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David F. Wherley Jr., the head of the Washington National Guard who scrambled jets over the city during the 9/11 terrorist attacks

lupercal wrote:

David F. Wherley Jr., the head of the Washington National Guard who scrambled jets over the city during the 9/11 terrorist attacks

The weird thing is that I'd always thought they DIDN'T "scramble" jets over the city, and now the guy who we're told didn't ... did.

hmmm.

p.s. yes, that's just my recollection, and I never made a study of the whole scrambled jets business, mainly because I figured a defense operation that uses a word like scrambled to describe what it does is not exactly going to be fraught with transparency. And as someone else here recently noted, life is too short.

(9:09 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Pilots at Langley Air Force Base Go to ‘Battle Stations’
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Major Dean Eckmann.Major Dean Eckmann. [Source: US Air Force]The two pilots on alert at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia are put on “battle stations,” and get into their fighter jets, ready to take off if required. [LONGMAN, 2002, PP. 64; 9/11 COMMISSION, 7/24/2004, PP. 24] Being at “battle stations” means the pilots are in their planes’ cockpits with the engines turned off, but ready to start them and taxi out should a scramble order follow. [FILSON, 2003, PP. 55; SPENCER, 2008, PP. 27] NORAD’s Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) has ordered this in response to the news of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center and over concerns that the fighters launched from Otis Air National Guard base in response to Flight 11 might run out of fuel (see 9:09 a.m. September 11, 2001 and (9:09 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 COMMISSION, 7/24/2004, PP. 460; 9/11 COMMISSION, 8/26/2004, PP. 88 pdf file] According to journalist and author Jere Longman, the two “alert” pilots at Langley are currently “still in the dark about the gravity of the moment.” [LONGMAN, 2002, PP. 64-65]

Pilot Wonders If Order Connected to Events in New York - Major Dean Eckmann, one of the pilots on alert, will later recall: “The scramble horn goes off and we get the yellow light, which is our battle stations. So at that point I go running out to… my assigned alert airplane, get suited up, and I get into the cockpit ready to start.” [BBC, 9/1/2002] He asks his crew chief, “Do you think this has anything to do with New York?” The chief replies: “I can’t imagine how. The Otis guys could handle that.”
Pilot Told 'This Is Just Precautionary'

- Meanwhile, Captain Craig Borgstrom, the unit’s operations manager, is briefing the other alert pilot, Major Brad Derrig, on what he knows. He tells him: “There’s some wacky stuff happening. Some airplane just hit the World Trade Center. I don’t have any more information, but I’m sure this is just precautionary.” Borgstrom then heads out to give Eckmann the same brief, but has to stop to answer a phone call from NEADS (see (Between 9:10 a.m. and 9:23 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [SPENCER, 2008, PP. 118] Although the 9/11 Commission and other accounts will state that the Langley jets are placed on battle stations at 9:09, a BBC documentary will suggest this happens at 9:21, and Longman will indicate this does not occur until 9:24. [LONGMAN, 2002, PP. 64; AVIATION WEEK AND SPACE TECHNOLOGY, 6/3/2002; BBC, 9/1/2002; 9/11 COMMISSION, 7/24/2004, PP. 24] The two alert jets, along with a third jet piloted by Borgstrom, will be ordered to scramble at 9:24 a.m. (see 9:24 a.m. September 11, 2001). [CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, 4/16/2002; 9/11 COMMISSION, 8/26/2004, PP. 16 pdf file]
Entity Tags: Craig Borgstrom, Langley Air Force Base, Dean Eckmann, Northeast Air Defense Sector, Brad Derrig
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, 9/11 Timeline

