9/11: The Marine Helicopter Missions Few Remember

0:00Music Welcome to the Naval History Podcast. I'm your host Emile Abdel, Editor-in-Chief of Naval History. My guest today is Retired US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Daniel P. Creighton, who was serving as a pilot in Marine Helicopter Squadron 1 25 years ago when American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon. His article, The Cover Story for the October Issue of Naval History, is an hour-by-hour reconstruction of how HMX-1 responded on the day of 9-11. This episode is brought to you by General Dynamics Electric Boat. GDEB has a 126-year legacy of delivering the submarines our nation needs to defend our freedoms and those of our allies. To ensure our nation's defense now at this critical time in history, GDEB is investing in the next generation of shipbuilders and infrastructure to answer the call.

1:08It was EB then and it's EB now. Learn more at gdeb.com slashabout slash EB now. Dan, thank you for being on the podcast. Thank you for having me. Good to be here. So let's start with you giving our listeners some background on yourself as a Marine Corps Aviator. Okay. What I graduated from Penn State University in December of 1990. And when I was there, I got into the Marine Corps PLC program, which is probably the most widely used commissioning program for the Marine Corps. And I had a flight contract as they called them, the flight guarantee. So when I signed the dotted line, it gave me the opportunity to go to flight school didn't didn't guarantee you're in a pass, but you got the opportunity to go to flight school and give this shot. So graduate December of 1990. And I'm the first stop from there for all Marine officers is going to the basic school in a quantum Virginia. I think that was May of May to November 1991. And then from there went down to Pensacola, Florida to flight school.

2:15And started around February 1992. Everybody learns the fly airplanes first. She goes to primary where flying 230 fours back then. And completed that maybe early fall in 1992. I selected helicopters and went down the street. I'm salt white in field. There's kind of North white and South white in field. Down the street to the helicopter training units in their completed helicopter training and got my wings on June 4th, 1993. They have the Marine Corps when you kind of get your wings, you're in a selection process also where they give you you kind of selecting the give you the aircraft, you're going to fly in the fleet Marine Force. And I selected CH 53 super stallion helicopters. So from there, you kind of go into a lot of operational units and flying on the west coast, where I was initially stationed at Marine Corps Air Station, Tuston from 1993 to 97 timeframe. So then how did you come to be an aviator in marine helicopter squadron one?

3:20Yeah, so normally HMX, you know, we have up Marine helicopter squadron one. Not somewhere you go kind of your initial tour. So you do usually initial fleet tour. For me, that was kind of 93 to 97 out in California and a couple different squadrons from there went to Marine Corps Air Station, New River, North Carolina, where I was instructor pilots in CH 53s. At that point, you know, back then you had to have about 2000 flight hours just to apply to next one for the, you know, to have the experience to go there. So I was a little bit nervous and had had had the experience applied from in 1999, got selected and ended up showing up at HMX 1 and Quantico around February March of 2000. So for listeners who may not be as familiar, tell us about the unique mission of HMX 1. Everybody I think most people, you know, you hear about Marine one, you think of, you know, Marine helicopter squadron one HMX 1.

4:24But I'll back up a little bit kind of really not known is that HMX 1 was formed in 1947 and that was a period when helicopters were new to the military. And so the X the experimental piece of it was it was the Marine Corps initial squadron to you know experiment with helicopters and learn how to fly them, the learn how to integrate them into the Marine Corps forces. So that was the genesis and starting point for HMX 1. The first presidential flight was in 1957 and I don't know the exact details, but somehow President Eisenhower was was somewhere and the limo arrive is going to be a long, a long time, a couple hours. Can somebody come get a helicopter and come pick me up and HMX 1 got the job. I flew out there and got him and that was the beginning of of you know doing the executive lift kind of things. I think from that point to like 1974 that the executive transport mission was shared by the Marine Corps and Army.

