March 16, 2004: NORAD Tells 9/11 Commission It Did Not Produce a 9/11 After-Action Report

Unlike other branches of the military, NORAD has not completed an after-action report on its response to the 9/11 attacks, according to a letter to the 9/11 Commission by its Office of the Staff Judge Advocate. [North American Aerospace Defense Command, Office of the Staff Judge Advocate, 3/16/2004] The letter is in response to the Commission’s repeated document requests for NORAD’s after-action report. The Commission has already obtained after-action reports “from a number of DOD services and components, including the Air Force, Navy, and NMCC,” but, to its frustration, “a similar report related specifically to NORAD’s performance on 9/11 [has not been] forthcoming.” [9/11 Commission, 2/20/2004] In its response, NORAD says: “While NORAD did not produce what would be traditionally classified as one final and comprehensive after-action report, it did produce a series of after-action reports that document 9/11 lessons learned. These documents have been provided to the Commission.”