Profile: David Wherley
David Wherley was a participant or observer in the following events:
(Shortly After 9:39 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Andrews Commander Reacts to News of Pentagon Attack, Yet Doesn’t Want Fighters Launched Without Further Instructions
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Brigadier General David Wherley, the commander of the DC Air National Guard, is in the headquarters of the 113th Wing at Andrews Air Force Base, ten miles southeast of Washington, DC. Reportedly, his “first inkling that the attacks would go beyond New York was when one of his officers, whose husband worked at the Pentagon, saw on television that the building had been hit and began shrieking.” After briefly comforting the woman, he dashes from the building and runs several hundred yards across the base to the headquarters of the DC Air National Guard’s 121st Fighter Squadron. Unlike other Guard units, the DC Air National Guard reports to the president, rather than a state governor. Squadron officers, who work closely with Secret Service agents at the Air Force One hangar at Andrews, have already been told by their contacts that the White House wants fighters launched (see (After 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001). However, Wherley says he wants more explicit authorization. He tells the officers, “We have to get instructions. We can’t just fly off half-cocked.” The first fighters to take off from Andrews are not launched until 10:38 and 10:42 a.m. (see (Between 9:55 a.m. and 10:38 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and (10:42 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [WASHINGTON POST, 4/8/2002; VOGEL, 2007, PP. 445-446]
Entity Tags: District of Columbia Air National Guard, David Wherley
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, 9/11 Timeline
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(Between 9:55 a.m. and 10:38 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Fighter Recalled from Training in North Carolina Relaunches from Washington, DC
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The first fighter jet to launch from Andrews Air Force Base—which is just ten miles southeast of Washington—in response to the attacks, takes off. [GLOBALSECURITY (.ORG), 11/15/2001; 9/11 COMMISSION, 6/17/2004] The F-16 belongs to the 121st Fighter Squadron, which is part of the 113th Wing of the District of Columbia Air National Guard, and is piloted by Major Billy Hutchison. It is one of three F-16s that was flying on a training mission in North Carolina, over 200 miles from Andrews (see 8:46 a.m. September 11, 2001), and which has finally been recalled to the base. [AVIATION WEEK AND SPACE TECHNOLOGY, 9/9/2002; AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE, 5/12/2005] Hutchison’s is the only one of the three jets with enough fuel remaining to take off again immediately, though he only has 2,800 pounds, which is equivalent to one-eighth of a tank in a car. His jet has no missiles, and only training ammunition.

Pilot Takes Off, Instructed to Protect Washington - Immediately after landing at Andrews, Hutchison takes off again at the instruction of Brigadier General David Wherley, the commander of the DC Air National Guard. He is instructed “to intercept an aircraft coming toward DC and prevent it from reaching DC,” he will later recall. [WASHINGTON POST, 4/8/2002; FILSON, 2003, PP. 79-81] According to author Lynn Spencer, Lt. Col. Phil Thompson, the supervisor of flying (SOF) at Andrews, tells Hutchison to “use whatever force is necessary to prevent [the aircraft] from getting to DC.” Thompson adds: “You are weapons-free. Do you understand?” “Weapons-free” means the decision to shoot at a target now rests solely with Hutchison. [SPENCER, 2008, PP. 219] However, according to the 9/11 Commission, the “weapons-free” instruction goes out to other pilots that launch from Andrews at 10:42 and after, but apparently not to Hutchison. [9/11 COMMISSION, 7/24/2004, PP. 44] Thompson will tell Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine simply that he instructs Hutchison “to ‘do exactly what [air traffic control] asks you to do.’ Primarily, he was to go ID [identify] that unknown [aircraft] that everybody was so excited about.” [AVIATION WEEK AND SPACE TECHNOLOGY, 9/9/2002] Hutchison takes off “without afterburner to conserve fuel, go across the White House over the Georgetown area and continue northwest up the Potomac,” he will recall. [FILSON, 2003, PP. 81]

Conflicting Timelines - The time Hutchison takes off at is unclear. The pilots with the 121st Fighter Squadron will later admit that their own recollection of the morning’s timeline “is fuzzy.” [AVIATION WEEK AND SPACE TECHNOLOGY, 9/9/2002] According to 113th Wing operations desk records, Hutchison takes off at 10:33 a.m. [FILSON, 2003, PP. 81 AND 89] Based on an interview with David Wherley, the 9/11 Commission states he is airborne at 10:38 a.m. [9/11 COMMISSION, 7/24/2004, PP. 44 AND 465] But in 2008, Lynn Spencer will claim Hutchison takes off significantly earlier, some time after 9:50 but before Flight 93 crashes (which is just after 10:00 a.m.). [SPENCER, 2008, PP. 216-220] Two more fighters will take off from Andrews at 10:42 a.m. (see (10:42 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [VOGEL, 2007, PP. 446] The 113th Wing is not part of NORAD’s air sovereignty force and, according to the 1st Air Force’s book about 9/11, does not have an alert mission. [FILSON, 2003, PP. 76] According to Phil Thompson, “We’ve never been an air defense unit,” but “We practice scrambles, we know how to do intercepts and other things.” [AVIATION WEEK AND SPACE TECHNOLOGY, 9/9/2002]

Entity Tags: Phil Thompson, 121st Fighter Squadron, Andrews Air Force Base, David Wherley, Billy Hutchison
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, 9/11 Timeline
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(Before 10:36 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Andrews Fighters Ordered to Shoot Down Threatening Planes over Washington
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General David Wherley.General David Wherley. [Source: US Air Force]A Secret Service agent again contacts Andrews Air Force Base and commands, “Get in the air now!” It’s not clear if this is treated as an official scramble order, or how quickly fighters respond to it. According to fighter pilot Lt. Col. Marc Sasseville, almost simultaneously, a call from someone else in the White House declares the Washington area “a free-fire zone. That meant we were given authority to use force, if the situation required it, in defense of the nation’s capital, its property, and people.” [AVIATION WEEK AND SPACE TECHNOLOGY, 9/9/2002]

