story1075.xml

story1075.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

I'm the NCOIC, Investigations at RAF Lakenheath, England and our Security Forces Operations Flight was having a staff meeting in the conference room, when our Force Protection Officer came into the room and told us a small commuter aircraft had just hit the WTC. We talked about what a terrible accident that was and finished our meeting. I walked into the Operations Flight main office and began to watch CNN. I saw the smoking tower and couldn't believe that much damage had come from a small aircraft. As I watched, the 2nd aircraft came into view and for a split second I couldn't reconcile the image--I thought it was a replay, but in my mind knew it couldn't be possible. As the plane struck the tower, I knew it was a terrorist attack and that we were about to lock the base down. I called my wife to tell her and to make sure she got our kids home. As additional reports started coming in about other aircraft being hijacked, we started moving in high gear not knowing if this was the start of a worldwide vs nationwide attack. We immediately implemented the barrier plans to limit access to critical areas and buildings and we continued until early the next morning. I drove home, spent 45 minutes with my wife and looked at the kids sleeping and went back to work.