October 25, 2023 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, on the morning of September 11, 2001, Peter Braxton was the first military pilot in the air over the burning Twin Towers. It was his first day on the job. Peter’s here to tell his story.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue here with our American stories. On the
morning of September eleventh, two thousand and one, Peter Braxton
was the first military pilot in the air over the
burning Twin Towers. It was his first day on the job.
And this is his story. Here's Peter.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
My name is Peter Braxton from upstate New York, originally Rome,
New York, a little town. There was a base there
called Griffiths Air Force Base. My father was in the
Air Force, and I guess this is where the story begins.
My father, you know, sat me down when I was fifteen,
and he, you know, he had this kind of father's
(00:52):
son conversation, and he was, you know, a man of fewers,
but he said, hey, you should serve this country before
you enjoy this country. You will look back on your
service fondly. And I, you know, I was fifteen. I
didn't know what that meant. But I did have an
older brother who was about two and a half years
(01:14):
older than me, and he ended up going to the
Air Force Academy. So I'm guessing at this point, you know,
he must have had this conversation with him a couple
years prior. And so now it was my turn and
I think out of maybe laziness, I just I just
applied to the Air Force Academy, followed my brother there.
I got in, I got into a number of other
(01:36):
kind of Ivy league schools out east. And my brother
I remember telling me, you know, you should you should
probably go to Princeton, or you should go to Yale.
You know, but but out of respect for your father
and his wishes. At that point, I think I was like, Okay,
well I could. I guess I could do that. Later
it was, you know, it was a good experience having
(01:56):
a sibling there because he was going to look out
for you.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
And and it's tough school.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I graduated the Air Force Academy in nineteen ninety nine.
I was shuttled off to pilot training Joint Specialized Undergraduate
Pilot Training at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas. You know,
I never wanted to be a pilot. I always wanted
to be a doctor. My brother is a neurosurgeon, and
(02:23):
again to his kind of his wisdom, you could always
be a doctor. You can never fly again. This is
your window. You have to. If I were you, I
would I would go fly. And so I show up
to Laughlin. I think it was April two thousand and
I quickly it's a hyper competitive environment.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
These are alpha people.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
They're very, very bright, they're athletic, they're patriots, their officers,
and it's it's a hyper competitive environment, but it's also
a weirdly cooperative environment. In any event, I graduated distinguished
graduate of my class. And at the time, the number
(03:04):
one graduate picks first, and the number two graduate picks second,
and the number thirty eight graduate picks last.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
And I was just I was getting homesick.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
My brother was at the University of Pennsylvania in medical school.
I'm from upstate New York. The closest active duty Air
Force base was McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey. I
picked the base, and then I picked the plane, the
KC ten Extender, which is mid air refueling. Its primary
mission is power projecting and bringing the fight to the ford,
(03:36):
to the battlefield. And then that could be a fighter package,
it could be bombers, it could be coalition aircraft. And
I started that training. I think it was May of
two thousand and one. Well, I graduated Saturday, September eighth,
two thousand and one. I mission planned my first mission
(03:59):
on Monday, September tenth, two thousand and one, and I
took off to coast out over the Atlantic at six
am on Tuesday, September eleventh, two thousand and one, was
my first day flying as a fully qualified US Air
Force pilot. It was, you know, I mean, first day
(04:19):
of work, fresh aircut, shiny boots, Get up extra early,
make sure you're on time early, you know, on time
in the Air Forces early. And I remember mission planning
the day before with a gentleman who was notorious about
taking out the brand new lieutenants who just graduated, and
(04:42):
you know, he was ready to kind of beat on
you and stretch you out and make sure you knew
that it wasn't over.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
It was just getting started.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
So you know, it's not necessarily like the Navy, where
everyone's got a call signed, but everyone does have nicknames.
And you know, we called him the silver Fox. He
was I was twenty two years old, and he had
a full head of gray hair. And we took off
and coasted out out over the Atlantic, not too far
(05:12):
off the coast of Atlantic City, and everyone remembers if
you don't clear blue glassy perfect September day in the
Northeast in New Jersey. And then we got a call,
a radio call from Norrad, North American Aurospace Defense call
(05:33):
sign Huntress, and I remember thinking this is impossible, like
Norrad is located in Colorado. How are they contacting me
in this UHF frequency? But they know my call sign.