5:24I don't have a lot of details in that, but around 74 the Marine Corps became the sole provider of executive transport to the president of vice president and all that heads of state and so forth that are flown. So instead we've been doing the job. So that's the unique mission mentioned behind the scenes from Quantico we still do support operational Marine Corps forces like the basic school where the officer for trained. So there's kind of some operational support still going on and there is still a component of operational testing evaluation kind of testing the X part of HMX 1 is still going on to but the executive transport mission has started to become the bigger higher visibility mission we have. Thank you for that history lesson I certainly learned a lot there it's interesting to hear about how it was shared by the Army and the Marine Corps and then ended up shifting towards the Marine Corps. I do know myself I was thinking as you were speaking about how the Marine Corps often throughout naval history had kind of a unique mission of guarding legations or diplomatic headquarters of broad it so it does seem there's this very close link between the Marine Corps being the service to be at the forefront of these kind of diplomatic.

6:37So that's a unique important mission. So let's dive into your article for us the cover story for the October issue you open your article by writing that 9 11 was quote a day of days etched into the mind and soul never to be erased even if you wanted it to be. So I think that's a question which is where were you when you learned that a commercial airliner head struck the North tower in New York City. Yeah so that week the week at 9 11 I was not supposed to fly at all I was in a systems class and there's a you know it was a very regimented trading process that HMX 1 has. And I was in a systems class of leaf reach three helicopters that was a Monday to Friday thing and on that on 9 11 around 850 in the morning I would say we took a break and like all good pilots do we wanted into the ready room.

7:37I'm on the slide or in the sea was going on. And it was flying how things were going and gotten the ready room and the the operations duty officer the ODO his desk is at the front of the room. As a TV on the desk and there's a bunch of people around the TV and we walk up and we can see one of the world trade centers already burning and smoking. And you know somebody says hey what what happened and somebody else says a plane flew into the world trade center and the media reaction from everybody that day was if anyone who was alive and that day remembers it was crystal clear outside it was. There's a weather term in aviation caboo ceiling and visibility unlimited and that day was caboo it was absolutely beautiful blue sky unforgettable so you're kind of like how could an airplane fly into the world trade center and somebody said you know was it assessed and no. It was an airliner.

8:37And you're just like that. It just didn't compute you know it just did not compute and everybody was kind of silent listening to the news commentator talk. And I believe the first aircraft hit the tower at each 46 and then as we're watching lives you know the second plane comes in 903 I believe hits the other tower on live TV and the announced you know the commentators are like hey this is not an accident. Now this is a coordinated attack on this might only be the beginning. Nobody kind of knew where I was going from there so all of a sudden the realization was like this is this is going to be an interesting day best way to put it. You're in the ready room you learn about this attack you're watching on the television and then you hear the news anchor say that there has been another commercial airliner. And that has struck the Pentagon in Washington DC which is not very far from where you were in Quantico Virginia.

9:40So you write in your article then that events were directly in your playing field and HMX one transition from thinking to action. So how did HMX one respond. So I mean when it hit the the world trade centers in New York City was you know like a couple hundred miles away from Quantico a little you know it was there's some space there but 937 or so when the air liar hit the Pentagon that's about 35 miles north of Quantico and only a few miles from we have another facility up in Washington at the Boeing Air Force base. Colton Acacia in a few miles from our facility that in a costume so yeah literally in our inner backyard where we do all our kind of executive with to and from. So yeah so at that point the days the training class I was in was canceled the squadrons normal you know movements and fight to the day were canceled. And what happened from there kind of chaotic remember but you know people start flooding into the ready room you know pilots,

10:40Roocheevs main as personnel security personnel. Kernel Steve Taylor was our commanding officer he's in the ready room and you know collectively people are talking about the situation and what we're going to do. I do recall that Colonel Taylor was in contact with the White House military office who was this kind of who we work for directly in terms of getting tasking. But I yeah at this stage in the game. You know there was a lot of plans for a lot of a lot of a lot of things but there was really no plan for you know for this so I don't think it was much guidance given down to him about what to do so. I think you know on his own. You know on his own. You know the leadership like hey let's do a couple things here so number one was we locked down the air facility you know we got our own security attachments offense and secure place locked the gates you know secure the perimeter. And who knows what's going to happen next so you know that was one of the first things that happened. Next thing was you know talking to the meeting departments how many aircraft do we have that can that can fly you know we got a whole bunch aircraft dozens.

