a normal day at the Northeast Air defense sector is
training uh constant training for the what could happen of
threat coming from outside the United States. My job
was to supervise the other enlisted in the weapons section
which is helping the officers, the air battle managers
control the fighter jets that practice. Yeah. For
the wartime scenarios that morning were actually a couple of
days into the exercise. The first event had not
kicked off yet. So we were like I said
before we were preparing for that day, um the
phone call just was unexpected. Obviously it happened from
boston tmu. I answered it, he said who
he was and that he wondered if I could scramble
a couple F16 because he had a possible hijack.
Just weapons certain. Powell Hi boston center team.
You we have a problem here. We have a
hijacked aircraft headed towards new york And we need you
guys to we need someone to scramble some F16 or
something up there to help us out. This is
this real world or exercise? No, this is
not an exercise manifest. Okay, hold on one
second. Okay. Yes. Hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, here's keeping
three times what the record and I turned around to
look for my commanding officer and then Colonel Deschenes,
now General Deschenes, she was walking through the on
the floor and I quickly got her attention and passed
the phone call off to her sir sir. Sure
, yes sir. Yeah, I've got an MCC
coming in right now to talk to you so you
can handle all that. Thank you. All right
. Hi, this is major Deschenes. Hi joe
cooper boston center. We have a hijacked aircraft headed
towards the new york metro area. Wondering if you
could send someone up there some F 16 or something
? Help us. Maybe, maybe out of Otis
scrambled Otis Air Force Base to F fifteens to go
directly to new york city. And then from there
we went to Langley scrambled F sixteens to go over
the national capital region in Washington, D. C
. And the rest is history. Everybody that we
could find a scramble. We got airborne. Mhm
. Countries placing Panta four or 546 on battle stations
. I repeat battle stations. I am a 1241
authenticate hotel Romeo. All parties acknowledge with initial command
post. The biggest fear that day was the fear
of the unknown. Yes, we are executing our
job. But in our job you're always thought too
Think one step ahead and we didn't know exactly where
the threat came from. I mean, we knew
the aircraft had taken off from new york city,
but where was the next one coming from? When
was the next one gonna come? We did not
know that. But that's what we trained for is
to look for that threat and to respond to that
threat. So the direction of protecting the major centers
when you overhead the major center in Pittsburgh. In
this case you have any step authority on any traffic
in the area and traffic does not respond to uh
hand signals, divert procedures, anything like that.
And they continue to press a threatening manner towards the
major center. You're clear to engage looking back at
that day, I would not change a thing.
We did exactly what we were supposed to do with
the equipment that we were given and the personnel that
we were given. I think in my personal opinion
, the day went flawless. Yes, we could
not stop the threats from happening. But we did
. Yeah. The job that we are trained to
do. And I think today we are better uh
equipped to defend the United States. I'm extremely proud
of what I did that day and what I continue
to do today. Uh huh. I am proud
because along with the other thousands of men and women
in the United States that do make that sacrifice and
sign on the dotted line to volunteer to be a
member of our armed Forces. It is a sense
of pride. We are americans and we love our
country. Yeah, my name is Jeremy Powell on
september 11th 2001, I was in essex Technical Sergeant
working at the Northeast Air Defense Sector as a senior
Director technician