So Norrad calls and says TMT two, say your state,
and I respond New Jersey, which is the incorrect response
(05:56):
to that question. I would later very quickly actually learned
that they're asking for the status of you AU aircraft.
You know at the time, I mean a sample would be,
you know, a team two two angels, two six heading
three four zero four soils on board five plus fifteen
fuel fully operational. And the only reason they're going to
ask that question is because they need you for something.
(06:18):
So this is around I think shortly after nine am
Eastern time out over the Atlantic, and the the Silver Fox,
the instructor pilot immediately transfers aircraft controlled to me. So
now I'm flying and he's taking the radios. He responds
accordingly and properly, and Norad directs us to contact New
(06:43):
York Center, you know whatever the frequency is one three
five point eight. He does that New York clears Team
two two direct JFK pilot discretion five to fifty thousand feet.
The kernel turns to me and says, deadpan, serious, not joking.
(07:05):
I think someone detonated a nuclear weapon somewhere in the
United States. Now there's some context here. It's my first
day of work, and I don't know why he's saying this.
I don't know what is going on. I don't think
many Americans at this point knew what was going on,
(07:26):
but he knew something was wrong, and looking back, he
wasn't too far off. But it was my first day
and I was confused, and I have no idea why
he would say that, And maybe he's trying to stress
me out. Perhaps it's a new guy initiation thing. When
(07:47):
they cleared us direct JFK pilot discretion five to fifty
thousand feet, that's when it kind of like dawned on
me as knew as I was that this was serious.
That could only mean that all of the airspace was clear.
You don't give somebody pilot discretion to climb, descend, turn
(08:07):
left or right at their discretion unless there's nothing else
there that they can quote unquote hit or interfere with
and that's JFK, that's LaGuardia, that's Newark, that's Peterborough. Not
to mention this air corridor between Boston to Philadelphia down
to DC and all of the traffic that's coming over
(08:30):
the Atlantic Ocean from the night before, all of that
stuff has got to be out of there for them
to give that. And that's when I kind of like
dawned on me something was wrong and this is not
something that the Kernel could make happen for fun.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
And you're listening to Peter Braxton recole his first day
as an Air Force pilot and getting that coal from
No Red and that pilot discretion to fly between five
thousand and fifty thousand feet altitude, in other words, clear skies,
not a plane in sight, and that's when he understood
(09:05):
something serious.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
It happened.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
By the way, if you know that area, there's JFK, Teterborough, LaGuardia,
and Newark all within maybe twenty five miles of each other,
throw in Philly and Boston, and that has never happened
in American airspace. It's his first day on the job.
When we come back, what happens next. Peter Braxton shares
his story here on our American stories, and we continue
(09:40):
with our American stories, and the story of Peter Braxton,
an Air Force pilot on his first day at work
on nine to eleven, piloting a KC ten air refueler
tanker and well learning that something disastrous had happened in
New York City. Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
So you know, I'm flying now. So I look out
the window. I'm in the right seat, and I'm from
upstate New York. I understand, and I'm familiar with the
geography of New York City, Manhattan, Long Island. I have
family and queens. I can see the smoke. I see
(10:26):
the smoke, and you know, we're asking, of course, what's
going on, whether they what's that They don't I don't
They don't know, they don't want to tell us. And
it's kind of irrelevant at this point because we're an
instrument of national power and we just need to execute
the job. We need to do what they tell us
(10:46):
to do. And so I look down, I see the smoke,
and the only thing that this is embarrassing that that
I could think of at this point was I remember
being a kid watching the nineteen eighty World Series between
the Oakland A's and the San Francisco Giants. I think
it was Game three live and there was an earthquake,
(11:10):
and there's bridges collapsing, and there's smoke rising from San Francisco,
and there's fires and there's I mean, obviously they canceled
the game, and I was like, oh my gosh. I
did not know this. I did not know that New
York was in a seismic zone. I just thought that
was a San Andreas or a West Coast thing or
a but New York City. I thought it was built
(11:32):
on bedrock, and you know, this wasn't going anywhere. It
must have been an earthquake. People will ask if I
saw the towers collapse, and I must have, But.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I was vertical. I was.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
My perspective was bird's eye. I was above New York,
not horizontal. I didn't know what was the World Trade Center.
