On the morning of 9/11 I was sitting at my desk finishing some paperwork. I had a list of students that I needed to speak with, so I walked out to the main office to send a student aid for my next student to interview. As I walked into the office area I became aware that everyone was looking at the TV. When I saw one of the twin towers on fire. Someone was saying a jet airliner had just crashed into the tower. The picture was one of total destruction. The comments were this could be a hijacked plane that was driven into the tower. As I was watching I watched another plane crash into the other tower. I new in that instant we were at war, two aircraft striking the same target, you only see this on the battle field. On this day we saw many ordinary people become hero's. Or we could say we saw ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
I served in the USAF for over twenty nine years, serving in combat in Vietnam from Dec 1967 thru Feb 1969. Combat was a daily thing, I was part of the 6th Special Operations Squadron, flying many missions to rescue pilots who had been shot down Cambodia, Laos and North Vietnam. During this time I witnessed soldier's fighting for their country, family, and their comrades. They were always willing to go the extra mile. I remember the first time one of the pilots from our squadron was shot down, he was injured and the enemy was closing in to capture him. under normal circumstances we could maintain 18 aircraft in the air, during the three days we protected our friend we kept 25 to 30 aircraft flying. At this time we had 36 aircraft total. We sustained around the clock operations for over 72 hours. Planes that normally take 3 hours to reload and fuel took only one hour or less. pilots sleep next to their aircraft while planes were turned, weapons crews slept in on the ground next to their bombs and weapons so they were ready when the aircraft returned, re-fuelers never left their trucks unless it was to refuel or take a short break, our entire squadron stayed at their posts until Colonel Ford was recovered. This type of ordinary people doing extraordinary things is exactly what I saw on the morning of 9/11.
Its our people who make our country great, and our love for one an other.