Artikel über Militärpilot
Anthony Kuczynski
Unlike most Americans on the morning of Sept. 11, St. Thomas graduate Anthony Kuczynski wasnít watching the news. He was flying toward Pittsburgh alongside two F-16 fighter jets.
ìI was given direct orders to shoot down an airliner,î said Kuczynski, a first lieutenant in the Air Force and an E-3 Sentry pilot. ìIt was one of those things where it was an absolutely surreal experience.î
E-3 Sentries, also called Airborne Warning and Control Systems, are modified Boeing 707s with advanced radar and surveillance tools, technologies that Kuczynski and his crew use to direct fighter jets to their targets. Kuczynskiís E-3 Sentry was one of the few military planes in the sky during the opening moments of the terrorist attacks.
ìWe were the only show in the air,î said Kuczynski, a 1998 UST graduate...
Just as Kuczynski and his crew were about to intercept United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, passengers on the hijacked plane apparently rushed the terrorists, and the airliner crashed southeast of Pittsburgh. From there, Kuczynski went to orbit an area near Washington, D.C., for the next 15 hours.
Earlier that morning, when he first heard about the first World Trade Center crash, Kuczynski thought he was involved in a planned military simulation. It didnít take him long to realize it was real...
www.stthomas.edu/aquin/archive/041202/anaconda.html