I saw the smoke I thought was Southern manhat and
just then I think I was kind of snapped back
to the reality because up next to our wing pull
(12:10):
these two F fifteen Eagles fighter jets armed with bombs, missiles,
jade a M sparrows, Aim Knight whatever you know, I'd
just never seen it before. The ultimate irony. I mean,
you spend all this time in the military. Most people
(12:30):
never see combat, and in the US you're not typically
seeing fighter you'll see them. You'll see fighter yet and
it's fun to watch. And they do flybys, but they're
not they're unarmed.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
They're not.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
They can't they won't have these missiles on them flying
over a stadium. You know, you just you could destroy
Philadelphia with one of these things. And you know, here
I am a couple hours into my first flight and
these the jets pull up and we are all of
a sudden doing an operational mission giving them fuel. You know,
(13:09):
they come in low left, they take the fuel, they
climb high right, and they are armed to the teeth
and there I mean, it's like a movie.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
It was like a movie.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
They were peeling off, flipping upside down and flying back
to New York. And so all of the fighter jets
that you saw flying up and down the Hudson, the
East River, you know, patrolling New York, and they had
their specific mission and orders.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
I refueled all of those jets.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
And and of course the sun had set and the
smoke was still going on and some of the lights
in New York were coming on and the bridges were
lighting up, and we still didn't know what was happening,
what was going on, but we were there. We're doing
the mission, and then I remember the other KC ten
(14:00):
coming and what we'll do typically is we'll transfer as
much fuel as we can and reserve is much fuel
as we need to get back. And I remember, I
remember being put on like a forty five mile final
approach and we're flying straight in we Land. We pull
(14:23):
into parking and I hop out of the seat and
I go to the door and we open the door
and we have these you know, airstairs, and I'm greeted
at the door by an airman wearing a helmet, you know,
a flakfest.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
He's got an M sixteen.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
At the ready, and he's, you know, sure, I need
to see your ID. And I just I just remember thinking, Okay,
we're back, But what happened. Isn't this jet enough identification
for you? Like I'm I'm one of the good guys,
(15:02):
And you know, obviously I didn't say that, but I
showed him my eyes. He's done his job. He did
an outstanding job. That's his job. I showed him my idea.
He escorted the entire crew off the plane, like I
guess in a movie to this intel vault.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
And they had this vault, and it was a vault.
It had like a vault with a door.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Kind of like you'd see in a bank with it,
you know, and we get on there and we you know,
drop our gear and and then just I mean, the
questions just came fast and furious. It was, you know,
did you hear from United ninety three? Was there a
distress call from American eleven or American seventy seven? And no,
(15:45):
I didn't know. We didn't get anything. We didn't we
weren't cold. I didn't hear any beacons or anything on
the emergency frequencies VHF or UHF. And they still didn't
tell us what happened. And I don't They still didn't
tell us what happened. So I hop in my car
(16:06):
and the commute from McGuire to where I lived in
Mount Laurel, New Jersey, was about forty five minutes. And
you know, you turn on the radio and you start
to hear some reporting of what happened. At this point,
it's it's close to two am, maybe two thirty in
the morning, and yeah, I guess I'd been up at
(16:28):
that point for almost twenty four hours. So I get
back to the to my place, the little townhouse in
Mount Laurel. I turned on the TV and it's like
the first images that I saw of what had happened
that were I'm sure playing on repeats on every news
channel or every channel in America, maybe even the world.
(16:52):
And I kind of like dawned on me that I
was the first military asset there, but I was probab
probably one of the last people in America to learn
what happened. One of the one of the quotes I
learned at the Air Force Academy, we have this little
book called checkpoints, and you got to memorize all of
these things. One of them stuck with me to be like,
(17:13):
word for word true. There is no limit to the
good you can do if you don't care who gets
the credit.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Ronald Reagan. That is true.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
You know, there is no limit to the good you
can do if you do not care who gets the credit.
