The Air National Guard’s Crisis Action Team (CAT) is activated and coordinates the Air National Guard’s response to the terrorist attacks. [Air National Guard, 9/18/2001; US Congress. Senate, 4/24/2002; Rosenfeld and Gross, 2007, pp. 39-40] Major General Paul Weaver, director of the Air National Guard (ANG), instructs Brigadier General Paul Kimmel, chief operating officer of the ANG, to run the CAT. [Daytona Beach News-Journal, 9/7/2004 
]
Crisis Team Activated ‘Immediately’ after the Pentagon Attack – Weaver had been watching the crisis unfold on television in his 12th-floor office at Jefferson Plaza in Crystal City, Virginia, and heard the crash when the Pentagon was hit, at 9:37 a.m. (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). He had seen the smoke from the burning Pentagon, which the wind had blown in the direction of his building, but, he will later recall, had mistakenly thought it was caused by “airplanes that had been blown up at [Washington’s Reagan] National Airport.” [Air National Guard, 10/22/2001 ; 9/11 Commission, 4/29/2004] He activates the CAT “immediately” after the Pentagon has been hit, according to an ANG memorandum from late September 2001. Kimmel, meanwhile, was in a staff meeting at the Pentagon when the attacks in New York occurred (see (9:00 a.m.-9:20 a.m.) September 11, 2001). After that meeting ended, he was scheduled to attend another meeting at the Pentagon, at 9:30 a.m., but decided to go to his 12th-floor office at Jefferson Plaza. He arrived there shortly after the Pentagon was hit.
Crisis Team Leader Contacts NORAD Commander – Kimmel and Weaver now confer, and Weaver instructs Kimmel to go to Andrews Air Force Base, just outside Washington, DC, to run the CAT. Kimmel and his executive officer are quickly driven to the base, covering the 17-mile journey in just 12 minutes. The CAT carries out its operations at the ANG Readiness Center at Andrews. When Kimmel and his executive officer arrive there, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Nobody knew the extent of the attack or what was going to happen next.” “My job was to get folks ready to do whatever it took,” Kimmel will comment. The first call he makes after arriving is to Major General Larry Arnold, commanding general of NORAD’s Continental US Region. Kimmel will recall that Arnold tells him “to get everything we’ve got in the National Guard ready and loaded.” This, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, means “89 different flying units and 200 other kinds of geographically separated units.” [Air National Guard, 9/18/2001; Daytona Beach News-Journal, 9/7/2004 ]
Crisis Team Arranges for Fighter Jets to Defend the US – The CAT contacts ANG fighter, tanker, and airlift units across the nation, so as to prepare as many aircraft as it can, as quickly as possible, to defend the US. “Our role was to coordinate the necessary Air National Guard resources to assist in making sure all civilian pilots knew to ground their aircraft,” Major General Paul Sullivan, assistant adjutant general for the Ohio ANG who is also the acting deputy director of the ANG, will recall. The CAT also has to “get key members of the government back to Washington, including President Bush, who was flying aboard Air Force One,” Sullivan will say. [Rosenfeld and Gross, 2007, pp. 39; Coshocton Tribune, 9/11/2011]
Crisis Team Continues Operating around the Clock – The CAT will be staffed mostly by personnel from ANG headquarters, but also by some ANG personnel from the Air Education and Training Command who are in the area on temporary duty, along with some individuals who are trapped in the area due to the terrorist attacks. [Air National Guard, 9/18/2001] For example, Sullivan was in Crystal City for a meeting this morning. After learning of the attacks in New York, he had offered to fly back to Columbus, Ohio, immediately, but was ordered to stay in the Washington area and take charge of the CAT as its senior director. The CAT, according to an official history of the ANG, serves as “the central point of contact assisting the mobilization, coordination, and monitoring of ANG resources worldwide for emergency missions concerning natural and man-made disasters, including terrorism.” It will start working around the clock as the 1st Air Force expands the air defense of the nation in response to today’s attacks. [Rosenfeld and Gross, 2007, pp. 39-40; Coshocton Tribune, 9/11/2011]
Shortly After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: Airborne Command Center Launched from Ohio Air Base
Minutes after the attack on the Pentagon, an E-4B National Airborne Operations Center plane takes off from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio, bound for an undisclosed location. E-4Bs are highly modified Boeing 747s, fitted with sophisticated communications equipment, that act as flying military command posts. Nicknamed “Doomsday” planes during the Cold War, they serve the president and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They can also support the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during major disasters, like hurricanes or earthquakes. Wright-Patterson is one of the few designated bases for these special planes. The US military possesses four of them in total, one of which is constantly kept on alert. [Federation of American Scientists, 4/23/2000; Dayton Daily News, 9/12/2001] Three of the E-4Bs are airborne this morning, due to their role in a pre-scheduled military exercise called Global Guardian (see Before 9:00 a.m. September 11, 2001, (9:27 a.m.) September 11, 2001, and (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Omaha World-Herald, 2/27/2002] The E-4B from Wright-Patterson will return to the base later in the day. [Dayton Daily News, 9/12/2001]
Shortly After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Myers Heads back to the Pentagon and Learns of the Attack There
