Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label 9/11/01

Pivotal Points In Military History (Part 2)

     Session two of the four part series was presented by Mahlon Fuller, the watch supervisor of the Pittsburgh International Airport's control tower and radar room on the morning of 9/11/01. He participated in the shutdown of the nation's air space; with some 4,000 planes in the air, the mission was accomplished in less than three hours.      Shortly after the Pentagon was hit, Fuller evacuated the radar room and control tower after a hijacked plane, later determined to be United 93, was spotted heading directly for the facility. When he returned to the radar room the plane was off the scope. Although he was indoors and did not see the it, Fuller believes the plane passed directly over the tower before crashing near Shanksville. eight miles beyond Pittsburgh's radar coverage.      His narrative was accompanied by an NTSB animation of the last three minutes of United 93, showing not only the flight path, but also the air spee...

Pivotal Points In Military History (Part 1)

     The retirement community which I call home is presenting four seminars on the title subject of this blog entry. I attended the first, Flight 93 , last Monday. The movie on A & E was nominated for eight Primetime Emmys, and won two of them. If you have not seen it, you should.      It is the story of one of the four ill-fated airliners that were hijacked by Muslim terrorists on September 11, 2001. Three of them hit their intended targets, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but thanks to heroic efforts by the passengers, Flight 93 missed its intended target, believed to be either the National Capitol or the White House.      Through cellphone calls to their families, the passengers learn about the fates of the other three planes, and it gradually dawns on them that they are also on a flight destined to end in death. The scenes go back and forth between the passengers, their families, and the authorities, and the...