But I'll leave you with this. Okay, So people say, well,
why weren't you interviewed, you know, as the first pilot
over in New York on nine eleven. And you know,
you often think about, like I guess, the left tackle
in football. You know, after the Super Bowl, no one's
(17:47):
talking to that guy.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Like how was it? You know, like, no, I just
did my job.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
What if we weren't there, well, we wouldn't have won.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Air of fueling is one of the things that really
separates our ability to project power anywhere over the earth
as a as a kind of a fighting force. And
without that and no one's going anywhere. You have to
have the fuel. So I kind of look at it like, well,
(18:21):
I was a left tackle and they want to review
the quarterback. You know, the left tackle's fine with that,
but this is an opportunity to talk about the tackle,
like what were you thinking there a serva bowl. Don't
let that guy get around me? Contain that's it, I
know the play. If I do my job, the rest
(18:42):
will take care of itself.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
That's you know. It's the left tackle story, I guess.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hangler. And a special thanks to
Peter Braxton for sharing his story and I love the
metaphor he left us with and that is, he was
like the left tack. He was doing his job and
we got to hear very different perspective because of it.
And what a job he had to do. And it's
(19:09):
true without air refuelers, well, America can't project its air
power across the world. And so yes, the pilots get
the headlines without the air refuellers and so many other
countless people following their orders and doing their job. Well,
the pilot's job isn't possible. By the way, what a
role his brother played in all of this, and his dad,
(19:30):
his whole life would have been different. As his brother
said to him, as it related to his desire to
be a doctor. His brother said, you can always be
a doctor, but you can't always be a pilot. And
you can't always serve your country, said his father. You
should serve this country before you can enjoy this country.
My goodness, if we could all have dads like that
and project that kind of power onto our kids, the
(19:52):
power of service, and of course, my goodness, being the
first on site practically but the last to know, oh
what actually happened. The irony of the story and the
irony of service. In the end, the story of Peter Braxton,
the story of what public service sounds like, especially in
our military. Here on our American Stories.
And we continue here with our American stories. On the
morning of September eleventh, two thousand and one, Peter Braxton
was the first military pilot in the air over the
burning Twin Towers. It was his first day on the job.
And this is his story. Here's Peter.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
My name is Peter Braxton from upstate New York, originally Rome,
New York, a little town. There was a base there
called Griffiths Air Force Base. My father was in the
Air Force, and I guess this is where the story begins.
My father, you know, sat me down when I was fifteen,
and he, you know, he had this kind of father's
(00:52):
son conversation, and he was, you know, a man of fewers,
but he said, hey, you should serve this country before
you enjoy this country. You will look back on your
service fondly. And I, you know, I was fifteen. I
didn't know what that meant. But I did have an
older brother who was about two and a half years
(01:14):
older than me, and he ended up going to the
Air Force Academy. So I'm guessing at this point, you know,
he must have had this conversation with him a couple
years prior. And so now it was my turn and
I think out of maybe laziness, I just I just
applied to the Air Force Academy, followed my brother there.
I got in, I got into a number of other
(01:36):
kind of Ivy league schools out east. And my brother
I remember telling me, you know, you should you should
probably go to Princeton, or you should go to Yale.
You know, but but out of respect for your father
and his wishes. At that point, I think I was like, Okay,
well I could. I guess I could do that. Later
it was, you know, it was a good experience having
(01:56):
a sibling there because he was going to look out
for you.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
And and it's tough school.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I graduated the Air Force Academy in nineteen ninety nine.
I was shuttled off to pilot training Joint Specialized Undergraduate
Pilot Training at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas. You know,
I never wanted to be a pilot. I always wanted
to be a doctor. My brother is a neurosurgeon, and
(02:23):
again to his kind of his wisdom, you could always
be a doctor. You can never fly again. This is
your window. You have to. If I were you, I
would I would go fly. And so I show up
to Laughlin. I think it was April two thousand and
I quickly it's a hyper competitive environment.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
These are alpha people.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
They're very, very bright, they're athletic, they're patriots, their officers,
and it's it's a hyper competitive environment, but it's also
a weirdly cooperative environment. In any event, I graduated distinguished
graduate of my class. And at the time, the number
(03:04):
one graduate picks first, and the number two graduate picks second,
and the number thirty eight graduate picks last.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
And I was just I was getting homesick.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
My brother was at the University of Pennsylvania in medical school.