General Richard Myers, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is notified that the Pentagon has been attacked as he is leaving one of the Senate office buildings on Capitol Hill, on his way back there. [MSNBC, 9/11/2002; American Forces Press Service, 9/9/2011] Myers has been on Capitol Hill for a meeting with Senator Max Cleland (D-GA). He is aware of the crashes at the World Trade Center and realizes they were terrorist attacks (see Shortly Before 9:00 a.m. September 11, 2001 and (After 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [MSNBC, 9/11/2002; Myers and McConnell, 2009, pp. 7-9] Colonel Matthew Klimow, his executive assistant, called him from the Pentagon and advised him to return to the Pentagon (see (Before 9:29 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Myers and McConnell, 2009, pp. 9; George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, 8/3/2012] He has also talked over the phone with General Ralph Eberhart, the commander of NORAD, and Eberhart, too, told him to “get back to the Pentagon” (see (Before 9:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 2/17/2004 ; 9/11 Commission, 3/1/2004] As Myers is heading back to the Pentagon, he learns about the attack there, which occurred at 9:37 a.m. (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). It is unclear who tells him what happened. He will later recall, in some accounts, being told about the attack by a man he will refer to as his “security guy” or his “security officer.” But he will tell one interviewer that he learns of it from his driver, Dan Downey. He is told: “Sir, just got a call from the office. The Pentagon’s been hit.” He is apparently provided with no details of what the attack involved. [Council on Foreign Relations, 6/29/2006; Myers and McConnell, 2009, pp. 9; Radio America, 4/14/2009] The exact time when this occurs is unclear. Myers will tell NBC News that he learns of the Pentagon attack “as we’re leaving the building” on Capitol Hill. [MSNBC, 9/11/2002] In a radio interview, he will say he learns of it “as I get ready to go to my car and leave Capitol Hill.” [Radio America, 4/14/2009] But he will tell the 9/11 Commission that he receives word of it “as he [is] getting into his car.” [9/11 Commission, 2/17/2004 ] And in his 2009 memoir, he will recall learning of it during the drive back to the Pentagon, “[a]s we raced away from Capitol Hill.” He will immediately call Klimow and receive confirmation from him that an attack occurred at the Pentagon (see (Before 9:58 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Myers and McConnell, 2009, pp. 9; George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, 8/3/2012]
Between 9:38 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. September 11, 2001: Counterterrorism ‘Tsar’ Clarke Orders Combat Air Patrols over All Major Cities; Unclear Whether Order Is Passed On
From the White House Situation Room, counterterrorism “tsar” Richard Clarke gives the instruction for fighter jets to establish patrols over all major US cities. Clarke has been talking with the FAA over the White House video conference, and his deputy, Roger Cressey, has just announced that a plane hit the Pentagon. According to his own recollection, Clarke responds: “I can still see [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld on the screen [for the Pentagon], so the whole building didn’t get hit. No emotion in here. We are going to stay focused.” He orders Cressey: “Find out where the fighter planes are. I want combat air patrol over every major city in this country. Now.” [Clarke, 2004, pp. 7-8; Australian, 3/27/2004] A combat air patrol (CAP) is an aircraft patrol over a particular area, with the purpose of intercepting and destroying any hostile aircraft before they reach their targets. [US Department of Defense, 4/12/2001] It is unclear how long it takes for CAPs to be formed over all major cities, as Clarke requests. At 9:49, NORAD Commander Ralph Eberhart will direct all the US’s air sovereignty aircraft to battle stations (see 9:49 a.m. September 11, 2001), but bases have reportedly been calling into NORAD and asking for permission to send up fighters since after the second WTC crash (see (After 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/2002; 9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004 ] At around 11:00 a.m. Eberhart will implement a plan called SCATANA, which clears the skies and gives the military control over US airspace (see (11:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004]
Shortly After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: Supervisor at Army Airfield Sees Two Unidentified Aircraft on Radar, Circling above Pentagon
Shortly after the Pentagon crash, an air traffic control supervisor at Davison Army Airfield sees two unidentified aircraft near the Pentagon on the radar of his facility, which is located at Fort Belvoir, about 12 miles south of the Pentagon. The supervisor, who is working in the airfield’s control tower, looks out the window toward where the Pentagon is and sees a large black cloud of smoke. He is told by a colleague that news reports are saying a small airplane has hit the Pentagon. He then looks at the facility’s radar scope, which shows two aircraft circling above the Pentagon. The transponder of one of these is transmitting the emergency code. The supervisor will recall: “I look at where the Pentagon area is [on the radar scope], and I look, and there was an aircraft squawking 7700, meaning emergency. And it was circling—it was coming down and fast.… [A]nd there was another target with no markings or anything—it was just a target,” with none of the accompanying information that would be emitted by a transponder. This second aircraft is “descending rapidly and very fast.” The supervisor will recall that the two aircraft “circled around and both tags they disappeared. But they stay in the air.” He will provide no further information on the identities of the aircraft or why one of them is transmitting the emergency code. [US Army Center for Military History, 11/14/2001 ] There will be eyewitness accounts of aircraft near the Pentagon around this time (see (9:35 a.m.-9:36 a.m.) September 11, 2001, 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001, and (9:41 a.m.-9:42 a.m.) September 11, 2001).
