opposite and below
10:55 A.M. ET JET FIGHTERS ARRIVE
For its own safety, Air Force One had been circling somewhere along the Gulf Coast. Watching the weak TV reception, we were all stunned at the sight of the towers collapsing, horrified at the innocent loss of life in New York and Washington. In the skies, I never felt we and the president were in danger, but Col. Tillman at the controls took nothing for granted. We learned later there might have been a threatening call to the White House switchboard warning, “Angel is next.” Angel is the code name for Air Force One. As we flew, F-16 fighter jets appeared off each wing. At first Col. Tillman feared those jet fighters might actually be that “Angel” attack. He later told author Garrett Graff, who published the sweeping oral history The Only Plane in the Sky, that he heard on his radio, “Air Force One, this is Cowry 4-5.” It was the Texas Air National Guard. The Cavalry! Tillman recounted, “You could hear the Texas twang in their voice. They explain to us they’re a flight of two F-16s, and they are our cover. And that was the coolest thing ever in my life.”
O P P O S I T E A N D R I G H T : N AT I O N A L A R C H I V E S A N D R E C O R D S A D M I N I S T R AT I O N
Surrounded by his aides as he looks out the windows of Air Force One (below), President Bush watches as F-16 fighters arrive to escort his flight (opposite).
white house history quarterly
Not as cool as it was for those two young pilots. I interviewed one a year later. His code name was Romeo, and he was scrambled from the same Air National Guard unit that George W. Bush had been assigned to in his youth. Romeo was simply told to fly to a certain point and rendezvous with the plane he was to protect. It was not until his F-16 got close enough that Romeo saw that he was riding shotgun for Air Force One. I scribbled into my reporter’s notebook at 10:55 a.m. ET that the pilot was taking Air Force One up to a much higher altitude, 45,000 feet; normal flying altitude is about 30,000 to 38,000 feet. At 11:31 a.m. ET Press Secretary Ari Fleischer came to the press cabin. His grave statement to the travel pool made my heart stop: “The president is being evacuated.” He said that is off-therecord, meaning it could not be shared with the public. I protested that such a profound decision is much too important to keep secret. For history! But then I looked out the windows, where jet fighters held their positions just off each wingtip. I realized I had no way to share that dramatic development with the world, even if I wanted to.
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