June 11, 2025 • 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—and it was his first day on the job. Peter shares the story of that historic and dark day.
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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
few words, 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
(01:14):
years 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
(01:35):
of other 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 a sibling there because he was
(01:58):
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.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
You have to.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
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. It's 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
(03:58):
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.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Qualified US Air Force pilot.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
It was, you know, I mean, first day 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 you know,
(04:42):
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 sign, but everyone does have nicknames.
And you know, we called him the silver Fox. He
was I was twenty two years old, and.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
He had a full head of gray hair.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
And we took off and coasted out out over the Atlantic,
not too far 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
(05:29):
got a call, a radio call from Norrad, North American
Eurospased Defense call sign Huntress, and I remember thinking this
is impossible, like Norrad is located in Colorado. How are
they contacting me in this UHF frequency?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
But they know my call sign.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
So Norrad calls and says tm T two, say your state,
and I respond New Jersey, which is the incorrect response
to that question. And I would later very quickly act
learned that they're asking for the status of EU aircraft.
You know, at the time, I mean a sample would be,
(06:06):
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.
So this is around I think shortly after nine am
Eastern time out over the Atlantic, and the Silver Fox,
(06:28):
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 no Rad directs us to contact
New York Center, you know whatever the frequency is one
three five point eight. He does that New York clears
(06:50):
team two to two direct JFK pilot discretion five to
fifty thousand feet. The kernel turns to me and says, deadpan, serious,
not joking. I think someone detonated a nuclear weapon somewhere
in the United States. Now there's some context here. It's
(07:15):
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, 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
(07:35):
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 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
(07:57):
this was serious. That could only mean that all of
the airspace was clear. You don't give somebody pilot discretion
to climb, des send, turn 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,
(08:18):
that's Newark, that's Teterborough. Not to mention this air corridor
between Boston to Philadelphia down to DC and all of
the traffic that's coming over 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
(08:38):
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 racole his first day
as an Air Force pilot and getting that coal from
Norid 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 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
(10:26):
see 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 THEYVID 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
(10:46):
us 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 nine
World Series between the Oakland A's and the San Francisco Giants.
I think it was Game three live and there was
(11:08):
an earthquake, and there's bridges collapsing, and there was 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
(11:28):
Coast thing or a but.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
New York City.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
I thought it was built 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 I was vertical. I was My
perspective was bird's eye. I was above New York, not horizontal.
(11:56):
I didn't know what was the World Trade Center. I
saw the smoke. I thought it was Southern manhats, and
just then I think I was kind of snapped back
to the reality because up next to our wing pull
these two F fifteen Eagles fighter jets armed with bombs missiles.
(12:20):
Jade Ann 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 never
see combat, and in the US you're not typically seeing
fighter you'll see them, you'll see fighter jet and it's
fun to watch. And they do flybys, but they're not
(12:41):
they're unarmed.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
They're not they.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
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
these 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 notch 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.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
But what happened.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Isn't this jet enough identification for you? Like I'm I'm
one of the good guys, And you know, obviously I
didn't say that, but I showed him my eyes. He's
doing 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
(15:19):
this intel vault.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
And they had this vault, and it was a vault.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
It had like a vault with a door 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?
Speaker 3 (15:42):
And no, I didn't know. We didn't get anything. We
didn't we weren't cold.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
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 and the
commute from McGuire to where I lived in Mount Laurel,
(16:09):
New Jersey, it was about forty five minutes, and you know,
you turn on the radio and you start to hear
some reporting.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Of what happened.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
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 that point for almost twenty four hours.
So I get back to the to my place, the
little townhouse in Mount Laurel. I turn on the TV
and it's like the first images that I saw of
(16:42):
what had happened that were I'm sure playing on repeats
on every news channel or every channel in America, maybe
even in the world. And I kind of like dawned
on me that I was the first military asset there,
but I was probably one of the last people in
America to learn what happened. One of the one of
(17:05):
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, word for word true. There is
no limit to the good you can do if you
don't care who gets the credit. Ronald Reagan. That is true.
(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 to 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, now, 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 the left tackle and they want to review
the quarterback.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
You know, left tackle's fine with.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
That, but this is an opportunity to talk about the tackle,
like what were you thinking during 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
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.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Metaphor he left us with. And that is he was
like the left tackle.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
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 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
(19:22):
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, 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
(19:44):
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 power of service, and
of course, my goodness, being the first on site practically
but the last to know what actually happened, the iron
of the story and the irony of service. In the end,
(20:04):
the story of Peter Braxton, the story of what public
service sounds.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Like, especially in our military.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
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
few words, 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
(01:14):
years 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
(01:35):
of other 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 a sibling there because he was
(01:58):
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.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
You have to.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
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. It's 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
(03:58):
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.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Qualified US Air Force pilot.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
It was, you know, I mean, first day 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 you know,
(04:42):
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 sign, but everyone does have nicknames.
