9/11/01 started like most of my other duty days. Got up at 0530, the usual morning exercises, off to our crew room at 0700 for some of the morning business and killing time with my crew. I had no flight scheduled until the afternoon. However, we were put on alert shortly after the first crash, just before 0900, due to an hijack warning from Boston ATC (referring to AA-11), which had taken its time up and down the command line. While still in the pre-flight briefing, the message of Flight 11 having hit one of the WTC towers arrived through the news. The news of the second crash (UA-175) came in while we were lining up for take-off, and while the first crash report was still believed to be related to the hijack, but not an deliberate act, the second made it clear. Our task would be providing aerial refuelling to the F-15 and F-16 which had been scrambled in over the NYC airspace by then, the high-speed approaches would have used up a lot of their (increased) fuel reserve, but later were re-routed to take position to cover both areas, NYC and Washington.
I remember that beside that, a lot of things went haywire for the next four hours. We had been updated on the hijack reports, and in addition to the planes which had really been hijacked, I counted about 20 erroneous additional hijack reports. The crashes at the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania in the end, seemed to be like postludes, ludicrous in a macaber way, like when you think it can't get worse, it gets worse.
We did not return to our base until the late night for a crew change, and after landing, I remember giving every radio or TV a wide berth (which was hard). I returned to my BOQ room and slept fitfully for 10 hours, longer than usual after every other flight I had piloted before. Until then, I found it hard to believe what is being said about stressful situations, that you don't notice how much they affect you, but I guess that day had taken it's toll on me (too). As for me, it was probably the worst day of my career, which had included turns to Libya, Iraq (Pt. I & II), Afghanistan and Bosnia (the 99 tour). None of these had been as exciting, but ultimately emotionally draining as 9/11/01. It still makes my hands go cold as I type this, and sends the shivers up and down my spine.