Mark A. Pillar

Senior officers at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska hear incorrect reports about terrorist acts that have not actually happened, which they promptly look into. Brigadier General Mark Pillar and other senior officers at Offutt agreed that the US was under attack when they saw the second hijacked plane crashing into the World Trade Center on television, at 9:03 a.m. (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001). At that time, Pillar will later comment, “It was organized chaos, because there was so much we didn’t know.” Subsequently, he and other high-ranking officers at the base hear “rumors or suspicions” of possible terrorist activities, which turn out to be untrue. These alleged activities involve such things as “anthrax-carrying planes, the poisoning of drinking water supplies, and numerous bomb threats, from the Transamerica building in San Francisco to the John Hancock Tower in Boston,” Pillar will recall. Pillar and other senior officers “immediately” launch investigations into these rumors. The exact time at which these incorrect reports start being received is unstated. [Columbus Republic, 10/27/2016] Offutt Air Force Base is home to the US Strategic Command (Stratcom), which controls America’s nuclear weapons. [Associated Press, 9/11/2001] Personnel there were in the middle of a major training exercise called Global Guardian, which theorized that a rogue nation would attack the US with nuclear weapons, when the attacks began this morning (see 8:30 a.m. September 11, 2001 and Before 9:00 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Omaha World-Herald, 9/8/2002; Schmitt and Shanker, 2011, pp. 22; NET News, 12/27/2011] Air Force One, with President Bush on board, will land at Offutt at 2:50 p.m. this afternoon (see 2:50 p.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 326]