September 2, 2026 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, on the morning of September 11, 2001, Peter Braxton became the first military pilot in the air over the burning Twin Towers on what was his very first day on the job. Not long after, he flew multiple combat tours in the Middle East before eventually retiring from the Air Force.
In this story, Peter shares what happened when he received a phone call shortly after retirement that began with an unexpected question: “Do you still have your uniform?”
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. On
the morning of September 11, 2001, Peter Braxton was the
first military pilot in the air over the burning Twin
(00:33):
Towers in lower Manhattan. It was his first day on
the job. not long after he did multiple tours of
flight combat in the Middle East and then retired from
the Air Force. Here's Peter with the story about the
phone call he received shortly after his retirement.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
You know, I was a distinguished graduate, and why didn't
you fly F-15s or F-22s or F-16s? And you're going
to remember, I wanted to be a doctor, A. B.
This is before the war. C. I was homesick. I
wanted to go home. I promise you if the closest
Air Force base to where I grew up was a
fighter base, I would have picked a fighter. I wanted
(01:11):
to go home. And I was happy with my choice
until one day I was listening to this Israeli F-16
fighter pilot. And he said, well, you know, well, why
did I fly a fighter? And he said, because it
was personal. We were being attacked in my neighborhood and
my sister was there. And you can fly an F-16
across Israel and 22 seconds, you know, I mean, that's
(01:35):
how small the country is kind of width wise. And,
you know, for him, it was personal. And I remember thinking,
you know what, if this was, if this was a
day after nine, if this, yeah, it's personal, right. I'm
from New York. And so an interesting story that I've
(01:56):
told is, is after I got out of the Air
Force and I was fully out, I was in business school.
I got a call from the Pentagon, and the voice
on the phone said, hey, this is Peter Braxton. Yes,
it is. Do you still have your uniform? Yes, I
have my uniform. It's been a couple months. Does it
(02:20):
still fit? You know, I'm not sitting on the couch
eating Cheetos. Yeah, I mean, it still fits, but everyone
who's been in the military knows it's illegal. You're not
allowed to wear your uniform after You get out. You
can keep it. You can't wear it. And so this
colonel said, hey, can you meet me at Scott Air
(02:42):
Force Base, Illinois, and meet me Saturday morning, 10 a.m.,
at this building? And I'm like, this is my buddy.
This is a joke. This is another joke. This is another.
Who is this? He says, this is Colonel so-and-so, and
we'd like to talk to you. And I was like, okay,
(03:06):
the joke's on you. Like, I'm not supposed to do this.
So I, I, I'm out of the Air Force. It's
a Saturday. I show up and it, it was like
a Jason Bourne kind of boardroom with a big lawn
table and six colonels wearing full service dress uniform, which,
you know, you don't see that unless you're at a funeral,
(03:26):
I mean, at a funeral, right? So And so I
sat down. They said, no, you sit over there at
the other end. So I sat at the very end
of the other table. And they sat at the other end.
That table sat like 24 people and proceeded to interview
me for the job of Air Force Two. This is
Dick Cheney back in the day, 2007. And, you know,
(03:51):
I mean, I said, gentlemen, like, I'm out. They're like,
we can change that with one signature. Sure. And so
I talked to them and they kind of offered me
the job. Just think about it, talk to your family.
So I did. I called my brother and he said, Pete,
you know, you spent all this time deploying and, you know,
(04:13):
getting into, taking the GMAT and getting into business school
and getting out of the Air Force. You want to
go back in? And this is the, I mean, it's
the ultimate job, right? It's the ultimate. It's like the
Thunderbirds for heavy transport, air-fueling jets, so. you know, honored
to be asked. So I remember I got the job
at Credit Suisse over the summer and, you know, they
(04:37):
asked me not to shop it. Like, don't go to,
don't go to cross the street to JP Morgan or
Goldman and kind of like try to get a job. Just,
you know, if you want the job, take the job.
