[hc87]

I did a search on this and couldn't find it already posted.

[lsee]

Wow...

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Not to worry if it was posted. This is something. Everyone knows deep down inside that every single unarmbed pilot in the sky would have given his life to stop one of those planes. God bless them.

At the same time, I am reminded of things people tell me about WWII, Pearl Harbor, how unprepared we were. Thank you Clinton for leaving war planes stripped of weapons. Thank you so much, sir. /SARCASM [followed by spit in face].

[airborne]

If true, this ends any speculation that flight# 93 was shot down. Don't you think?

[Iscool]

I thought the Air National Guard was always armed...If not, why be there???

Must have been one of those "it couldn't happen to us" scenarios...No doubt, policies have changed...

I can't imagine killing innocent people for the good of the whole...Glad it is not I that has that responsibility...

[cinFLA]

Sasseville and Lucky each had 511 rounds of ammo, but that only provided roughly a 5-sec. burst of the 20-mm. gun. And where should they shoot to ensure a hijacked aircraft would be stopped? Sasseville planned to fire from behind and "try to saw off one wing. I needed to disable it as soon as possible--immediately interrupt its aerodynamics and bring it down."

They should be able to take out the tail controls OR the cockpit!

[11th Earl of Mar]

It was posted last week, but your article has more information.

And it is very interesting to remember how strongly the Pentagon denied earlier this year that F-16s were prepared to shoot down the plane.

Come to find out, they were telling the truth.

The F-16s had no ammo! They couldn't shoot it down. So they were going to ram it down. lol

[wattsmag2]

BIGUNS!!!

[VaBthang4]

Pretty verbose...

Anyway, ball rounds will take down an airliner without a problem and the pilots who were out of ammo could've simply ejected before making contact with the airliners.

I am proud of their willingness to sacrifice themselves but it probably wouldnt have been required.

****DRAMAQUEEN ALERT****

[Thud]

ping

[Praxeologue]

By then, Brig. Gen. David F. Wherley, Jr., the 113th Wing commander, was on-site, trying to determine whether the unit had authorization to launch fighters

... oh yes, and we can't attack Saddam without incontrovertible evidence.

Isn't there a miltary code, something like hot pursuit, where you can just do what needs to be done?

[Tuco-bad]

With Pentagon in flames and hijacked aircraft threatening Washington, White House scrambled fighters with little or no armament.

Interesting that over 1.25 hours earlier, NORAD ordered fighters scrambled from Otis AFB.

Wonder why it took so long to scramble jets at Andrews.

[Balata]

Thanks for the post, hc.

[dubyagee]

White House scrambled fighters with little or no armament.

Doesn't the knowledge that this is being broadcast to the entire world make everyone just a little more secure? /sarcasm

[VadeRetro]

The other two "Vipers" only had a full load of 20-mm. "ball" or training rounds, not the high-explosive incendiary (HEI) bullets required for combat, and no air-to-air missiles.

I don't believe two planeloads of ball won't bring down a passenger liner. Shoot up the cockpit area and it'll come down. A 20mm bullet doesn't have to blow up to hurt.

[VOA]

bump

[VOA]

I think that on one of the news shows (20/20? DateLine?) that one NYC official
said that he'd ordered NYC helicopters (Port Authority/NYPD?) to
attempt to stop any incoming jet if possible after it was clear that
a terrorist attack was underway.

I can't recall if the official said he knew this was essentially ordering a suicide
ramming, but I think he and the pilots at least understood that was the deal.

[Publius6961]

Wish I knew more about the source of this article.
Does anyone have links to Parts 1 and 2 of the series?

Thanks in advance.

[Hot Tabasco]

Read it