And you know, we called him the silver Fox. He
was I was twenty two years old, and.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
He had a full head of gray hair.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
And we took off and coasted out out over the Atlantic,
not too far 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
(05:29):
got a call, a radio call from Norrad, North American
Eurospased Defense call sign Huntress, and I remember thinking this
is impossible, like Norrad is located in Colorado. How are
they contacting me in this UHF frequency?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
But they know my call sign.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
So Norrad calls and says tm T two, say your state,
and I respond New Jersey, which is the incorrect response
to that question. And I would later very quickly act
learned that they're asking for the status of EU aircraft.
You know, at the time, I mean a sample would be,
(06:06):
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.
So this is around I think shortly after nine am
Eastern time out over the Atlantic, and the Silver Fox,
(06:28):
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 no Rad directs us to contact
New York Center, you know whatever the frequency is one
three five point eight. He does that New York clears
(06:50):
team two to two direct JFK pilot discretion five to
fifty thousand feet. The kernel turns to me and says, deadpan, serious,
not joking. I think someone detonated a nuclear weapon somewhere
in the United States. Now there's some context here. It's
(07:15):
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, 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
(07:35):
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 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
(07:57):
this was serious. That could only mean that all of
the airspace was clear. You don't give somebody pilot discretion
to climb, des send, turn 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,
(08:18):
that's Newark, that's Teterborough. Not to mention this air corridor
between Boston to Philadelphia down to DC and all of
the traffic that's coming over 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
(08:38):
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 racole his first day
as an Air Force pilot and getting that coal from
Norid 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 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
(10:26):
see 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 THEYVID 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
(10:46):
us 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 nine
World Series between the Oakland A's and the San Francisco Giants.
I think it was Game three live and there was
(11:08):
an earthquake, and there's bridges collapsing, and there was 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
(11:28):
Coast thing or a but.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
New York City.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
I thought it was built 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 I was vertical. I was My
perspective was bird's eye. I was above New York, not horizontal.
(11:56):
I didn't know what was the World Trade Center. I
saw the smoke. I thought it was Southern manhats, and
just then I think I was kind of snapped back
to the reality because up next to our wing pull
these two F fifteen Eagles fighter jets armed with bombs missiles.
(12:20):
Jade Ann 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 never
see combat, and in the US you're not typically seeing
fighter you'll see them, you'll see fighter jet and it's
fun to watch. And they do flybys, but they're not
(12:41):
they're unarmed.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
They're not they.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
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
these 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 notch 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.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
But what happened.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Isn't this jet enough identification for you? Like I'm I'm
one of the good guys, And you know, obviously I
didn't say that, but I showed him my eyes. He's
doing 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
(15:19):
this intel vault.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
And they had this vault, and it was a vault.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
It had like a vault with a door 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?
Speaker 3 (15:42):
And no, I didn't know. We didn't get anything. We
didn't we weren't cold.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
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 and the
commute from McGuire to where I lived in Mount Laurel,
(16:09):
New Jersey, it was about forty five minutes, and you know,
you turn on the radio and you start to hear
some reporting.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Of what happened.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
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 that point for almost twenty four hours.
So I get back to the to my place, the
little townhouse in Mount Laurel. I turn on the TV
and it's like the first images that I saw of
(16:42):
what had happened that were I'm sure playing on repeats
on every news channel or every channel in America, maybe
even in the world. And I kind of like dawned
on me that I was the first military asset there,
but I was probably one of the last people in
America to learn what happened. One of the one of
(17:05):
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, word for word true. There is
no limit to the good you can do if you
don't care who gets the credit. Ronald Reagan. That is true.
(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 to 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, now, 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 the left tackle and they want to review
the quarterback.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
You know, left tackle's fine with.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
That, but this is an opportunity to talk about the tackle,
like what were you thinking during 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
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.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Metaphor he left us with. And that is he was
like the left tackle.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
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 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
(19:22):
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, 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
(19:44):
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 power of service, and
of course, my goodness, being the first on site practically
but the last to know what actually happened, the iron
of the story and the irony of service. In the end,
(20:04):
the story of Peter Braxton, the story of what public
service sounds.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Like, especially in our military.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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