October 2011 - United States Special Operations Command
October 2011 - United States Special Operations Command
October 2011 - United States Special Operations Command
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“Do it”<br />
America’s SOF Response to September 11<br />
By Christian E. Fearer<br />
USSOCOM History & Research Office<br />
Sept. 11, 2001. The day that dawned over the East<br />
Coast was nearly perfect for flying. In Boston, Newark<br />
and Washington, D.C., passengers and crews boarded<br />
four flights, each destined for California. In New York<br />
City and around Washington, D.C., commuters<br />
navigated typical Tuesday rush-hour traffic as they<br />
made their way to work in Lower Manhattan and the<br />
Pentagon.<br />
At 8:46 a.m. everything changed. A commercial<br />
airliner flew fast and low over the New York skyline,<br />
slamming into a tower of the World Trade Center.<br />
Shortly after, at 9 a.m., a second aircraft crashed into<br />
the other tower, causing a tremendous explosion.<br />
Clearly this was no accident, but a purposeful,<br />
calculated act of terrorism. Within a half-hour, a third<br />
plane slammed into the Pentagon at full throttle, tearing<br />
a hole into the building’s west wall. A fourth plane,<br />
bound for a target in the capital, crashed into a<br />
southwestern Pennsylvania field. The day that began as<br />
any other ended as none other; hijackers had turned civil<br />
aircraft into missiles, and nearly 3,000 people had died.<br />
President George W. Bush addressed the nation that<br />
evening, explaining that a search was already underway<br />
for those responsible and vowed to make no distinction<br />
between the terrorist organizations and those that<br />
U.S. <strong>Special</strong> <strong>Operations</strong> Forces ride horseback working with members of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, Nov. 12, 2001.<br />
Tip of the Spear<br />
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