Posted on 09/11/2014 10:43:28 AM PDT by lbryce
One of the first two U.S. combat pilots in the air on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 took off from Andrews Air Force Base in an F-16 with a mission to bring down United Flight 93 — and without any missiles or ammunition.
“We wouldn’t be shooting it down. We’d be ramming the aircraft,” Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney said describing her orders to The Washington Post. “I would essentially be a kamikaze pilot.”
The fourth recently identified hijacked plane appeared to be on a heading for Washington, and there was no time to arm the base’s fighter aircraft before Penney and her commanding officer took off to intercept the rogue Boeing 757 passenger plane.
“We had to protect the airspace any way we could,” Penney said.
Penney, the first female F-16 pilot of the D.C. Air National Guard’s 121st Fighter Squadron, had just completed two weeks of combat training on that historic Tuesday, and the bases’s fighters were still equipped with dummy ammunition. According to the report, there were no armed aircraft ready for immediate scramble over post-Cold War Washington in the fall of 2001.
The third plane had just struck the Pentagon and the base was at least an hour away from arming combat-ready aircraft, with the fourth already thought to have been identified.
“I’m going to go for the cockpit,” Col. Marc Sasseville told Penney as they donned their flight suits.
“I’ll take the tail,” Penney replied.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Why aren’t they ready and armed? What the hell’s the point if they aren’t armed?
didn’t a few of those pilots fly back and blow up something on the japanese base/airstrip?
Recon
Spotter
Refueler
Diplomatic escort
Air show Demonstrator
Target Practice
I wonder, if things had come to this, if they could’ve flipped Flight 93 by coming up under the one wing, and on top of the other at the same time. Very, very risky of course, but better than the certainty of dying in a ramming.
The process of ejection removes considerable weight from the airplane, about 800 to 1,000 lbs and does it violently.
This changes the flight dynamics and center of gravity and the plane changes attitude. No guarantees of anything with respect to a predictable flight path.
“...in the early stages of World War II the tactic was employed by Soviet pilots who called it taran for “battering ram”; the same word is used in the Czech, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian and Bulgarian languages.
A ramming pilot could use his entire aircraft as a ram or he could try to destroy the enemy's controls using the propeller or wing to chop into the enemy's tail or wing.....
...A ramming attack was not considered suicidal in the same manner as kamikaze attacks—the ramming pilot stood a chance of surviving, though it was very risky. Sometimes the ramming aircraft itself could survive to make a controlled landing, though most were lost due to combat damage or the pilot bailing out....”
“Then out spoke brave Horatius, the Captain of the Gate:
“To every man upon this earth, death cometh soon or late;
And how can man die better than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods,
.......................
Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, with all the speed ye may!
I, with two more to help me, will hold the foe in play.
In yon strait path, a thousand may well be stopped by three:
Now, who will stand on either hand and keep the bridge with me?’”
Horatius by Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay
A question many of will face before the “war” of this life is over.
Stand, ride out to meet them, hide or run.
These two rode out to meet the bastards.
Yeah, but what happens when all the catapults simultaneously break? Then your alert aircraft do you no good. It happened in Top Gun, it could happen anytime.
The reason why, if you carry a firearm, you need to have a round in the chamber.
Things can happen very fast, so fast that you might as well not have gone to all the trouble if you aren’t physically and mentally prepared to act.
America has chosen to put on a blindfold and tie it’s hands behind it’s back and walk home drunk in the wee hours of the morning in a very dangerous part of town.
God Help us all.
“leaders” in DC rarely understand the real world. They are only full combat desk jockeys
I think they should have given the orders back to a higher ranking Officer since that person would have more experience.
Her plane was not equipped with missles or canons, Where is the readiness we pay for????????
Why just two armed? That’s the same mindset as 4 squares of tp and 4 rounds to take care of business. At least have enough to completely take care of whatever business and then double that. Triple would be better.
yes, a great gut wrenching story....but all that had to be done was to fly under the wing tip of the suspect aircraft, and force the aircraft to spiral out of control...
Because stuff happens with munitions and it costs money to secure and load them.
I’ve seen pilots taxi back to the hanger with his 20mm cannon armed and charged because of a mistake in the dearming pit. I’ve seen missiles and bombs fall off carts and forklifts.
The pucker factor when a fused 2000lb bomb falls about 8 feet is fairly high.
I have no doubt that 55 minutes of that hour are in filling out paperwork to find a female homosexual with training cerifatations to operate the missile loading unit.
“Andrews didn’t keep aircraft armed or at that level of alert”
Given the propensity of Muzzies to shoot up military bases...do you want armed aircraft that close to DC? It’s a rhetorical question...kind of tongue in cheek. Of course you want to be able have armed aircraft for use at a moment’s notice but considering reality.....one has to pause and think.
How much is always a difficult question. Why just a .22LR pistol for home defense (not what I have but someone I know well has only that)? Answer - that is what he can handle at his age and health.
Why do I have whatever number of loaded magazines available with my home defense weapon? Answer - that is what I decided on for a combination of reasons. (Okay, that's not really an answer, but I gave it a great deal of thought and chose a reasonable nonzero number.)
Why only two fighter jets? Answer - The difference between zero and two is huge. You need at least two fighters for redundancy and mutual support. More than two starts to add to the cost without a significant expansion of the range of situations that can be handled.
What we had before was like a home-defense shotgun (whether pump or semi, it had to be 12 gauge and in the bedroom) but with ammo only at WalMart. Having that weapon would have made no sense at all. Two ready alert aircraft is more like the home defense situation for most well-armed Freepers. We are ready for a whole lot of possibilities. We'll lose if SWAT comes after us, or a Marine brigade, but we're ready for anything likely or even plausible.
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