11:45Not are all fly or flyable every day so you know to them figure out how many aircraft are viable on both the white top you know kind of executive aircraft and we had some you know call the green side support aircraft like a 53. They're working on that and then operationally pairing up crews to man the aircraft that are viable so all that kind of comes together. We've got extra number of aircraft and so you guys are fine this one you guys are fine this one. Then the guy to stand is to you know go out brief like the aircraft turn the aircraft up started engage the rotors make sure the systems work shut down stage all your gear. Come back to the ready room and wait for the word you know the words always that that that term of like hey you can do anything else this point is come back and wait and we'll tell you what to do from. Here so all that kind of was accomplished I ended up being paired up with major Robert latch Bob latch in a C. H. 53 or crew chief with staff started in Dryden so we got everything ground turn or gear staged ready to go and the last thing I think of is from a our C. H. 46 helicopters were kind of designated designated as the the Medevac or Casavac helicopters if they were needed.

12:57I would put water on them and food and blankets and things like that and our quorum in and we had a fight couple fight surgeons you know they were assigned to different aircraft so if there was a need for some kind of casual evacuation we were we were ready for that so those are the things that they remember were done pretty quickly in the first like hour of the whole thing happening but then at that stage we're just kind of kind of waiting the only thing I add there is in the middle of all that there was there was one C. H. 53 that was doing a training mission in the pattern. At Quantico they were pushed up to anacosia I can't remember what the need was but major Paul Johnson major Jeff field and master started Jamie bowling as a crew chief they were at that point kind of pushed up to anacosia and they were kind of the first aircraft to respond up to that facility in the midst of the morning. So you write that you were waiting for the word and I you even know that you were sitting near the door in the hopes that you would get that word be ready to go immediately to to be able to do something and respond to this tragedy and so you do ultimately get the word you go running for your helicopter tell us about the experience of flying in Washington airspace on that day.

14:14Yes we do get the word hey they want they wanted a couple more 53s up in an accosia and so our aircraft me and Bob latch steps are driving run for the aircraft the aircraft was major how he Hutchins. Earl Daniels major Earl Daniels and I believe crew chief was Adam picks and so we basically man up to our craft launch to take off up the Tomer griver heading north crystal clear sky you can see the Pentagon smoke smoking in the distance as we're heading north. At this point in the morning you know late morning all the airspace has been shutting down steadily across the country normally you get to the Wilson bridge heading north up up you know up the river you talked to national Washington national tower. There's nobody on the radio really it's kind of self announced kind of thing as you kind of get into the air space you can see you know you can see met a back helicopters flying over towards the Pentagon from different different organizations. And kind of there's a whole bunch of organizations around DC that have all have their own unique mission to do and days like this and they were all there helicopters from the FBI you know met a back the Air Force or helicopters so.

15:25You're kind of like working your way through the airspace and we were getting to an accosia to land there so it was busy but the clear weather that day honestly made it and navigating around the scene of the aircraft. I guess the clear weather helped the high jackers that day also helped us do our missions you know getting up there into congested airspace and so forth. So you land at an accostia and then you quite quickly get orders to fly to the Pentagon to conduct evacuations so what what was the experience of flying to the Pentagon and what did you find when you got there. Our aircraft and major Hutchins aircraft we both landed in accosia can remember how this happened but he was told their aircraft shut down they went inside and those are you know more people kind of other aircraft also being ferried up the river and more things were kind of coming together. But they ended up staying married in a costume. The first aircraft major Johnson I mentioned earlier that pushed up the river they had already been tasked to go over the Pentagon and starts evacuating people must say evacuation they weren't doing like medical evacuations.

