Seems that Pat has made a follow-on post found here to verify the authenticity of this article.
http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/2994-A-Delta-pilot-who-dodged-a-bullet,-re-United-93.html
It reads as follows:
I assure you this letter is true. As to the fact that I wrote that a holder of an Airline Transport Pilot rating (ATP) must be a US citizen, I admit that I was mistaken here. I had always assumed so, because that's what I had heard, so I looked up the requrements for an ATP just now. There is nothing that says that US citizenship is required. Okay, I'll bite the bullet on that one. I recieved my ATP back in 1975 and now that I think of it I do not remember having to prove my citizenship. However, the rest of the story is true.
As for my airline career, I worked for Western Airlines (who merged with Delta in 1987), Jet America Airlines (who was bought by Alaska Airlines in 1988), and Delta Airlines, as well as a few "fly by night" cargo airlines during my furlough period from Western from 1981-1985. I also flew in Vietnam as a transport pilot and retired from the USAF Reserve in 1991 after the Gulf War. I have 21,500+ flight hours in T-41, T-37, T-38, C-141/L-300, CE-500, CV-440, MD-80/82, B-727, B-737, B-757, and B-767 aircraft, all logged between 1970 and 2005 when I retired from Delta.
Trust me, folks, this was real. I must admit I am quite surprised that my letter made it this far on the internet. The letter was nothing more than am innocent reply to a group of friends, one of whom sent me a similar letter from another Delta pilot who had been flying the morning of 9/11 and who had experienced the flying that day for himself. His letter had detailed his thoughts as he viewed the movie "United 93", and he also told in detail how he had been diverted to Knoxville when the FAA shut down the airspace. My friend had asked me if I had known of any other similar experiences, so I wrote him what I had encountered myself a few months before. This was my letter to him.
Another retired Delta captain contacted me yesterday after reading this blog and related an experience his wife had on a flight from Portland, OR to Atlanta in August 2001, just a week or so after my experience with Atta. She was riding on a company pass and seated in First Class. A person of "Middle Eastern" descent had sought permission to sit on the cockpit jump seat, but was denied access by the captain because he did not have an FAA Medical certificate. She said he ranted and raved because he couldn't ride the cockpit jump seat, even though there were three empty seats in First Class, which the captain offered him. What pilot in his right mind would refuse a First Class seat over a cramped cockpit jump seat? He stormed off the aircraft and they left him at the gate. You see? Mine wasn't the only experience leading up to 9/11.
Delta Airlines Corporate Security even contacted me a few days ago to ask if I had, indeed, written this letter. I wrote them back that I had. They were worried that someone was using my name without my knowledge. I assured them I was the author.
Keep the faith, and don't let the bastards get you down.
Pat Gilmore
*****
I never intended for this to go as far as it has. After all, it was merely an answer to a letter from a friend of mine in a group of friends with whom I correspond on a regular basis. We talk politics, sports, exchange jokes, and pull each others chains on a regular basis. Most of us in the group are old fraternity brothers from the 1960s, so we have a conglomeration of doctors, lawyers, educators, businessmen, financial advisors, and yes, even a retired military/airline pilot (me). Among the group we have Liberals, Conservatives, Libertarians (me), and even a Socialist (we don't take him very seriously, but we do listen to what he has to say when he's sober!). We've known each other for decades and we never take offense when one says to another "eat me" or "please be kind enough to kiss my big red ass". It's that kind of a group. Apparently, what I wrote in response to my friend that day struck one of my other friends as important enough to pass on to one of his friends, and you know the rest of the story.
My friends and family have found this letter not only on this site but on others as well, and I get calls daily from friends in the airline business who want to know if I am, indeed, the author of this letter. I assure them I am. They all agree with what I said in the letter, because they are aware of what the danger to our society really is. Most of what I read on other sites claim that the letter is a hoax and they attack me personally for what I said, but I can't say I really care. I know what the truth is, and that's all that matters.
To you, John, and to Mike in the previous entry, no matter how pathetic you think my story is, it happened as I wrote it. As for my motives, politics had nothing to do with it. The fact is, I never stated that "so-called liberals don't want wars in Muslim countries for reasons of political correctness" or that I retired early "in order to avoid the public 'Liberal detractors' that criticize the war". And I never once mentioned the war in Iraq! You did! You're putting words into my mouth that I never said, boys! What I did say was that the worst offenders (of the general public who didn't take the War on Terror seriously) were the Liberal detractors to the present administration who, right or wrong, were at least taking the bull by the horns and fighting our enemies. That's a far cry from what you accuse me of saying, gents. Who has the political agenda here? Whether the war in Iraq is valid or not is a moot point, but as long as the subject has come up it's my opinion that Saddam had to be taken out sometime, whether now or later. He remained a threat to Saudi Arabia with the US leaving that country in the aftermath of 9/11. Could it be that one of the stipulations the Saudis gave us for leaving them unprotected against Saddam was his demise? Could it be that Saudi Arabia was the real catalyst behind this war? I don't know for sure, but you tell me. Friends of mine in high places (i.e., the Pentagon and the current administration) have hinted as much to me in private conversations. There is always more than what meets the public eye, gentlemen.
What we now have in the Middle East is the country of Iran, a sworn enemy to the United States, who is now arming terrorists by the thousands and who has declared its intentions to wipe Israel off the face of the map. With the US presence in Afghanistan and the US presence in Iraq now, Iran is in a pickle. They're surrounded by US forces. Could this also have been our intention in invading Iraq and overthrowing Saddam? We still have a lot of payback to give the Islamic Republic of Iran for what they did to our embassy personnel in the late 1970s, or have you conveniently forgotten about that, too?
To all you who have such ready answers as to why we shouldn't do "this" or why we were mistaken in doing "that", I would challenge you to come up with a reason why we SHOULD do something and not just sit back and let the world go by. A Canadian asked me a few months ago why it is that we Americans feel the need to police the entire world, and my reply to him was, "If we don't, who will? If we don't, we'll be criticized for not doing anything, and when we do we get criticized for getting too involved." In short, we get criticized no matter what we do. Does this make you as frustrated as I am?
As for my encounter with Atta in my jump seat being a "near death experience", I never said that either. All I said was that I dodged a bullet. What if the flight hadn't been a practice flight for Atta and he had taken the opportunity to overpower me and my copilot? The resulting struggle in the cockpit would have been a near death experience, for sure, but that's not what he was after that day. He was after knowledge on how to operate the B-767. We do that all the time when we're in training at the airlines. We go through ground school and simulator, then we get a jumpseat ride in the real airplane on a real flight to see how all of what we learned comes together in the real world. No, I didn't have a near death esperience, as you assert.
If I am poorly qualified to make the statements I did, I'm sorry you think so. I'm a veteran of both the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, and every war in between, including the Yom Kippur War in 1973. I've seen war, albeit from the fringes, and I don't like it any more than you do. But I do know when it's time to fight and when it's time to back off, and this war on terrorism is one we HAVE to win.
********