I'm from upstate New York. The closest active duty Air
Force base was McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey. I
picked the base, and then I picked the plane, the
KC ten Extender, which is mid air refueling. Its primary
mission is power projecting and bringing the fight to the ford,
(03:36):
to the battlefield. And then that could be a fighter package,
it could be bombers, it could be coalition aircraft. And
I started that training. I think it was May of
two thousand and one. Well, I graduated Saturday, September eighth,
two thousand and one. I mission planned my first mission
(03:59):
on Monday, September tenth, two thousand and one, and I
took off to coast out over the Atlantic at six
am on Tuesday, September eleventh, two thousand and one, was
my first day flying as a fully qualified US Air
Force pilot. It was, you know, I mean, first day
(04:19):
of work, fresh aircut, shiny boots, Get up extra early,
make sure you're on time early, you know, on time
in the Air Forces early. And I remember mission planning
the day before with a gentleman who was notorious about
taking out the brand new lieutenants who just graduated, and
(04:42):
you know, he was ready to kind of beat on
you and stretch you out and make sure you knew
that it wasn't over.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
It was just getting started.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
So you know, it's not necessarily like the Navy, where
everyone's got a call signed, but everyone does have nicknames.
And you know, we called him the silver Fox. He
was I was twenty two years old, and he had
a full head of gray hair. And we took off
and coasted out out over the Atlantic, not too far
(05:12):
off the coast of Atlantic City, and everyone remembers if
you don't clear blue glassy perfect September day in the
Northeast in New Jersey. And then we got a call,
a radio call from Norrad, North American Aurospace Defense call
(05:33):
sign Huntress, and I remember thinking this is impossible, like
Norrad is located in Colorado. How are they contacting me
in this UHF frequency? But they know my call sign.
So Norrad calls and says TMT two, say your state,
and I respond New Jersey, which is the incorrect response
(05:56):
to that question. I would later very quickly actually learned
that they're asking for the status of you AU aircraft.
You know at the time, I mean a sample would be,
you know, a team two two angels, two six heading
three four zero four soils on board five plus fifteen
fuel fully operational. And the only reason they're going to
ask that question is because they need you for something.
(06:18):
So this is around I think shortly after nine am
Eastern time out over the Atlantic, and the the Silver Fox,
the instructor pilot immediately transfers aircraft controlled to me. So
now I'm flying and he's taking the radios. He responds
accordingly and properly, and Norad directs us to contact New
(06:43):
York Center, you know whatever the frequency is one three
five point eight. He does that New York clears Team
two two direct JFK pilot discretion five to fifty thousand feet.
The kernel turns to me and says, deadpan, serious, not joking.
(07:05):
I think someone detonated a nuclear weapon somewhere in the
United States. Now there's some context here. It's my first
day of work, and I don't know why he's saying this.
I don't know what is going on. I don't think
many Americans at this point knew what was going on,
(07:26):
but he knew something was wrong, and looking back, he
wasn't too far off. But it was my first day
and I was confused, and I have no idea why
he would say that, And maybe he's trying to stress
me out. Perhaps it's a new guy initiation thing. When
(07:47):
they cleared us direct JFK pilot discretion five to fifty
thousand feet, that's when it kind of like dawned on
me as knew as I was that this was serious.
That could only mean that all of the airspace was clear.
