Women in the Air Force Heather Penney Interview Part 1(NMUSAF)
Known for flying a ramming mission to prevent United Airlines Flight 93 from reaching Washington, D.C. during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
On September 11, 2001, American lives changed suddenly when hijackers took control of four civilian aircraft, targeting major American locations, including the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. With a fourth hijacked plane still in the air, First Lieutenant (later major) Heather Penney of the 121st Fighter Squadron of the Air National Guard and her commanding officer, Colonel Marc Sasseville (later Lieutenant General), took to the sky in their F-16s. The duo received one-way orders to stop United Airlines Flight 93 as it headed towards Washington, DC. Armed with shoot to kill orders, but no weapons, they were on a suicide mission with full intention of ramming the Boeing 757 in order to protect national security. After sweeping the DC airspace for over an hour, the pilots learned the passengers had forced the aircraft down in a Pennsylvania field.
Interview Via Zoom at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force December 2020.
Пікірлер: 8
Very nice! These are the type of people with owe a deep gratitude to. Thank you always for your service.
Thank you for posting. Enjoyed the interview!! Great job.
Infinite
Does she still race at the Reno Races?
I am a retired US Air Force F-16 pilot. I have a lot of problems with what is being said in this interview as well with the associated narrative that for some 20+ years has painted these 2 pilots as heros for what they "would have done" on Sept 11, 2001. There were no military heros on 9/11 except for those that worked to rescue the injured and trapped at the Pentagon. Beyond those, the military saved no lives that day. Absolutely none. The primary game plan to take down any aircraft coming into DC that day by ramming the nose and tail with F-16's was utter nonsense and completely unnecessary except as a very, very, very last resort. Why? Let me explain. The F-16 normally carries up to 511 rounds of live 20mm Target Practice (TP) ammunition on every flight for weight and balance purposes. The F-16's M61A1 Vulcan cannon firing a 20mm 1500+ grain TP round down its barrels at 3400 feet per second is hardly a "BB gun"...despite what was said by Heather Penney in another interview. In that interview it was also said these pilots only had 110 rounds each. That is extremely doubtful. The only reason 110 rounds would have been the limit was if that was exactly how many rounds were loaded or what was left over from previous air-ground training missions (unlikely in both cases). There is, however, an external rounds limiter switch which is typically set to 110 when shooting the gun during air-ground training to facilitate hit percentage calculations(e.g., 40 hits = 40%.) The pilot or crew chief can easily flip the rounds limit switch off before engine start allowing all rounds that are loaded to be fired. So it seems they took off with the rounds limiter switch on and set to the standard 110. As far as engaging an airliner, it would have been simple to intercept and cruise up behind it and put 25 to 50 rounds through the engines, tail, or cockpit. This would have almost certainly taken the airliner down. If all the ammunition was expended, the next thing to have tried would have been a supersonic, very close pass over the engines as this would likely cause the engines to stall and/or flameout. Only after these and possibly other options were tried should a suicide ram have been considered. Sadly, the suicide ram is the FIRST and ONLY option brought up when these these two pilots talk about what they would have done that day. The Pentagon was hit 34 minutes after the SECOND airliner hit the Twin Towers in New York City. 34 minutes! F-16's were sitting on the ground 10 miles away when the Pentagon was attacked. It was an abject failure of our civilian and military leadership that left the nation unprepared to respond and prevent an attack on our nation's capitol with a 34 minute warning. Again, no military heroes that day. The continued blaring for 20+ years about a suicide mission that these pilots WOULD HAVE DONE that day needs to stop. They saved no one. Exit the stage. Enough.
@juicyfruit4378
10 ай бұрын
THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMMENT - I thought I was the only one who had and continues to have SERIOUS doubts about Penney's story. I was an intelligence analyst when 911 occurred and in the DC area at the time. To put it bluntly, her story is rather far fetched to think that our entire country's defense on 911 boiled down to a kamikaze order? I don't buy that for one minute as the US has ARMED jets in the air at all times over US Air Space. IF that didn't work, we had the Ballistic Missile Defense Office or the military components which could have shot down Flt 93 with a ground to air missile, water to air missile or air to air missile. To think our military/DoD doesn't have these capabilities forcing the defense to issue a kamikazi order is putting it mildly ABSURD. The primary reason for this story to continue hold leverage and to which our media doesn't display the slightest interest to further investigate it, is that the story fits the feminist narrative much like Jessica Lynch did and that didn't end too well for her did it? I find it simply amazing that people are so guillible to believe such a story without ANY evidence or other people who could corroborate the story. Why hasn't her chain of command been interviewed or the JCS/SECDEF staff that issued the so-called Kamikazi order?
Uno
>woman