space and its all right you keep heading back home i will take care of this so he puts the phone down and calls up center so you can get bully to back home, and a couple more minutes they call back and say, lead to go. So theyre asking me if ive got any missiles or bullets or bombs on board. And they say dont you worry about that belief to you just come on home. So the center has been asking eric if he had those weapons on board because they need to know in case it could somehow find a way to use them. Now, the bullies were still living in that 9 11 world and we all know, there was a pre9 11 world and post 9 11 world. What mattered, and 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 couldve imagined Something Like that happening, and those of us who had seen it we were now living in that post 9 11 world so they have no idea whats going on, but he comes back home and of course we have only one in only three coming back home. So the two of them are coming back home. And it wasnt until several weeks later, that i had the opportunity to listen to pucks tape. It gives me the chills to this day as the other pilot is coming in hes getting ready to land, and its a loop an audio loop, that is transmitted every hour, to