After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: Attorney General Ashcroft Insists on Leaving Milwaukee and Flying to Washington, despite FAA Ground Stop
Attorney General John Ashcroft insists that the plane he is traveling on take off from Milwaukee and head to Washington, DC, even though he has been discouraged from getting airborne due to the possibility of further attacks, and his pilot has been told by air traffic control that he will not be allowed to take off. [Ashcroft, 2006, pp. 117; Spencer, 2008, pp. 257-258] Ashcroft was flying from Washington to Milwaukee in a Cessna Citation V jet when he learned of the attacks in New York in a phone call with the Justice Department command center. He’d wanted to immediately head back to Washington, but his pilot, David Clemmer, said they would first need to land in Milwaukee to refuel (see Shortly After 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001). Their aircraft then landed, presumably at Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport.
SWAT Team Surrounds Plane – After the plane touched down, Ashcroft and the others on board were met by a SWAT team, brandishing weapons, which surrounded the plane. Then, while Clemmer took care of refueling, Ashcroft and his fellow passengers—some colleagues of his from the Justice Department—went into the airport’s evacuated terminal and found a television on which they could watch the news coverage from New York. Soon after, they learned that the Pentagon had been hit.
Ashcroft Discouraged from Taking Off – While at the airport, Ashcroft spends much of his time speaking over the phone to the Justice Department command center in Washington. He will later recall, “Some people were discouraging us from getting back on the plane until we knew whether there was going to be another attack.” But Ashcroft “didn’t want to wait that long,” so as soon as Clemmer has finished refueling the plane, Ashcroft gives him the order to take off. [Washington Post, 9/28/2001; Ashcroft, 2006, pp. 115-117]
Ashcroft Overrules Order Not to Take Off – However, the FAA has ordered a nationwide ground stop to prevent aircraft from taking off (see (9:26 a.m.) September 11, 2001), and air traffic control has informed Clemmer that his plane will not be allowed to leave Milwaukee for Washington. [US Congress. House. Committee On Transportation And Infrastructure, 9/21/2001; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 25; Spencer, 2008, pp. 257-258] Clemmer therefore tells Ashcroft: “I’m sorry, sir. We can’t take off. I just received orders that we are not supposed to be flying.” But Ashcroft responds: “No, we’re going. Let’s get back in the air.” Ashcroft and his fellow passengers then board the plane. [Ashcroft, 2006, pp. 117] They are joined by another Justice Department aide and another FBI agent in addition to the one who’d been on the plane when it landed in Milwaukee. [Washington Post, 9/28/2001]
Pilot Convinces Controller to Let Him Take Off – Clemmer is eventually able to convince air traffic control to allow him to leave Milwaukee. He then takes off and heads toward Washington. However, when Ben Sliney, the national operations manager at the FAA’s Command Center, hears about this, he will reportedly be “livid,” and Ashcroft’s plane will be ordered to land (see 10:40 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Ashcroft, 2006, pp. 117; Spencer, 2008, pp. 258]
Shortly After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: Army Vice Chief of Staff Keane Instructs His Operations Officer to Tell the Army around the World about the Pentagon Attack
General John Keane, vice chief of staff of the Army, instructs Major General Peter Chiarelli, the Army’s director of operations, readiness, and mobilization, to inform Army facilities around the world that the Pentagon has been attacked. Chiarelli headed from his office to the Army Operations Center (AOC) in the basement of the Pentagon sometime after the second hijacked plane crashed into the World Trade Center (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001) and called Keane after he arrived there. During the conversation, he alerted Keane to a suspicious aircraft that had been flying toward Washington, DC (see Shortly Before 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). [US Army Center of Military History, 2/5/2002; Fordham News, 9/10/2016] The two men were still on the phone at 9:37 a.m., when the Pentagon attack occurred (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). Although the building was hit far away from where his office is located, Keane felt the room shake violently. He now asks Chiarelli if he too noticed the impact. “Did you hear that?” he says. Chiarelli says no. “Pete, that plane [that was approaching Washington] just hit us,” Keane says. He will later recall that he then instructs Chiarelli “to tell the US Army around the world what happened and that, given the status of the AOC, which was unharmed, we would still maintain command and control of the Army.” [Fordham News, 9/10/2016; Weekly Standard, 9/11/2016] Keane will subsequently join Chiarelli in the AOC (see (Shortly After 9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 135; Fox News, 9/12/2011] From there, according to a report published by the Army, he will send “messages throughout the Army to inform subordinate commands that HQDA [Headquarters, Department of the Army] was still directing operations,” even though the Pentagon had been hit. [Christopher N. Koontz, 2011, pp. 56-57 ]