If you don't, tell us. And so I remember saying,
I want the job. And I went back to the
president of the bank, the managing director. And I said, sir, I,
(04:59):
you know, I had a question, can I defer this
for a year? I need to go back and try
to do this. And he said, you know, congratulations, that's
an amazing honor. But no, you can't defer it. You
either take the job or you have to give it
to somebody else. I said, okay. So I ran back
(05:19):
and I called the guys up at the Pentagon. I said, hey,
can I defer this for a year? I'd spent all
this time going to business school. I got this job.
An investment bank, I'd love to do that, but I
just need a year. And then I can kind of like,
they're like, no, you got to either take the job now.
(05:39):
It's not an exploding offer, but it's not guaranteed. We
just have this need. And so I kind of thought
long and hard. And then I'd flown, at that point,
I'd flown Donald Rumsfeld around in the KC-10. The KC-10,
I would say by all intents and purposes, the fastest
jet in the world because we don't have to stop
(06:00):
We can sustain. 92 Mach almost indefinitely if we have
enough fuel, and then we can get refueled. And so
I ultimately turned the job down. And this is another funny,
true story. My roommate from the Air Force Academy is
currently the commander of Air Force One. Now, I'm not
(06:23):
going to say his name because he's not posting the
stuff on social media, and I don't think he really
wants everyone to know You know, that he's the 17th
ever presidential pilot. So he flew for Obama and then
Trump and then now Biden and potentially whoever is either, A,
(06:44):
reelected or elected next, but he got the job. And
he's an outstanding American and a great aviator.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling
by our own Greg Hangler. And a special thanks to
Peter Braxton for sharing the story of the interview he
got to be the pilot of Air Force Two after
graduating with a Master's of Business and accepting a job
offer at Credit Suisse. Which way did he go? Which
did he choose? Well, he chose, in the end, his
(07:15):
future life as a civilian. But what a job offer
it was. The story of Peter Braxton's first job after
his military service, here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here,
the host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show,
(07:36):
we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country. Stories
from our big cities and small towns. But we truly
can't do this show without you. Our stories are free
to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
you love what you hear, go to OurAmericanStories.com and click
the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go
to OurAmericanStories.com and give.
This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. On
the morning of September 11, 2001, Peter Braxton was the
first military pilot in the air over the burning Twin
(00:33):
Towers in lower Manhattan. It was his first day on
the job. not long after he did multiple tours of
flight combat in the Middle East and then retired from
the Air Force. Here's Peter with the story about the
phone call he received shortly after his retirement.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
You know, I was a distinguished graduate, and why didn't
you fly F-15s or F-22s or F-16s? And you're going
to remember, I wanted to be a doctor, A. B.
This is before the war. C. I was homesick. I
wanted to go home. I promise you if the closest
Air Force base to where I grew up was a
fighter base, I would have picked a fighter. I wanted
(01:11):
to go home. And I was happy with my choice
until one day I was listening to this Israeli F-16
fighter pilot. And he said, well, you know, well, why
did I fly a fighter? And he said, because it
was personal. We were being attacked in my neighborhood and
my sister was there. And you can fly an F-16
across Israel and 22 seconds, you know, I mean, that's
(01:35):
how small the country is kind of width wise. And,
you know, for him, it was personal. And I remember thinking,
you know what, if this was, if this was a
day after nine, if this, yeah, it's personal, right. I'm
from New York. And so an interesting story that I've
(01:56):
told is, is after I got out of the Air
Force and I was fully out, I was in business school.
I got a call from the Pentagon, and the voice
on the phone said, hey, this is Peter Braxton. Yes,
it is. Do you still have your uniform? Yes, I
have my uniform. It's been a couple months. Does it
(02:20):
still fit? You know, I'm not sitting on the couch
eating Cheetos. Yeah, I mean, it still fits, but everyone
who's been in the military knows it's illegal. You're not
allowed to wear your uniform after You get out. You
can keep it. You can't wear it. And so this
colonel said, hey, can you meet me at Scott Air
(02:42):
Force Base, Illinois, and meet me Saturday morning, 10 a.m.,
at this building? And I'm like, this is my buddy.