Discussions with Secret Service - Apparently, this second call is made to General David Wherley, flight commander of the Air National Guard at Andrews, who has made several phone calls this morning, seeking airborne authorization for his fighters. Wherley had contacted the Secret Service after hearing reports that it wanted fighters airborne. One Secret Service agent, using two telephones at once, relays instructions to Wherley from another Secret Service agent in the White House who has been given the instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney. [FILSON, 2003, PP. 79; 9/11 COMMISSION, 6/17/2004] The identity of all the secret service agents is not known, but one of them is Becky Ediger. She is apparently told by Cheney to pass along an order from President Bush to shoot down hijacked civilian jets, if that is necessary to keep them from hitting any building near the White House. [WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/22/2004 pdf file]

Wherley's Account - Wherley gives lead pilot Lt. Col. Marc Sasseville the authority to decide whether to execute a shootdown. According to a different account, during this call Wherley is speaking with a woman (presumably Ediger) in the Secret Service’s command and control center at the White House. Wherley will recall: “She was standing next to the vice president (Dick Cheney) and she said, ‘They want you to put a CAP up.’ Basically what they told me, and this is another one of those things that’s clear in my mind… ‘We want you to intercept any airplane that attempts to fly closer than 20 miles around any airport around the Washington area.… Attempt to turn them away, do whatever you can to turn them away and if they won’t turn away use whatever force is necessary… to keep them from hitting a building downtown.’”

Denial - President Bush and Vice President Cheney will later claim they were not aware that any fighters had scrambled from Andrews at the request of the Secret Service. [FILSON, 2003, PP. 79; 9/11 COMMISSION, 6/17/2004] The anonymous White House officials will later say that the Secret Service acted on its own initiative in getting the aircraft launched. However, the Secret Service will deny this in a written statement: “The Secret Service is not authorized to, nor did it, direct the activation or launch of Department of Defense aviation assets.” Current senior Secret Service officials will say that the agents’ actions on 9/11 are ordered by Cheney. An official speaking for Cheney will say he does know whether he directed the agents to call the fighter wing and will not be able to find out. [WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/22/2004 pdf file] Sasseville and the Capt. Heather Penney Garcia will take off at 10:42 a.m. (see (10:42 a.m.) September 11, 2001).

Entity Tags: Secret Service, George W. Bush, David Wherley, Andrews Air Force Base, Marc Sasseville, Becky Ediger, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, 9/11 Timeline

Penguin wrote:

lupercal wrote:

David F. Wherley Jr., the head of the Washington National Guard who scrambled jets over the city during the 9/11 terrorist attacks

The weird thing is that I'd always thought they DIDN'T "scramble" jets over the city, and now the guy who we're told didn't ... did.

hmmm...

http://www.historycommons.org/entity.js ... id_wherley

Profile: David Wherley
David Wherley was a participant or observer in the following events:
(Shortly After 9:39 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Andrews Commander Reacts to News of Pentagon Attack, Yet Doesn’t Want Fighters Launched Without Further Instructions

Brigadier General David Wherley, the commander of the DC Air National Guard, is in the headquarters of the 113th Wing at Andrews Air Force Base, ten miles southeast of Washington, DC...

(Before 10:36 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Andrews Fighters Ordered to Shoot Down Threatening Planes over Washington

Denial - President Bush and Vice President Cheney will later claim they were not aware that any fighters had scrambled from Andrews at the request of the Secret Service. [FILSON, 2003, PP. 79; 9/11 COMMISSION, 6/17/2004] The anonymous White House officials will later say that the Secret Service acted on its own initiative in getting the aircraft launched. However, the Secret Service will deny this in a written statement: “The Secret Service is not authorized to, nor did it, direct the activation or launch of Department of Defense aviation assets.” Current senior Secret Service officials will say that the agents’ actions on 9/11 are ordered by Cheney. An official speaking for Cheney will say he does know whether he directed the agents to call the fighter wing and will not be able to find out. [WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/22/2004 pdf file] Sasseville and the Capt. Heather Penney Garcia will take off at 10:42 a.m. (see (10:42 a.m.) September 11, 2001).

