Former DC Air National Guard fighter pilot Heather Penney joined “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday, September 11, 2022, to discuss the mission she was given 21 years ago on 9/11. Vice President Dick Cheney reportedly ordered fighter pilots to shoot down United Airlines Flight 93 after two commercial planes – UA Flight 11 and UA Flight 175 – were flown into the World Trade Center by members of al-Qaeda. “As a brand new rookie pilot … we didn’t have any ammunition in our aircraft, just training ammunition. But we knew we had to get airborne,” Penney recalled when speaking on “Fox & Friends Weekend.” “We knew we had to protect our nation’s capital,” he continued. “But our biggest challenges were getting the launch license and getting real live weapons on the aircraft.” ON 9/11 ANNIVERSARY, BELIEVERS ALL OVER GREECE OFFER PRAYERS, PERFORMANCE AND HOPE FOR OUR COUNTRY Former fighter pilot Heather Penney remembers the 9/11 mission she was given to stop Flight 93 and the sacrifice she was willing to make. (Fox News Media) The planes that Penney and her team prepared and flew for this mission were F-16 Falcons, which are significantly smaller than the commercial planes that United Airlines uses to transport citizens, as the Fox & Friends Weekend host pointed out Pete Hegseth. Penny carried out her orders while wondering if her father, who was a United Airlines pilot, could be one of the hijacked planes. He told “Fox & Friends Weekend” that he had not trained for a situation like 9/11. “In the military, we don’t train for suicide missions because we value our warfighters,” Penny said, calling them “part of our unique capability” and noting, “we were in a position where unless we had these missiles, there was no other selection”. LEE GREENWOOD ON THE BIBLE, FAITH AND 9/11: ‘PRAY FOR GOD’S HAND’ ON US ALL Penney said Lt. Gen. Marc Sasseville, deputy chief of the National Guard, was her flight leader on Sept. 11. At the time, he was director of operations for the D.C. Air National Guard, Penney said. Penney and Sasseville reportedly took off from Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, DC “We knew we were right there next to the nation’s capital, but we had to get the authorization from our political leadership to allow us to take off, especially given the size of what we knew was the target,” Penny recalled. 9/11 PROMISE RUN: ANNUAL PENTAGON TO GROUND ZERO PROVIDES ‘GOD MOMENTS,’ SAYS FOUNDER The hijackers on Flight 93 were en route to Washington, DC, but the plane crashed in a wooded area of Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after the passengers tried to regain control of the aircraft. Penney told “Fox & Friends Weekend” that she would have crashed her plane into Flight 93 if the timing had been resolved. “There was no question [Sasseville’s] in my head and in my head what we had to do,” Penney said. “We were willing to do this because not only had we sworn to protect and defend our constitution, the USA and our way of life, to protect our people, but anyone who had seen what happened that day would have been willing to does the same.” Penny went on to say that many people stepped up and made “similar” heroic choices on the morning of 9/11. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “What’s really amazing to me is that there’s nothing special about it [Sasseville] and I was willing to do, and frankly what the passengers on Flight 93 did,” Penney said. He continued, “That kind of heroism, that bravery, that service is within each of us. I just wish it didn’t take a national crisis to bring out that heroism.” Cortney Moore is a contributing lifestyle writer/producer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent on Twitter to @CortneyMoore716.