After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: Aircraft Carriers Called to Defend US; Uncertainty Over When This Happens
After the attack on the Pentagon, Navy ships and aircraft squadrons that are stationed, or at sea, along the coast of the United States are, reportedly, “rapidly pressed into action” to defend the country. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Vern Clark is evacuated from his office in the Pentagon after the building is hit, and soon relocates to the Navy’s Antiterrorist Alert Center in southeast Washington, DC, where a backup Navy command center is being established (see After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). Clark later explains, “We had carriers at sea. I talked to Admiral Natter [Adm. Robert J. Natter, commander in chief, US Atlantic Fleet] and Admiral Fargo [Adm. Thomas B. Fargo, commander in chief, US Pacific Fleet] about immediate loadouts [of weapons and armed aircraft] and the positioning of our air defense cruisers. Fundamentally, those pieces were in place almost immediately and integrated into the interagency process and with the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration].” The aircraft carrier USS George Washington is currently at sea conducting training exercises. It is dispatched to New York, “following the recovery of armed F-14 Tomcats and F/A-18 Hornets from Naval Air Station Oceana,” in Virginia Beach, Virginia. According to Sea Power magazine, another aircraft carrier—the USS John F. Kennedy—that is departing Mayport, Florida, is ordered to patrol the waters off Hampton Roads, Virginia, “to protect the Navy’s vast shore complex in Norfolk.” [Associated Press, 9/12/2001; Sea Power, 1/2002; Notre Dame Magazine, 4/2007] The John F. Kennedy has nearly a full air wing of 75 fighter, attack, and reconnaissance planes aboard it, while the George Washington has only a limited number of aircraft on board. [Virginian-Pilot, 9/12/2001] Admiral Natter orders two amphibious ships—the USS Bataan and the USS Shreveport—to proceed to North Carolina, to pick up Marines from Camp Lejeune, in case additional support is needed in New York. “Within three hours, an undisclosed number of Aegis guided-missile cruisers and destroyers also were underway, their magazines loaded with Standard 2 surface-to-air missiles. Positioned off New York and Norfolk, and along the Gulf Coast, they provided robust early-warning and air-defense capabilities to help ensure against follow-on terrorist attacks.” Vern Clark later recalls that, after the Pentagon attack, “We were thinking about the immediate protection of the United States of America.” [Sea Power, 1/2002] Yet, according to CNN, it is not until 1:44 p.m. that the Pentagon announces that five warships and two aircraft carriers—the USS George Washington and the USS John F. Kennedy—are to depart the Naval Station in Norfolk, Virginia, so as to protect the East Coast (see 1:44 p.m. September 11, 2001). [CNN, 9/12/2001] And, according to some reports, the Navy only dispatches missile destroyers toward New York and Washington at 2:51 p.m. [Washington Post, 9/12/2001; Fox News, 9/13/2001; Associated Press, 9/11/2006]
9:38 a.m. September 11, 2001: Some Officers in Area Where Pentagon Is Hit Think Bombs Have Exploded
At least three Pentagon employees in the area of the building that is hit, and who narrowly survive the attack, initially believe that what they have experienced is a bomb, or bombs, going off: 
