Page 41 - 201109 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - September 2011

; 15)3)45-1+ &: An Interesting Day: Air Force One on 9/11: They’re mostly disgruntled folks President Bush's Keep Bush safe making false claims. All of them are checked out. “In this case, there was nothing like that,” Movements and Actions Hamilton Spectator he says. “On Sept. 11, literally going up to the plane, everything was normal.” on 9/11 WASHINGTON For Mark Tillman, Air Force The first reports of trouble in New York Continued from Page 40 One pilot, neither doomsday training nor years came from airmen watching local television and seeing images of the north tower of the World of experience prepared him for Sept. 11, 2001. Trade Center ablaze. “At that point, we just “There are all kinds of plans to keep the Vital Questions Remain Unanswered president safe, emergency action plans, in the assumed it was operator error because it was event of nuclear attack,” Tillman says. “Pretty clear,” Tillman says. “You can see clear skies, Needless to say, in the anniversary much any major military attack, I knew exactly you can see a million miles.” hoopla, Bush and other leaders were described what do with the president and where to take There was no doubt about an attack as “resolute,”“brave,”“strong,” and so forth. him to keep him safe. when terrorists smashed United Airlines Flight Even the minor level of media criticism just “This was different. This was an attack 175 into the south tower. Tillman watched on after 9/11 that led to several reporters losing from within. We had the president who didn’t television as White House chief of staff Andrew their jobs was absent. The topic of Bush’s want to follow our plans for a nuclear attack, Card relayed the news to Bush, who was behavior on 9/11 has been barely mentioned in which is hide him, keep him safe and allow reading “My Pet Goat” with schoolchildren. the media since. continuity of government.” America is under attack, Card told the president. There are many questions that deserve As the 10th anniversary of the largest Tillman went through his checklist as answers. So many pieces of the puzzle do not terrorist attack on U.S. soil approaches, Tillman, Air Force One, a Boeing 747 with its familiar fit. Simply by reading the mainstream media 53, who retired as a colonel from the Air Force robin’s-egg blue belly, idled on the runway at reports, we can see that mere incompetence in 2009, agreed to talk about the chaotic hours Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, doesn’t explain what happened to Bush on that that followed the attacks, the worry that Air waiting for the president to board: day. For instance, it makes no sense that Bush Force One was being stalked by terrorists, the • Double-check the identity of would listen to a story about a goat long after flight back to Washington and the sight of the everybody getting on board. being told the US was under attack, and even smoldering Pentagon. • Post an armed Air Force security after the Secret Service decided to immediately The attacks in New York and officer outside the cockpit. evacuate him from the school. It defies Washington killed nearly 3,000 people and set • Keep the president safe. explanation that Air Force One’s fighter escort the nation on a path to war. The jet roared down the runway, “a took two hours to appear. And it is mind- Mission No. 3,480 appeared simple rather steep takeoff,” Tillman recalls. He heard boggling that there are seven different versions enough on paper. Depart Andrews Air Force from air controllers in Gainesville that an of how Bush learned about the first crash. Base near Washington at 1:15 p.m. EDT on unidentified plane was descending toward them. It’s doubtful that the Independent Sept. 10, according to the official flight He asked for fighter jets to protect the plane. Commission investigation will look critically at itinerary. There would be stops in Jacksonville “I didn’t know the capabilities of the what Bush did on 9/11 and why he did it. and Sarasota, Fla., where President George W. terrorists, so just err to the worst case,” Tillman Despite the contradictory reports, no one in the Bush planned to showcase educational says. “It wouldn’t be bad to have fighter support mainstream media has yet demanded initiatives. Fly back to Andrews the afternoon of in the event that airliners were tracking us. clarification of the many obvious Sept. 11. Maybe that airliner was coming to crash into us inconsistencies and problems of the official That round trip did occur—but with over Sarasota, saw us take off and was coming version. Anyone even asking questions has been previously unscheduled stops at military bases after us. In reality, it was just like many of the quickly insulted as anti-American, accused of in Louisiana and Nebraska, and a return to a threats that day. It was not an actual threat. It bashing the president in a time of war, or Washington and a world that had changed was an airliner whose transponder had failed.” branded a conspiracy nut. Only a few relatives forever. TV monitors on the plane showed the of the 9/11 attacks have been able to raise these As a young man, Tillman didn’t north tower collapse at 10:28 a.m. “Everyone issues publicly. For instance, Kristen consider an Air Force career, much less aspire to we saw was shaken and aghast,” noted the pool Breitweiser told Phil Donahue: “It was clear become the president’s personal pilot. A native report filed by USA Today’s Judy Keen and that we were under attack. Why didn’t the of South Florida, he thought of becoming a Time’s Jay Carney, now the White House press Secret Service whisk [Bush] out of that doctor and chose Tulane University for pre- secretary. school?… [H]e is the commander-in-chief of med. He took a seat in class next to a student in In the cabin, reporters and staffers the United States of America, our country was an Air Force uniform. The Reserve Officer noticed a fighter jet flying off the right wing of clearly under attack, it was after the second Training Candidate told Tillman that ROTC Air Force One at 11:29 a.m., according to the building was hit. I want to know why he sat could help pay his tuition. Knowing his parents pool report. Staffers were asked to keep their there for 25 minutes.” [Donahue, 8/13/02] But had only enough money for his first semester, cellphones turned off because the signal might so far, few have listened to their concerns. Tillman signed up. allow terrorists to home in on Air Force One. Because the media has failed in its role Engineering appealed to him more than In the cockpit, Tillman received a to ask these questions, much less attempt to medicine, and his first Air Force assignment chilling message. Air Force One was being answer them, it is now the responsibility of was in foreign intelligence, working on the targeted. ordinary Americans—of you, of me, and the propulsion systems of Soviet missiles. Flying “We get out over the Gulf of Mexico, people we know—to gather the information, seemed like fun, too, and Tillman soon found and the vice president advises the plane that look for answers, and sound the alarm. [] himself in flight school. He wanted to pilot big ‘Angel’ is next,” Tillman says. Angel at the time cargo planes to see the world. A later was the classified call sign of Air Force One. “We asked for fighter support as well as assignment—the 89th Airlift Wing—promised AWACs, a radar plane overhead to keep watch more global travel. Based at Andrews, it flies VIPs, senators, congressmen, the vice president, on any type of threats coming at us.” Bush wanted to return to Washington. first lady and the president. Tillman’s training, instinct and advice from By 2001, Tillman had reached the pinnacle: He had become the president’s White House aides was to stay away until the capital had been secured. There were airliners principal pilot. The morning of Sept. 11, Tillman unaccounted for, and terrorists had seized San arrived at Sarasota airport a few hours before Francisco-bound United Airlines Flight 93 after takeoff from Newark, N.J., apparently intending the scheduled return to Washington. Threats to attack the city. against Air Force One were routine, he says. Continued on Page 49