| Maj. Dean Eckmann is a soft-spoken North
| |
| | and immediately recognized it as New
|
| Dakota native whose lifelong love for
| |
| | York. In retrospect, although he was
|
| military aviation transformed him, in one
| |
| | unaware of it at the time, he says at the
|
| profound moment on September 11, 2001,
| |
| | moment he took off from Langley, a second
|
| into what he acknowledges to be "an
| |
| | airliner was plowing into the second
|
| eyewitness to history, to the day that
| |
| | tower at the WTC.En route to Manhattan,
|
| changed all of America, forever."On the
| |
| | Eckmann received a revised order and a
|
| morning of 9/11, Eckmann, 36, was with
| |
| | new heading, which he recognized as
|
| his Fargo-based 119th Fighter Pilot Wing
| |
| | Washington D. C. Still, he was
|
| at Virginia's Langley Air Force Base for
| |
| | relatively unworried, he says, still
|
| a routine week-long 'alert dispatch' to
| |
| | being 75 miles away and with no smoke yet
|
| protect seven American sites tagged, in
| |
| | visible on the horizon. He associated
|
| "post-Cold War and pre-9/11 naivete," he
| |
| | only the apparent trouble in New York
|
| says, as potential targets.At the
| |
| | with his new heading and assumed he'd be
|
| unmistakable blare of a Klaxon horn, he
| |
| | "flying CAP" -- Combat Air Patrol -- over
|
| abandoned his scheduled training mission
| |
| | Washington as a preventive measure.At 50
|
| and was ordered to his fully armed
| |
| | to 60 miles out of Washington, Eckmann
|
| fighter jet, and became the first pilot
| |
| | got his first sight of smoke -- thick
|
| scrambled to fly over -- just 700 feet
| |
| | black smoke -- pouring across the
|
| over -- the flame-engulfed Pentagon just
| |
| | Potomac."The black smoke worried me.
|
| about four minutes after terrorists
| |
| | Usually, you'll see grey smoke or white
|
| attacked.He and two wingmen spent more
| |
| | smoke in a typical accident or industrial
|
| than five hours that day, securing and
| |
| | fire. Black smoke means very bad
|
| protecting miles of Washington D. C.
| |
| | things."The Smoke's Source: The
|
| airspace, the White House, Washington
| |
| | PentagonFlying high, still miles out and
|
| Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Capitol
| |
| | unable to make out buildings or
|
| Building and other American landmarks,
| |
| | structures, he searched his memory, he
|
| from the ground up to 30,000 feet in the
| |
| | says, to identify the smoke's source. At
|
| air.His perspective of the horrors of
| |
| | 35 miles out, as oceans of smoke
|
| that tragic day, viewed from the cockpit
| |
| | continued to pour from the site, he
|
| of his F-16 fighter, has been captured
| |
| | realized the unknown horror was taking
|
| for future generations and history books
| |
| | place somewhere near the Pentagon: "an
|
| in the Air Force-commissioned painting,
| |
| | accident at Reagan National Airport,
|
| "First Pass: Defenders Over Washington"
| |
| | perhaps," he says."At 20 miles out, I
|
| by artist Rick Herter.Herter, 44, has
| |
| | knew it was the Pentagon, and I'm
|
| also completed for the Air Force a
| |
| | thinking: truck bomb," he said. "That's
|
| painting entitled, "Ground Zero, Eagles
| |
| | what we thought most of the day, in the
|
| on Station," a re-creation of the scene
| |
| | air. I thought, 'we're at war.' But
|
| of the terrorist attacks on New York's
| |
| | even flying at just 700 feet, I couldn't
|
| World Trade Center Twin Towers.The pilot,
| |
| | -- no one could -- see that an airliner
|
| the artist and prints of the paintings
| |
| | was burning inside the Pentagon. The
|
| have toured the country to rave reviews,
| |
| | smoke was too thick and, no one could
|
| giving Americans a bird's-eye view of the
| |
| | conceive of that."That initial
|
| magnitude of the tragedy of that
| |
| | perspective, and his bird's-eye view of
|
| brilliant September morning.The original
| |
| | the flaming Pentagon, with so many
|
| oil renderings of both scenes hang in the
| |
| | historic American sites in the
|
| halls of the refurbished Pentagon in
| |
| | background, is the focus of Herter's
|
| Washington D.C., alongside many other
| |
| | painting.Two subsequent orders confirmed
|
| original art treasures depicting famous
| |
| | Eckmann's fears of an attack. The first
|
| battles and events in American military
| |
| | was to confirm the Pentagon was burning.