John Thurman, an Army lieutenant colonel, is in a second floor office just above where the Pentagon is hit. [Washington Post, 4/12/2006] He later describes the moment of impact: “To me it didn’t seem like a plane.… [T]o me it seemed like it was a bomb. Being in the military, I have been around grenade, artillery explosions. It was a two-part explosion to me.… [I]t seemed like that there was a percussion blast that blew me kind of backwards in my cubicle to the side. And then it seemed as if a massive explosion went off at the same time.” He will add: “I had thought that perhaps the terrorists had surreptitiously gotten construction workers to come in and place explosives.” [United States of America v. Zacarias Moussaoui, a/k/a Shaqil, a/k/a Abu Khalid al Sahrawi, Defendant., 4/11/2006 ] Lt. Nancy McKeown is on the first floor of the Pentagon’s D Ring in the Navy Command Center, which is mostly destroyed when the building is hit. [Washington Post, 1/20/2002; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 30-31] She will recall: “[I]t initially felt like an earthquake.… It sounded like a series of explosions going off.… It sounded like a series of bombs exploding, similar to like firecrackers when you light them and you just get a series going off.” [United States of America v. Zacarias Moussaoui, a/k/a Shaqil, a/k/a Abu Khalid al Sahrawi, Defendant., 4/11/2006 ] She yells out to her colleagues, “Bomb!” [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 31] Army Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell is returning to his second floor office, and is just yards from where the building is impacted. [9/11 Commission, 3/31/2003; Dallas Morning News, 9/7/2006] “Bomb! I thought,” he recalls of the moment the building is hit. [US News and World Report, 12/2/2001; Today’s Christian Woman, 7/1/2004]
9:38 a.m. September 11, 2001: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Dashes toward Crash Site Seconds after Pentagon Is Hit
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld heads for the crash site immediately after the Pentagon is hit. At the time of the attack, Rumsfeld is in his office proceeding with his regularly scheduled CIA briefing, despite being aware of the two attacks on the World Trade Center earlier on. Waiting outside his door is Officer Aubrey Davis of the Pentagon police, who is assigned to the defense secretary’s personal bodyguard and has come of his own initiative to move Rumsfeld to a better-protected location. According to Davis, there is “an incredibly loud ‘boom,’” as the Pentagon is struck. Just 15 or 20 seconds later, Rumsfeld walks out of his door looking composed, having already put on the jacket he normally discards when in his office. Davis informs him there is a report of an airplane hitting a section of the Pentagon known as the Mall. Rumsfeld sets off without saying anything or informing any of his command staff where he is going, and heads swiftly toward the Mall. Davis accompanies him, as does Rumsfeld’s other security guard Gilbert Oldach, his communications officer, and the deputy director of security for the secretary’s office. Finding no sign of damage at the Mall, Davis tells Rumsfeld, “[N]ow we’re hearing it’s by the heliport,” which is along the next side of the building. Despite Davis’s protests that he should head back, Rumsfeld continues onward, and they go outside near where the crash occurred. [Cockburn, 2007, pp. 1-2; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 130; Democracy Now!, 3/7/2007] The Pentagon was hit on the opposite site of the huge building to Rumsfeld’s office. [Reuters, 9/11/2001] Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Victoria Clarke will say that Rumsfeld is “one of the first people” to arrive at the crash scene. [KYW Radio 1060 (Philadelphia), 9/15/2001] He spends a brief time there (see Between 9:38 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. September 11, 2001), before returning to the building by about 10:00 a.m., according to his own account (see (10:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 3/23/2004 ] Rumsfeld will later justify his actions following the attack, saying, “I was going, which seemed to me perfectly logically, towards the scene of the accident to see what could be done and what had happened.” [US Department of Defense, 8/12/2002] As journalist Andrew Cockburn will point out, though, “[T]he country was under attack and yet the secretary of defense disappears for 20 minutes.” [C-SPAN, 2/25/2007] John Jester, the chief of the Defense Protective Service, which guards the Pentagon, will criticize Rumsfeld for heading to the crash scene at this time. He will say: “One of my officers tried to stop him and he just brushed him off. I told [Rumsfeld’s] staff that he should not have done that. He is in the national command authority; he should not have gone to the scene.” [Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 10/19/2001 ] The numerous reports of Rumsfeld going outside to the crash scene are apparently contradicted by counterterrorism “tsar” Richard Clarke. In his 2004 book Against All Enemies, Clarke will give the impression that Rumsfeld never leaves a video conference for very long after the Pentagon is hit, except to move from one secure teleconferencing studio to another elsewhere in the Pentagon. [Clarke, 2004, pp. 7-9] However, video footage confirms that Rumsfeld does indeed go to the crash site. [CNN, 8/17/2002]
