Maj. Gen. Fast
Posted on 09/10/2006 12:43:20 PM PDT by SandRat
FORT HUACHUCA — The red, white and blue American Airlines plane was about two hours from the East Coast.
Flight 49, a Boeing 767, was heading from Paris to Dallas. But this day the aircraft would not make its final destination.
Like many planes on Sept. 11, 2001, the flight was ordered to land — but not in the United States.
Barbara Fast, then a brigadier general, was on the flight. She planned to make a connecting flight to Tucson and then drive to Fort Huachuca to attend a conference of senior Army intelligence officers.
It turns out Fast, who now is a major general commanding the Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca, would be a drop-in guest of the residents of Newfoundland.
The small airport at Gander ended up with 38 commercial flights. Nearly 6,600 passengers and crew members were thrust onto the community of about 10,000.
“We were one of the last planes to land,” Fast said during a Friday interview.
Some of her recollections also are captured in a part of a book of vignettes of many people authored by Jim DeFede, titled “The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11, in Gander, Newfoundland.”
The pilot told the passengers the plane was being diverted to Gander because of a national emergency in the United States.
As the senior intelligence officer for the U.S. European Command, she began to play the what happened game in her head.
Having tried the satellite phone on the plane, to no avail, Fast tried to analyze what the national emergency was facing her country.
Was it a natural disaster?
Was the U.S. attacked by another government?
Was it a terrorist attack?
Her professional instincts told her it was an act of terrorism, although she didn’t have confirmation.
People on her flight thought they were being hijacked, but the plane’s pilot calmed those fears saying the aircraft was not under anyone else’s control.
She had no access to her intelligence staff in Stuttgart, Germany, while the plane was in the air. The aircraft’s phone system not work, and neither did her government-issued cell phone.
It wasn’t until the plane was on the ground that she was able to make a connection back to Germany on her cell phone.
She then learned about the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., which she shared with the plane’s cockpit crew.
Traveling in civilian clothes “and in economy class,” Fast tried to make her military status known. But it was to no avail.
Canadian authorities were setting up procedures to slowly process passengers and crew from the more than three dozen commercial planes at Gander. They wanted to make sure there were no terrorists on the flights.
The first night’s sleeping quarters for the passengers on American Flight 49 was the plane.
She shared a five-seat row, with two other women, both from India.
One woman was pregnant, so Fast and the other woman slept on the floor in front of the seats, while the expecting woman stretched out on the seats.
The passengers and crew were allowed to get off the aircraft in the morning. Yellow school buses waited for them.
Fast thought the buses were directed to help by the local school administration, but she found out the bus drivers were on strike but took it upon themselves to show up and help.
It was to be Fast’s first of many connections with the hospitality of the Newfoundlanders.
As she was processed through Canadian immigration and customs, some Canadian soldiers helped.
“I was given extra checking,” Fast said with a laugh.
The soldiers saw her identification and were determined they would show her how thorough they could be.
She and the other passengers were assigned to the Knights of Columbus Hall in Gander.
Local people had shown up with supplies. They soon were cooking a large roast beef dinner.
There was supposed to be a bingo game at the hall the night she and others arrived, but it was canceled.
“They could have made a lot of money if they didn’t cancel bingo,” she said.
Probably every store was emptied of items as people provided toiletries, clothes and other items.
Yearning for a shower, she got one at a community center.
She also had a family mission. Her husband, Paul, wanted a Sears catalog with a listing of Craftsman’s tools. Gander had a small Sears store. After getting directions, the general started walking to the business.
Along the way an elderly man on a porch called out and asked her if she was “one of the stranded ones.”
Responding yes, Fast found herself invited to the man’s grandson’s birthday party.
It was a continuing example of the hospitality of the people, she said.
So, she went into the back yard and took part in the 7-year-old boy’s birthday.
Catalog in hand, she went back to the Knights of Columbus Hall. After dinner there, she was approached by a Canadian air force officer and warrant officer who had been looking for her.
She was then taken to the Canadian air base, where the officer was the commander, and she could finally talk to her staff in more depth about what was happening.
She remained at the military installation overnight. She was then flown out to return to Germany.
She declines to say how she left Newfoundland. “I don’t disclose that.”
Heading for her office, Fast was surprised by her staff, who had put up a sign with a question on it: “Where in the world is Gen. Fast?”
Looking back on those three days five years ago, the general said that although it was America that was attacked, the people of the world, “except those who hate us,” were all Americans.
The hospitality of the Newfoundlanders, as well as the flowers and signs of support outside of the American compound in Stuttgart and the personal condolence book she received from the people of Augsburg, Germany, where she once commanded an intelligence brigade, fills her heart to this day with the kindness shown to her and all Americans.
While Americans were horrified at what happened, Fast said what she experienced on Sept. 11, 2001, and the course of days after in Newfoundland and later in Germany, what the terrorists did “was abhorrent to all the world.”
SENIOR REPORTER Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
PING
Funny. I never thought about all the people on the planes that were suddenly grounded. I remember hearing about 8,000 planes were ordered down. Geez, that's hundreds of thousands of people temporarily displaced.
Maj. Gen. Fast
I had a buddy flying back from L.A. when his plane was grounded in Vegas.
Luckily, his flight was one of the first ones grounded and he was able to rent a car and drive back to Indy.
He said it was absolute chaos, as you might imagine.
I recall PBS did a show about this. I looked for a link but no joy.
She should be asked to make a cameo on "Stargate SG-1."
Canada ping.
Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.
Nice story.
Like most rural peoples most anywhere, Eastern Canadians in general, and Newfoundlanders particularly, put a lot of stock in hospitality to guests. I'm sure they were delighted to be of assistance and have a chance to display their hospitality. I know I'm glad that my countrymen could do this relatively minor thing at a time of great turmoil for the US. I'm sure that the people of countless smaller towns in the US would do just the same if circumstances required it.
Pertinent 9/11 Links:
Canadians Murdered 9/11/01
Canada marks 9/11 5th anniversary
World Archived 9/11 Websites
None of the 9/11 terrorists entered America from Canada
(Setting the record straight)
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