The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11

by Garrett M. Graff

Gordon Johndroe: That thing took off like a rocket. The lamps were shaking because they’d fired up the engines so much. Karl Rove: The pilot stood that thing on its tail—nose up, tail down, like we were on a roller coaster. Ellen Eckert: We were climbing so high and so fast I started to wonder if we’d need oxygen masks.

Soon after we got on board, I see the president pop out of the cabin. He’s heading down the aisle. He says, “OK, boys, this is what they pay us for.”

Dick Cheney, vice president: Radar caught sight of an airliner heading toward the White House at 500 miles an hour. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney: We learn that a plane is five miles out and has dropped below 500 feet and can’t be found; it’s missing. You look at your watch and think, Hmmm, five miles out, 500 miles an hour. Tick, tick, tick.

There was a call to evacuate—initially we were ordered to evacuate to the mess, which is the lowest floor accessible in the West Wing. We all sat around there for some minutes. Then out of nowhere came this call: “Run, run, run, they’re headed for the White House, run for your life!”

As we were about to hit the stairway, Sal D’Agostino said to me, “Hey, Cap, I wonder where the air force is?” I says, “Yeah, I wonder how many thousands of fires I’ve been to in my career and I’ve never hit a stairway wondering where the air force was.”

Every plane was considered a threat. We were asked probably 15 or 20 times, “Are you still with us?” It was total mass confusion.

Ben Sliney: To give some perspective, I believe 700 landed within the first 10 minutes, and 3,500 within the first hour. Terry Biggio: They did an incredible job, under warlike conditions, with unbelievable precision. Ben Sliney: I do not think the aviation industry got the thanks that they deserve from the American public.

I’ve known the mayor for about 11 or 12 years, and I’ve never seen him look as worried or concerned about anything as much as he did when he was on the phone with the White House. He put the phone down and he said, “Well, that’s not good at all. They’ve hit the Pentagon and they’re evacuating the White House.” It was a clear signal that this was no longer just about New York City. It was about the United States.

Mothers and nannies with infants in their arms were dropping their children down to us. At one point we had four

or five of them wrapped in little blankets, and we put them in bunks down in the crew quarters. I put four babies in one bunk, like little peanuts lined up in a row.

There’s this guy who looks like Gen. Buck Turgidson from Dr. Strangelove—big guy, all decked out in a bomber jacket. He was straight out of central casting. We said, “What do you need?” He said, “See those planes? Every one is loaded with nukes—tell me where you want ’em.” We looked over and there were rows of B-52s, wingtip to wingtip. I joked, “Gosh, don’t tell the president!” Capt. Cindy Wright, presidential nurse, White House Medical Unit: I remember how different it was, landing at Barksdale. We’d gotten off the plane and we were at war.

It turned out we’d happened to park over a hot refueling tank they used for bombers. This civilian is arguing with our crew, “The fuel pits are only authorized for use in time of war.” This air force master sergeant—God bless him—overhears this and roars, “We are at war!” He whips out his knife and starts cutting open the cover. That defines to me what the day was like.

I’ll never forget those men—big burly guys, coming down. So much of that day, so much of that day was just New Yorkers. People who can help people. A lot of credit goes to the fire department. A lot of credit goes to the police department and emergency response people. But that’s what we get paid for. The amount of New Yorkers—just everyday New Yorkers—who stepped up to the plate that day was incredible.

I had a man who called and he said, “I am 80 years old. I still fit in my pilot uniform from World War II. I can still see. I can still hear. I have kept up with my training as a pilot. Tell whoever you can tell that I’m ready to report for duty.” That broke my heart, this 80-year-old man saying that.

It was the first time I completely understood that nothing is simple, some things never make sense, and sometimes horrible things happen for no reason at all. It was the end of my childhood.

It was the first time in my life that I felt safer at sea than my family was at home.

The trooper approached my window cautiously. He got to the window and clearly, carefully, and professionally checked us out. He asked if we knew how fast we were going and what was the rush. I identified myself as an FBI agent and said we were headed to D.C. He took one step back from the window, pointed north on I-95, and said, “Go get ’em.”

He turned and said, “Well, I can hear you. The whole world hears you, and when we find these people who knocked these buildings down, they’ll hear all of us soon.”

People were saying to each other on the mission, “If we know we’re going to die, why are we going to go?” Then we talked about the people who jumped out of the Towers on a Tuesday morning. They didn’t want to, they didn’t know what was happening—all they knew was that it was 2500 degrees Fahrenheit and the better alternative than whatever hell was going on inside, in Windows on the World or at Cantor Fitzgerald, was to jump. They were not supposed to be in the fight. We all joined to be in the fight, and that’s why we were going.

Yet as a country, we will never tolerate our security being threatened, nor stand idly by when our people have been killed. We will be relentless in defense of our citizens and our friends and allies. We will be true to the values that make us who we are.