VFA-201

Spent some time as a, uh, Intruder pilot, and then went to the test community for a little bit where I was dual qualified in the F-18 and the A-6, and then moved on from there to, uh, being a strike ops officer in the air wing.

And then after that, uh, 22-year career in the reserves, where I flew Hornets with VFA-201 out of Fort Worth, Texas.

Like you said, I was the last commanding officer of that squadron.

And then, uh, moved on to be a flight instructor at Whiting, and a couple of staff jobs.

On that day, the moment the second aircraft hit the towers, which was United 175, everybody recognized that it was terrorism.

My three-year-old daughter said, "Why did the bad men fly airplanes into the castles?" Even a three-year-old could figure out that those were bad men flying airplanes into a building that shouldn't have happened.

So I called the squadron, and the squadron said, "We don't know w- if we even need you or what you're gonna be doing, so stay home." And then, uh, when the towers collapsed, the squadron called back, VFA-201 called back and said, "We don't know what you're going to be doing, but pack a bag and get onto the base." So, uh, I drove from my home in Fort Worth to Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, what used to be Carswell Air Force Base, and came into the squadron.

And it turned out that 10th Air Force, the General of the 10th Air Force, had been assigned to establish a no-fly zone over Dallas-Fort Worth, and to support that, not with airborne combat air patrol, but with alerts.