This is a joke. This is another joke. This is another.
Who is this? He says, this is Colonel so-and-so, and
we'd like to talk to you. And I was like, okay,
(03:06):
the joke's on you. Like, I'm not supposed to do this.
So I, I, I'm out of the Air Force. It's
a Saturday. I show up and it, it was like
a Jason Bourne kind of boardroom with a big lawn
table and six colonels wearing full service dress uniform, which,
you know, you don't see that unless you're at a funeral,
(03:26):
I mean, at a funeral, right? So And so I
sat down. They said, no, you sit over there at
the other end. So I sat at the very end
of the other table. And they sat at the other end.
That table sat like 24 people and proceeded to interview
me for the job of Air Force Two. This is
Dick Cheney back in the day, 2007. And, you know,
(03:51):
I mean, I said, gentlemen, like, I'm out. They're like,
we can change that with one signature. Sure. And so
I talked to them and they kind of offered me
the job. Just think about it, talk to your family.
So I did. I called my brother and he said, Pete,
you know, you spent all this time deploying and, you know,
(04:13):
getting into, taking the GMAT and getting into business school
and getting out of the Air Force. You want to
go back in? And this is the, I mean, it's
the ultimate job, right? It's the ultimate. It's like the
Thunderbirds for heavy transport, air-fueling jets, so. you know, honored
to be asked. So I remember I got the job
at Credit Suisse over the summer and, you know, they
(04:37):
asked me not to shop it. Like, don't go to,
don't go to cross the street to JP Morgan or
Goldman and kind of like try to get a job. Just,
you know, if you want the job, take the job.
If you don't, tell us. And so I remember saying,
I want the job. And I went back to the
president of the bank, the managing director. And I said, sir, I,
(04:59):
you know, I had a question, can I defer this
for a year? I need to go back and try
to do this. And he said, you know, congratulations, that's
an amazing honor. But no, you can't defer it. You
either take the job or you have to give it
to somebody else. I said, okay. So I ran back
(05:19):
and I called the guys up at the Pentagon. I said, hey,
can I defer this for a year? I'd spent all
this time going to business school. I got this job.
An investment bank, I'd love to do that, but I
just need a year. And then I can kind of like,
they're like, no, you got to either take the job now.
(05:39):
It's not an exploding offer, but it's not guaranteed. We
just have this need. And so I kind of thought
long and hard. And then I'd flown, at that point,
I'd flown Donald Rumsfeld around in the KC-10. The KC-10,
I would say by all intents and purposes, the fastest
jet in the world because we don't have to stop
(06:00):
We can sustain. 92 Mach almost indefinitely if we have
enough fuel, and then we can get refueled. And so
I ultimately turned the job down. And this is another funny,
true story. My roommate from the Air Force Academy is
currently the commander of Air Force One. Now, I'm not
(06:23):
going to say his name because he's not posting the
stuff on social media, and I don't think he really
wants everyone to know You know, that he's the 17th
ever presidential pilot. So he flew for Obama and then
Trump and then now Biden and potentially whoever is either, A,
(06:44):
reelected or elected next, but he got the job. And
he's an outstanding American and a great aviator.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling
by our own Greg Hangler. And a special thanks to
Peter Braxton for sharing the story of the interview he
got to be the pilot of Air Force Two after
graduating with a Master's of Business and accepting a job
offer at Credit Suisse. Which way did he go? Which
did he choose? Well, he chose, in the end, his
(07:15):
future life as a civilian. But what a job offer
it was. The story of Peter Braxton's first job after
his military service, here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here,
the host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show,
(07:36):
we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country. Stories
from our big cities and small towns. But we truly
can't do this show without you. Our stories are free
to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
you love what you hear, go to OurAmericanStories.com and click
the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go
to OurAmericanStories.com and give.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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