16:32It was more like evacuating people that had to go somewhere else to do other things so it wasn't like we're carrying letters or structures or anything like that. So he'd already pushed over there and they were already making their made their first pickup or heading out to their their destination. We got some information in accosia about where we're going to go frequencies and got back in our helicopter and we took off and went over to the Pentagon. Anybody familiar with the Pentagon I call it the back of the Pentagon but the side that faces the title basin. There's a long kind of elevated walkway with grass that comes comes out and it kind of drops down to another grass area right along. I believe it's 110 but that lower grass area was the area that we use for these landings. I don't really know how people were told to be there but people were kind of congregating in that area but some of the people were were ones who had to go to this place. Other ones were just people who saw other people went over there were just kind of hanging out and didn't know what to do.

17:32In terms of the people there I mean there was the variety of emotions some people were very stoic. Some people were very upset I mean a lot of people were killed right there in their building. Some people were crying so it was kind of a mixture of emotions. One cool thing is as we as we landed we're trying to get the word to people about where we were going. I kind of wrote the destination took my knee board off, wrote the destination of my knee board and cut us put it up on the plexiglass so people could see it. I think people started to see that and come in and staff started driving was over talking to people telling them where we were going if they had to go to this place they could get on board. One of the cool things that that drive did then is some of the people in distress he kind of walked over and pointed to the American flag on our helicopter and was trying to like symbolic and say hey you know where America where Americans will be okay. You know it's an awful day will be okay. I'm not sure it can be there if you ever stood next to a 53 it's just immensely loud you can't hear anything so but he was trying to convey like hey it'll be okay.

18:34Thought it was a pretty cool cool thing to do. But that was that was what we saw we got there. But people eventually came aboard we got kind of a full load of people and then we pick up and we head out for you know for the destination. So one of the things you mentioned in your article that I wanted to talk a bit more about is as you're flying these evacuation missions you are intercepted several times by jets in Washington airspace and you describe it very dramatically in your article and. I was curious to hear more about what that was like what how are you feeling when these intercepts occurred where you at all worried so tell us a bit more about that when I was ready article and kind of proud of all this I listen to the 9-11 commission report. Which gosh you're listening to that thing it's that 600 pages long but I kind of got a blow I blow all the jets the respond to everything I really didn't know how all that happened but what I believe happened that morning was with us as we were making these each each of our 53s mine and Paul Johnson's made two runs to this destination each time we did that we're intercepted by a jet and kind of visually identified if you will.

19:44Earlier there was F 15s earlier in the morning or earlier in the afternoon I would say F 15s from Wendell Air Force base that were there they were assigned I don't know what their orders were you know protect Washington now that was kind of one of the this the scarier portions of the morning is kind of like you know these jets take off like you know with big orders like you know what do I you want me to do if I see an aircraft flying towards Washington kind of things that was kind of some of the unknowns. But initially F 15s kind of intercepted us and you know when I say intercept what happened is in our case we're flying back to our first run the F 15 flies down the left side of the aircraft and I'm very close you can clearly see it and they come up on this this radio frequency called guard to UHF frequency is common to every all military stuff. You know have a conversation like on guard on guard you know green heavy helicopter 30 miles northwest of Washington heading southeast identify yourself and your intentions. And so we came up and talked to them and said we're you know Marine for 53 helicopter doing assigned missions were part of HMX one or the presidential helicopter squadron whatever we said we basically talked away through it each of the four intercepts that happens that that's what we did and all them be ended up you know talking away through things and in the morning.