You don't give somebody pilot discretion to climb, descend, turn
(08:07):
left or right at their discretion unless there's nothing else
there that they can quote unquote hit or interfere with
and that's JFK, that's LaGuardia, that's Newark, that's Peterborough. Not
to mention this air corridor between Boston to Philadelphia down
to DC and all of the traffic that's coming over
(08:30):
the Atlantic Ocean from the night before, all of that
stuff has got to be out of there for them
to give that. And that's when I kind of like
dawned on me something was wrong and this is not
something that the Kernel could make happen for fun.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
And you're listening to Peter Braxton recole his first day
as an Air Force pilot and getting that coal from
No Red and that pilot discretion to fly between five
thousand and fifty thousand feet altitude, in other words, clear skies,
not a plane in sight, and that's when he understood
(09:05):
something serious.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
It happened.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
By the way, if you know that area, there's JFK, Teterborough, LaGuardia,
and Newark all within maybe twenty five miles of each other,
throw in Philly and Boston, and that has never happened
in American airspace. It's his first day on the job.
When we come back, what happens next. Peter Braxton shares
his story here on our American stories, and we continue
(09:40):
with our American stories, and the story of Peter Braxton,
an Air Force pilot on his first day at work
on nine to eleven, piloting a KC ten air refueler
tanker and well learning that something disastrous had happened in
New York City. Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
So you know, I'm flying now. So I look out
the window. I'm in the right seat, and I'm from
upstate New York. I understand, and I'm familiar with the
geography of New York City, Manhattan, Long Island. I have
family and queens. I can see the smoke. I see
(10:26):
the smoke, and you know, we're asking, of course, what's
going on, whether they what's that They don't I don't
They don't know, they don't want to tell us. And
it's kind of irrelevant at this point because we're an
instrument of national power and we just need to execute
the job. We need to do what they tell us
(10:46):
to do. And so I look down, I see the smoke,
and the only thing that this is embarrassing that that
I could think of at this point was I remember
being a kid watching the nineteen eighty World Series between
the Oakland A's and the San Francisco Giants. I think
it was Game three live and there was an earthquake,
(11:10):
and there's bridges collapsing, and there's smoke rising from San Francisco,
and there's fires and there's I mean, obviously they canceled
the game, and I was like, oh my gosh. I
did not know this. I did not know that New
York was in a seismic zone. I just thought that
was a San Andreas or a West Coast thing or
a but New York City. I thought it was built
(11:32):
on bedrock, and you know, this wasn't going anywhere. It
must have been an earthquake. People will ask if I
saw the towers collapse, and I must have, But.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I was vertical. I was.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
My perspective was bird's eye. I was above New York,
not horizontal. I didn't know what was the World Trade Center.
I saw the smoke I thought was Southern manhat and
just then I think I was kind of snapped back
to the reality because up next to our wing pull
(12:10):
these two F fifteen Eagles fighter jets armed with bombs, missiles,
jade a M sparrows, Aim Knight whatever you know, I'd
just never seen it before. The ultimate irony. I mean,
you spend all this time in the military. Most people
(12:30):
never see combat, and in the US you're not typically
seeing fighter you'll see them. You'll see fighter yet and
it's fun to watch. And they do flybys, but they're
not they're unarmed.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
They're not.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
They can't they won't have these missiles on them flying
over a stadium. You know, you just you could destroy
Philadelphia with one of these things. And you know, here
I am a couple hours into my first flight and
these the jets pull up and we are all of
a sudden doing an operational mission giving them fuel. You know,
(13:09):
they come in low left, they take the fuel, they
climb high right, and they are armed to the teeth
and there I mean, it's like a movie.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
It was like a movie.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
They were peeling off, flipping upside down and flying back
to New York. And so all of the fighter jets
that you saw flying up and down the Hudson, the
East River, you know, patrolling New York, and they had
their specific mission and orders.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
I refueled all of those jets.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
And and of course the sun had set and the
smoke was still going on and some of the lights
in New York were coming on and the bridges were
lighting up, and we still didn't know what was happening,
what was going on, but we were there. We're doing
the mission, and then I remember the other KC ten
(14:00):
coming and what we'll do typically is we'll transfer as
much fuel as we can and reserve is much fuel
as we need to get back. And I remember, I
remember being put on like a forty five mile final
approach and we're flying straight in we Land. We pull
(14:23):
into parking and I hop out of the seat and
I go to the door and we open the door
and we have these you know, airstairs, and I'm greeted
at the door by an airman wearing a helmet, you know,
a flakfest.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
He's got an M sixteen.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
At the ready, and he's, you know, sure, I need
to see your ID. And I just I just remember thinking, Okay,
we're back, But what happened. Isn't this jet enough identification
for you? Like I'm I'm one of the good guys,
(15:02):
And you know, obviously I didn't say that, but I
showed him my eyes. He's done his job. He did
an outstanding job. That's his job. I showed him my idea.
