October 2011 - United States Special Operations Command

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