|
| history.The Art of CombatHerter's mother,
| |
| | The second was to identify two unknown
|
| Diana, is president of the Dowagiac
| |
| | aircraft in flight toward the Pentagon.
|
| (Michigan) Art Guild who describes her
| |
| | Those two aircraft turned out to be "good
|
| son as "an artist with the soul of a
| |
| | guys," Eckmann says, one a Medi-Vac
|
| pilot." As a member of the elite Air
| |
| | helicopter and one a chopper from the
|
| Force Art Corps, he spent two weeks
| |
| | local police, heading in to try to assist
|
| flying with combat missions in Iraq as
| |
| | Pentagon victims.Eckmann immediately set
|
| research for paintings of current
| |
| | off to "buzz the Mall," he says, or
|
| military actions.The fighter pilot and
| |
| | overfly the Washington government
|
| the artist are now good friends, but they
| |
| | complex. His eyes scanned the ground,
|
| didn't know each other until the Air
| |
| | searching for a yellow truck or anything
|
| Force called Herter in November 2001 and
| |
| | that might be another truck bomb heading
|
| inquired about his interest in painting
| |
| | for another landmark.He and his wingmen
|
| the official 9/11 scenes.Although he
| |
| | maintained skywatch over Washington for
|
| gives all of his Air Force-commissioned
| |
| | nearly six hours, refueling twice
|
| paintings to the government free of
| |
| | in-flight, until being returned to
|
| charge, Herter said he never hesitated
| |
| | Langley for just an hour before heading
|
| when asked if he would speak with the
| |
| | out again.A Final ShockAt Langley, he
|
| pilots, research the events and commit
| |
| | heard the mechanics expressing shock and
|
| the September 11 attacks to canvas."I
| |
| | horror at "what happened to the World
|
| jumped at the opportunity. I knew this
| |
| | Trade Center towers."I still didn't know
|
| was history," he said, pointing to the
| |
| | at that point," he said. "I said, 'What
|
| "Defenders Over Washington" painting,
| |
| | towers? What happened?' And they told me
|
| with its mountainous clouds of black
| |
| | the towers had collapsed, that someone
|
| smoke billowing upwards from the Pentagon
| |
| | had flown commercial airliners into them.
|
| to nearly touch the underbelly of
| |
| | I couldn't believe it."At home, his wife
|
| Eckmann's F-16.September 11: A Normal
| |
| | had spent the frantic day fielding more
|
| MorningThe morning of 9/11 began "so
| |
| | than 50 phone calls from friends and
|
| normally," Eckmann says. "I was getting
| |
| | relatives wondering whether Eckmann was
|
| ready for a training mission when the
| |
| | flying that day, and if so, in what
|
| Klaxon alarm went off and we scrambled to
| |
| | aircraft and for which employer, the U.
|
| our 'hot' (armed) planes. When you're
| |
| | S. Air National Guard, or the commercial
|
| scrambled, you get to your jet and do
| |
| | airline industry.Both Herter and Eckmann
|
| what you're told."He'd heard that a plane
| |
| | say they're awed by the notion that what
|
| had crashed into the World Trade Center,
| |
| | they've seen and done will inevitably
|
| but assumed it was "a puddle jumper, a
| |
| | become as much a part of the American
|
| tourist plane, that lost its way and had
| |
| | historical fabric as the scene of George
|
| an accident." As a former commercial
| |
| | Washington crossing the Delaware River,
|
| pilot for Northwestern Airlines, Eckmann
| |
| | or the first film footage of the attacks
|
| said the idea that a fully loaded
| |
| | on Pearl Harbor."This is what no one else
|
| commercial jet could be plunged into an
| |
| | saw and could not see," Herter says.
|
| occupied building was "inconceivable."We
| |
| | "Only a handful of people ever saw the
|
| all had a false sense of security," he
| |
| | immediate aftermath of the Pentagon
|
| says. "Even on alert, before 9/11, we
| |
| | attack and this is the first sight of it.
|
| were focused on a danger coming in to us
| |
| | There are no aerial photographs of the
|
| from outside, not coming the inside as it
| |
| | Pentagon burning, because Dean (Eckmann)
|
| happened that day. To take a commercial
| |
| | and his fighters did their jobs --
|
| airliner full of people and force it into
| |
| | protected the nation's capital, secured
|
| a building? No one in America could
| |
| | the airspace. No one else got in, thanks
|
| imagine anything so evil."Eckmann says he
| |
| | to them.
|
| was originally ordered to "heading 010,"
| |
| |
|