F-16 pilot Heather Penney was ordered to fly a suicide mission on Sept. 11, 2001, to bring down United Flight 93. "I would essentially be a kamikaze pilot," she recalls 10 years later. On the Tuesday that changed everything, Lt. Heather "Lucky" Penney was on a runway at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland and ready to fly. She had her hand on the throttle of an F-16 and she had her orders: Bring down United Airlines Flight 93. The day's fourth hijacked airliner seemed to be hurtling toward Washington , D.C. Penney, one of the first two combat pilots in the air that morning, was told to stop it.

The one thing she didn't have as she roared into the sky was live ammunition. Or missiles. Or anything to throw at a hostile aircraft. Except her own plane. So that was the plan. Because the surprise attacks were unfolding, in that innocent age, faster than their warplanes could be armed, Penney and her commanding officer went up to fly their jets straight into a Boeing 757. "We wouldn't be shooting it down. We'd be ramming the aircraft," Penney recalls of that day. "I would essentially be a kamikaze pilot."

For years, Penney, one of the first generation of U.S. female combat pilots, gave no interviews about her experiences on Sept. 11, which included, eventually, escorting Air Force One back into Washington's suddenly highly restricted airspace. But 10 years later, she is reflecting on one of the lesser-told tales of that endlessly examined morning: how the first counterpunch the U.S. military prepared to throw at the attackers was effectively a suicide mission. "We had to protect the airspace any way we could," she said last week in her office at Lockheed Martin, where she is a director in the F-35 program. Penney, now a major, is no longer a combat flier. She flew two tours in Iraq and serves as a part-time National Guard pilot, mostly hauling VIPs around in a military Gulfstream. She takes the stick of her own vintage 1941 Taylorcraft tail-dragger whenever she can. She was a rookie in 2001, the first female F-16 pilot at the 121st Fighter Squadron of the D.C. Air National Guard. She had grown up smelling jet fuel. Her father flew jets in Vietnam and still races them. She earned her pilot's license when she was a literature major at Purdue. She planned to be a teacher. But during a graduate program in American studies, Congress opened combat aviation to women, and Penney was nearly first in line. "I signed up immediately. I wanted to be a fighter pilot like my dad," she said.

On that Tuesday, she and her colleagues had just finished two weeks of air-combat training in Nevada . They were sitting around a briefing table when someone looked in to say a plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York . When it happened once, they assumed it was some yahoo in a Cessna. When it happened again, they knew it was war. In the monumental confusion of those first hours, it was impossible to get clear orders. Nothing was ready. The jets were still equipped with dummy bullets from the training mission. There were no armed aircraft standing by and no system in place to scramble them over Washington. "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. Things are different today, Degnon said. At least two "hot-cocked" planes are ready at all times, their pilots never more than yards from the jet.

A third plane hit the Pentagon, and almost at once came word that a fourth plane, maybe more, could be on the way. The jets would be armed within an hour, but somebody had to fly now, weapons or no weapons. "Lucky, you're coming with me," Col. Marc Sasseville barked. They were gearing up in the preflight life-support area when Sasseville, struggling into his flight suit, met her eye. "I'm going to go for the cockpit," Sasseville said. She replied without hesitating. "I'll take the tail." It was a plan. And a pact. "Let's go!" She climbed in, rushed to power up the engines, screamed for her ground crew to pull the chocks. She muttered a fighter pilot's prayer — "God, don't let me (expletive) up" — and followed Sasseville into the sky.

They screamed over the smoldering Pentagon, heading northwest at more than 400 mph, flying low and scanning the clear horizon. Her commander had time to think about the best place to hit the enemy. Grim calculations, "We don't train to bring down airliners," said Sasseville, now stationed at the Pentagon. "If you just hit the engine, it could still glide and (the pilot) could guide it to a target. My thought was the cockpit or the wing." He also thought about his ejection seat. Would there be an instant just before impact? "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." Penney worried about missing the target if she tried to bail out. "If you eject and your jet soars through without impact ... ," she trailed off, the thought of failing more dreadful than the thought of dying. Unexpected outcome. But she didn't have to die. She didn't have to knock down an airliner full of children and salespeople and loved ones. The passengers did that themselves.

It was hours before Penney and Sasseville learned that United 93 had gone down in Pennsylvania, an insurrection by hostages willing to do what the two Guard pilots had been willing to do: Anything — and everything. "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." She and Sasseville flew the rest of the day, clearing the airspace, escorting the president, looking down onto a city that would soon be sending them to war. She's a single mom of two girls now and still loves to fly. And she thinks often of that extraordinary ride down the runway. "I genuinely believed that was going to be the last time I took off," she said. "If we did it right, this would be it."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle ... story.html

viewtopic.php?p=425433#p425433

Nordic wrote:This was just posted at cryptogon.

I think it's an update to a previous version.

It's great. "it should go viral". Let's hope it does.