He escorted the entire crew off the plane, like I
guess in a movie to this intel vault.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
And they had this vault, and it was a vault.
It had like a vault with a door.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Kind of like you'd see in a bank with it,
you know, and we get on there and we you know,
drop our gear and and then just I mean, the
questions just came fast and furious. It was, you know,
did you hear from United ninety three? Was there a
distress call from American eleven or American seventy seven? And no,
(15:45):
I didn't know. We didn't get anything. We didn't we
weren't cold. I didn't hear any beacons or anything on
the emergency frequencies VHF or UHF. And they still didn't
tell us what happened. And I don't They still didn't
tell us what happened. So I hop in my car
(16:06):
and the commute from McGuire to where I lived in
Mount Laurel, New Jersey, was about forty five minutes. And
you know, you turn on the radio and you start
to hear some reporting of what happened. At this point,
it's it's close to two am, maybe two thirty in
the morning, and yeah, I guess I'd been up at
(16:28):
that point for almost twenty four hours. So I get
back to the to my place, the little townhouse in
Mount Laurel. I turned on the TV and it's like
the first images that I saw of what had happened
that were I'm sure playing on repeats on every news
channel or every channel in America, maybe even the world.
(16:52):
And I kind of like dawned on me that I
was the first military asset there, but I was probab
probably one of the last people in America to learn
what happened. One of the one of the quotes I
learned at the Air Force Academy, we have this little
book called checkpoints, and you got to memorize all of
these things. One of them stuck with me to be like,
(17:13):
word for word true. There is no limit to the
good you can do if you don't care who gets
the credit.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Ronald Reagan. That is true.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
You know, there is no limit to the good you
can do if you do not care who gets the credit.
But I'll leave you with this. Okay, So people say, well,
why weren't you interviewed, you know, as the first pilot
over in New York on nine eleven. And you know,
you often think about, like I guess, the left tackle
in football. You know, after the Super Bowl, no one's
(17:47):
talking to that guy.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Like how was it? You know, like, no, I just
did my job.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
What if we weren't there, well, we wouldn't have won.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Air of fueling is one of the things that really
separates our ability to project power anywhere over the earth
as a as a kind of a fighting force. And
without that and no one's going anywhere. You have to
have the fuel. So I kind of look at it like, well,
(18:21):
I was a left tackle and they want to review
the quarterback. You know, the left tackle's fine with that,
but this is an opportunity to talk about the tackle,
like what were you thinking there a serva bowl. Don't
let that guy get around me? Contain that's it, I
know the play. If I do my job, the rest
(18:42):
will take care of itself.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
That's you know. It's the left tackle story, I guess.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hangler. And a special thanks to
Peter Braxton for sharing his story and I love the
metaphor he left us with and that is, he was
like the left tack. He was doing his job and
we got to hear very different perspective because of it.
And what a job he had to do. And it's
(19:09):
true without air refuelers, well, America can't project its air
power across the world. And so yes, the pilots get
the headlines without the air refuellers and so many other
countless people following their orders and doing their job. Well,
the pilot's job isn't possible. By the way, what a
role his brother played in all of this, and his dad,
(19:30):
his whole life would have been different. As his brother
said to him, as it related to his desire to
be a doctor. His brother said, you can always be
a doctor, but you can't always be a pilot. And
you can't always serve your country, said his father. You
should serve this country before you can enjoy this country.
My goodness, if we could all have dads like that
and project that kind of power onto our kids, the
(19:52):
power of service, and of course, my goodness, being the
first on site practically but the last to know, oh
what actually happened. The irony of the story and the
irony of service. In the end, the story of Peter Braxton,
the story of what public service sounds like, especially in
our military. Here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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