21:02And pushing on I will say that the the later on F 16s came from Andrews Air Force base and we got intercepted by the F 16 was a little more exciting because they came down a right side that are really cool break right in front of our nose kind of cool air show you know vapor trail streaming off the wings and everything shot off flares and it was. And I look pretty serious we slowed down we had the same conversation talk your way through it everything was cool and we we kept on pressing but the F 16 intercept whoever that was hey it looked pretty good when you did it in front of us but I don't think you know we're in the article. Me and me and made a Johnson talk later on I don't think we're really concerned about getting engaged by the jets I mean we're happy with they were there doing something they were on station protecting Washington. Probably they were a little concerned to about you know they had no idea probably that we were flying doing our things that was kind of one of the themes of the day is that all these different organizations had their assigned mission to do everybody did them professionally you know and state out of state out of each other's way you know nobody made really rash decisions it did something that you couldn't take back you know and things like that so.

22:08I thought it was pretty impressive years later thinking about I thought it was pretty impressive that all these different military aircraft and different other government organizations came together got the job done and I'm and did the best we could under really pre trying circumstances. I certainly agree with you that it is incredibly impressive how everyone responded and how everyone was able to operate their unique mission and cooperate despite having to respond so quickly and not having any overarching body coordinating all of these different efforts from the different services so you've described your unique mission for us that day. And in addition to the Pentagon evacuations you write your article that hm x1 had another critical mission which is the one that most of our listeners if they know about the mission as you mentioned is this presidential lift mission and so George Bush was originally in Florida speaking to an elementary school when he found out about 9 11 throughout the day he's moved to other locations in the Midwest but then he of course wants to return to the US.

23:17So I think he's going to do the White House and to Washington so tell our listeners about what was involved in returning President Bush to the White House. So that morning as you mentioned President Bush was in Sarasota, Florida and doing a school event and when the whole thing happens you know he had been scheduled to return to Washington that morning so. He had a lift package of helicopters and crews up at our Anacasia facility and they were there paranormal plans. This is what we do to pre position over Andrew's Air Force base when the time was right. And Air Force one comes in President goes from Air Force one to Marine one and flying back to the White House so that through was already staged up in Acacia doing their thing briefing pre-flighting ground turning all the stuff that happens. But any of these executive missions major Ed's signal was in Marine one aircraft commander major Damien Marsh was his co pilots and a certain Travis Bose was in Marine one crew chief that day.

24:23The second aircraft also important night talk to major Chris Pinkney and major Brian Foley in that aircraft. There's other aircraft involved also their backups and things but kind of leave right there is Marine one and night talk to so they're up there prepared to do. The scheduled lift that was supposed to come back well the scheduled lift obviously never never happened so. As the days events on the fold and you already mentioned the president left an Air Force one made his way to barksdale Air Force base for a while. I've heard there was a lot of conversation between the president and staff and so about you know I'm are we going back to Washington. I think there was some people recommending not to seem like when I read the president wanted to from from barksdale they ended up out at off at Air Force base in Nebraska. And all this time back at in Acacia you know it's big no one his team or kind of standing by you know to see what's going to happen. And waiting for the word if you will and so finally it sounds like president Bush said hey we're going back to Washington and so afternoon from Nebraska.

25:30They started heading back and you know a time is now fixed for their arrival into Andrews Air Force base. So without a rival time now known you know Ed and the lift package you know adjust our timelines and then pre stage themselves leave an Acacia stage themselves over to Andrews Air Force base to be in position when Air Force one arrives. There were more aircraft than normal I you know there was a different additional 53s make your Hutchins little net lift in his 53 but there was more people coming back than normal because of the circumstances more security personnel and stuff like that. So it was a big lift package that went over there they get staged. And and president arrives I think it was 1830ish and right after that's on marine one and they push over and the lift goes over to the White House to this Alp on two Air Force F16s were added to the lift package as escorts if you will.

