From: dwskjerven@aol.com
Date: 5/3/2018 9:09:10 PM
Subject: Some men
never came back (128th ARG/ARW)
A succinct summary of a military hero and identification
of a book published twenty-five years later…about the second longest American
held in captivity during the Vietnam Conflict. Thanks Bob Kowalski for
forwarding.
Subject: Some men never came back
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: cliffdj@mchsi.com
To: DWSkjerven@aol.com
Sent: 4/26/2018 8:11:03 AM Central Standard Time
Subject: Fwd: HER MISSION WAS TO TAKE DOWN FLIGHT 93 ON 911
To: DWSkjerven@aol.com
Sent: 4/26/2018 8:11:03 AM Central Standard Time
Subject: Fwd: HER MISSION WAS TO TAKE DOWN FLIGHT 93 ON 911
sent up... un-armed to do the most difficult job for a pilot.
HER
MISSION WAS TO TAKE DOWN UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 93 ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001.
May God bless Lieutenant Heather Penney
(BE SURE TO READ HER STATEMENT AT THE END OF THIS STORY).
On September 11, 2001, Lt. Heather Lucky Penney in an F-16 at
Andrews Air Force Base. She had her orders. She was to take down
United Airlines Flight 93. The hijacked plane was headed toward
Washington, D C. Three other planes had hit targets in New York and
Washington and Flight 93 was destined to become the fourth.
Penney was the second combat pilot in the air that
morning. The idea of shooting down a civilian aircraft, even a hijacked
one, was troublesome enough … but Penney had no missiles or live
ammunition. All she had were her orders and her plane. She was
going to take the plane down the hard way.
"We wouldn’t be shooting it down. We would be
ramming the aircraft," Penney said of the surreal moment. "I
would essentially be a kamikaze pilot.”
Ten years after the event, Penney began talking openly about
that day.
Penney was one of the first female combat pilots. She now
works for at Lockheed Martin, where she helps direct the F-35 program.
"We had to protect the airspace any way we could," she said. "On
that Tuesday in 2001, there were no planes standing by ready to defend the
skies over Washington. Not a single plane equipped for a dogfight."
"There was no perceived threat at the time, especially one
coming from the homeland like that," said Col. George Degnon, vice
commander of the 113th Wing at Andrews. "It
was a little bit of a helpless feeling, but we did everything humanly possible
to get the aircraft armed and in the air. It was amazing to see people react.
It would take an hour or more to arm a plane, and that process
was begun, but they needed pilots in the air immediately.
"Lucky, you’re coming with me," said Col. Marc Sasseville,
her commanding officer.
"I’m going to go for the cockpit," Sasseville said.
"Take the tail.” And with that, the two skipped their
pre-flight checks and took off.
"We don’t train to bring down airliners," said
Sasseville. He’s now stationed at the Pentagon. "If you just
hit the engine, it could still glide and you could guide it to a target. My
thought was the cockpit or the wing.”
Caseville’s plan was to maneuver the faster, more agile F-16
into the commercial airliner with enough time to eject. That timing,
though, would require split-second perfection.
"I was hoping to do both at the same time," he
said. "It probably wasn’t going to work, but that’s what I was
hoping.
If you eject and your jet soars through without impact," Penney said,
thinking back. She wasn’t going to try to eject.
In the end, they didn’t have to make the sacrifice. United
93 went down in Pennsylvania. Passengers aboard the plane fought back
against the hijackers and crashed in an isolated field.
"The real heroes are the passengers on Flight 93 who were
willing to sacrifice themselves," Penney said. "I was just an
accidental witness to history.”
When asked why she was willing to fly a kamikaze mission, Penney
doesn’t hesitate. "Why? Because there are things in
this world that are more important than ourselves. Freedom.
The Constitution of the United States. Our way of life. Mom,
baseball, apple pie; these things and so many more that make us uniquely American.
We belong to something greater than ourselves. As complex and diverse and
discordant as it is, this thing, this idea called America, binds us together in
citizenship and community and brotherhood…"
I’ll bet she stands when the National Anthem is played...
A story about Sept. 11, 2001 most of us
had never heard till now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Full post disclaimer in left column. PCN Home Page is located at: http://pcn.homestead.com/home01.html
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