26:32And I know that the route they took down kind of right down right over the capital. I believe the president wanted to see the Pentagon so we they wrote the capital kind of left around the Washington monuments you can from where you sitting on the left hand side you can see the Pentagon burning I'm sure still and then a right turn from there towards the south lawn for landing so. Yeah all that afternoon they were kind of waiting and then they stage the got them into the south lawn he's dropped off and then the lift package comes back to an Acacia and you know from there I'll just continue a little bit talk about it wasn't over then because you have for accomplishing that's that lift. The president is going to make it a speech I think a 202030 timeframe and after that they wanted to get the vice president from the White House and get him to a different location so it's picked on team gets back to an Acacia that refuel the aircraft and then pay the VPs going to move also.

27:32Crull Taylor's kind of directing things this point we want you all to just stay with your aircraft you're already together as it as a lift package and go back out and get the vice president and take him to where he's got to go also so it was really like all day they were going to Acacia waiting to see what happened they've been there in the morning you know to the morning schedule lift. Then did them read one lift which is pretty high visibility with all the stuff going on came back fueled up went back to the vice president took him to where he had to go and. And got all that done in one day so that's a lot it was a lot you know and I certainly I think that that's really the highlight of of HMX one's day if you if you asked me when I wrote all this is your role in the Pentagon yeah it was important getting us people to where they want to go. And but really the marine one lift the marine to live doing all that's you know well and professionally under the circumstances was was really the shining star of HMX response that day. I think many of our listeners we can we can only imagine how stressful and high visibility that had to be for that marine one lift crew to execute that on the day of 9 11 and then turn around and execute this marine to lift right afterwards and you did an excellent job bringing that to life and putting us inside the cockpit of marine one and in our emailing you mentioned that you yourself have also been.

28:55And then you know a co pilot inside the cockpit of marine one including for president George W bushes very first marine one lift from the White House so tell us about your experience with the president inside the cockpit. Yeah. Yeah it's pretty cool. I look at my blog book and I believe that that lift was on his his first lift was on February seconds 2000 and one and the marine one aircraft manager was Colonel Mac Reynolds who was our squadron commander at the time and I was his co pilot and the when marine one lands on the south lawn the left side of the helicopter faces the White House and that's the seat that the co pilot is into the co paddle is gets more visibility you know towards the White House and everything so. Yeah I distinctly remember Bush walking out to the helicopter with a lot of swagger is the best way to put it he looked like he was happy to be there he was he was walking was in swagger and came into the aircraft and coming into marine one and H3 and turn left you're in the cockpit and you came up and I'm kind of kind of talked with for a couple minutes and said you know how much was on it was to be on marine one again he had flown a lot with his father when his father was president.

30:10So it wasn't his first time being on the aircraft and so he was familiar but you just talk for a couple you know maybe a minute and said you know it was an honor to be there thank you for everything we were doing talked about his dad and the flights and for me doing my first marine it was really neat you know to have that exposure right there and I was kind of like wow this is pretty cool. That is very cool so unique that you were there for his first official flight as as he was president and that it was an honor for you and clearly he was also and very honored as well and very appreciative of your of your service. Do you have any other stories for us from your time inside marine one. Yeah how much time we have we have more time you can dive in. Okay I got three that I kind of teed up in my mind two two or shorter and I must tell those first no longer when I'll say for the last so. The first one February 2001 and I was the co-pilot for major Sean co-clean and we were we were flying Tony Blair the British Prime Minister from Washington up to Camp David and the reason this this mission is was really neat.

31:26I think it was the first head of state I probably flown but we used to do head of state lifts you can do it for a lot of different places but one of the main places was flying them from a land in zone at the reflecting pool and familiar with where the current world war two memorial is right there. You come down that street that kind of divides the Washington monument and the world war two memorial well before the memorial was there that was kind of a wide open concrete area and we use that as a landing to pick up heads of state particular. We plan helicopter right there when it comes down that street they board and so. You know when you when you take off from there at least that day we took off we took off right down the reflecting pool right towards the Lincoln Memorial you hit the Potomac River make a right turn. It's just such a neat high visibility place where all the tourists and everybody who are there you just get a really big crowd I mean it was it was really incredible to be flying Tony Blair one of the key heads of state. Around the world and then it just a great day weather wise a lot of people there the great view find down you know go up to camp David so just very memorable experience next one couple years later I was flying.

32:40I was flying home pal from Andrews Air Force face up to camp David and I can't remember exactly how this happened like how we but I ended up immediately we were on the flight line and it really just him find himself and almost a cold pal is great American and I'm always thought a lot of them so it was really cool to find that day but he walked up and he had a whole bunch of newspapers with him. I'm you know a lot of rock war stuff was going on 2003 he wasn't getting a lot of good press and I just kind of glance at the newspapers and there was some negative presses negative you know headlines on there about him. I said something like how they treat me in the newspapers and he's like well they've got be good today you know and kind of held up a couple of negative headlines and he's like can you give me like 30 minutes of peace and quiet on this place and nobody can bother me up there I'm like you you got it you know. But got in you know just a couple of words there and I had a great flight to camp David and dropped them off but I thought that was a really cool and the last one last story so.

33:40President Clinton as he approached his leaving office and Bush was going to take over inauguration which is this is early January 2001 to inauguration to only 10 to 15 January timeframe this was January 4th 2001. And I was copilot for Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Reed who was the Remo aircraft commander and I looked at my logbook I was surprised I actually done three Remo and lifts in a row over the fourth and the fifth of January so I can't really remember all then but this one I remember quite quite vividly. The president wanted to go from the White House up to camp David to pick up some personal effects before he left office and so we got scheduled for this this lift and one of my duties as a copilot was to to brief the weather be cognizant of the weather the weather was not good. So I mean it was a big snowstorm from the west moving east we have to fly from east to west kind of towards it.

34:40I remember in the brief we're kind of looking at it closely was there enough time and space for us to get there do this thing and get back before it got really bad. In the end we made the call to go Jerry made the call to go and we pushed got over the White House picked up President Clinton and started flying up the Pino McRibor head now towards towards camp David and just kind of as we got going the snowflake started falling you know and they got got to the beltway and to fall on more. And you know we're flying out towards Frederick Maryland and it's not real good and I'm like to myself I was like we might turn around you know it was really good it was good and concerning and I mean those discussion between other helicopters and radio like hey what's what's the plan and Jerry was thinking of mulling over the options what we should do ultimately we ended up turning around and heading back to the White House which doesn't happen that often. But at this point is snowing pretty good we're flying lower i'm trying to call the dollars controller to tell him we're returning to our to our point of origin.

35:43Yeah can't reach them because we're flying pretty low and that relaying through a united airlines pilot flying up high which is kind of fun he was asking us how we're doing down there and like we've been better you know kind of thing. But we we ended up making it back to the south one and landed and president clean came up to the cockpit and kind of put his both hands on both of our shoulders. And he was like that point the snow would reach the White House and snowing pretty good he was like well we're not snow come from. And he said don't worry about a fellows the Marines can change a lot of things but you can't change the weather so it's okay and just kind of walked off kind of laughing there was some cameras there and he was enjoying himself in the snow and you know. He didn't seem to think anything other being I think I mean I was like wow can't believe we couldn't get there you know it was a lot of stress on Jerry to to make it happen we had to turn around and come back. So very stressful but um he didn't see the character much who's having fun you know that's my third story.

36:44Well those are all great stories and that final final quote about not being able to change the weather is very memorable you can't can't possibly forget forget that one and I can see how that would be very stressful as well you've got the president on board you've got weather conditions that you're not sure they're going to be safe but you want to be able to execute your mission. But then it ends in a very kind of comical way so thank you for sharing all of those recollections with us and of course thank you for sharing your recollections that of the day of 9-11 that make your article so poignant and what brings your story to life are not only your own memories but the interviews you conducted with 15 other fellow HMX one crew members 25 years later. So how was the experience of conducting those interviews to write your article for naval history? You know everybody's different you know I left HMX one you know I retired about seven years later in 2013 I'm not the best I'm not the best person that's staying in touch with with people and stuff like that so I don't you know I don't go to a lot of reunions so I'm just one of those guys some guys were kind of really into it you know they go to go to the reunions or they're tied in tight but that's really not me so a lot of the people I talk about.

38:00A lot of the people I talk to I honestly hadn't talked to for 20 some years so it was awesome you know it's like it almost is like I think like like I talked to him yesterday you know and so it was great to connect with them and the feeling I got across let me tell you one thing one thing that was a pair of right away was man after 25 years your memories can really go in different directions you know and right away I was kind of like oh yeah remember we did this and somebody I'm like I'm like I'm not going to do it. And somebody I'm like we didn't do that you know and you're kind of like didn't we so number one it was like our memories are bad at the 25 years and really like started take a lot of notes and piece things together and be like oh no you weren't you weren't doing that you were doing this and they're like really and so through the course of writing the article actually you know I think I reached a pretty good in their 90-95% point but some things were kind of like I'm not really sure what happened there you know and just kind of had the people I'm moving but um yeah we worked through that and through a lot of phone call I think I talked to Damien March maybe four times five times the course of writing us to get things together and try to make sure I had a straight but um no it was it was like I hadn't talked to him you know like I talked to him yesterday and everybody is a kind of got into it

39:12particularly people like you know it's Vicknell you know Paul Johnson Damien Brian Foley Chris Pinkney um Stephs are in Dryden they're starting bowling uh M.F. Sergeant Jamie Bowling you know a lot to say you know once we started talking they kept on falling out and I talked to a lot of people for an hour plus um sometimes on multiple occasions um so it was an emotional day you know for for me um and you realized for everybody else who was there not not just us in an HMX I mean I'm sure the jet pilots the Air Force pilots are the same experience you know in terms of the emotions of the day and everybody else who for support missions doing their their thing but it was um it was great to talk to people yes our memories are bad after 25 years um um but it was clear that it was very very um meaningful and kind of galvanizing experience for all of us after having those conversations and you really did an excellent job piecing piecing all of those different recollections together and you know whether or not memory is unreliable

40:14uh what you're offering uh for for our readers is this really first hand account of a little known story that no one else could write you know no historian could look at the facts and piece this together this is a story that could only exist because 25 years later you took on this very major task of talking to everybody for hours to reconstruct what happened that day and reconstruct the service that you and your fellow HMX one crew members rendered to the nation on the day of 9-11 yeah yeah you know I want to use that moment to say one thing here on the article focuses on the aviation aspect of it and the flying and all those things but just you know behind the scenes that you know there's hundreds of security folks um Marines at HMX one who are doing their job we have a massive maintenance department that was doing their job so um the the aviation the actual flying sometimes gets a lot of the headlines here but I just know behind the scenes that there was a whole lot of work being done by hundreds of other Marines at HMX one to many times

41:16and then they did HMX one to make the whole thing come together and make it and make it work that day so I just want to make that clear for the listeners. Yeah thank you for highlighting the contributions of everyone like you said not just not just the aviators themselves but so many people doing work behind the scenes to make sure that the job got done. So thank you for your contribution to enable history and thank you for coming on the podcast to talk about it further. Yeah thank you very much for having me I really enjoyed it. This episode is brought to you by General Dynamics Electric Boat. GDEB has a 126 year legacy of delivering the submarines our nation needs to defend our freedoms and those of our allies. To ensure our nation's defense now at this critical time in history GDEB is investing in the next generation of shipbuilders and infrastructure to answer the call. It was EB then and it's EB now learn more at GDEB.com slash about slash EB now. To our listeners if you like the show subscribe and tell a friend we'll see you next episode with more C stories.