1st Air Force Airmen better prepared for homeland defense 8 years after 9/11 Published Sept. 10, 2009 TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFNS) -- On Sept. 10, 2001, Airmen assigned to 1st Air Force here were wondering just how much longer their air defense organization might last. They knew the organization's lifespan was possibly at risk, fostered by a widespread belief that major conventional military air threats to the U.S. homeland were highly unlikely in a post-Cold War era. That all changed the next day as millions of people around the world watched the horror unfold. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, 1st Air Force officials led the effort to re-energize and enhance the Air Force air defense mission against a new type of air threat: aerial terrorists. "Before 9/11, we were fighting to stay open," said Lt. Col. Greg Penning, a full-time member of the Air National Guard who serves as assistant director of 1st Air Force's Air, Space and Information Operations Directorate. "At that time the Cold War had been over for 10 years and the emphasis was not on homeland defense. Because of diminished external threats and partly as a cost-cutting measure, the Air Force was downsizing its air defense fighter mission." Like every other American and most people around the world, Colonel Penning, who had been assigned to 1st Air Force only a few months prior to Sept. 11, was stunned into disbelief with what happened that shocking Tuesday morning. He watched his television screen in horror as commercial U.S. airliners, hijacked by terrorists and carrying unsuspecting civilian passengers and flight crews, plowed into New York's World Trade Center, setting the two massive towers afire, later causing them to crumble and fall. Equally disturbing was hearing that a third hijacked plane had flown into and destroyed part of the Pentagon and that a fourth plane, probably headed for the nation's Capitol, had crashed into a Pennsylvania field. "Like everyone, we in the Air Force were shocked at what happened. No one ever surmised that airplanes would be used to commit such acts," Colonel Penning said. "NORAD had never before had a military exercise to prepare for a terrorist act of this scale." Nevertheless, within a few hours of the initial attacks, 1st Air Force officials, supported by a wave of military volunteerism from all the services, went from a few to more than 400 aircraft -- fighters, tankers, airborne early warning systems -- flying and on armed air defense ground alert all over the country. The pilots were prepared for anything, including possibly having to shoot down civilian airplanes from the sky. "Any order to engage civilian airliners would have had to come from the highest levels of national leadership, but thankfully that order was not needed," he added. The normal daily operations tempo went instantly into overdrive that day at 1st Air Force under the command of retired Maj. Gen. Larry K. Arnold. Colonel Penning said he remembers those initial post-9/11 weeks and months as exhausting and challenging, but also extremely rewarding both personally and professionally. "We quickly crafted a an enhanced defensive posture and greatly mitigated the threats against us," he said of the immediate actions that were taken. That enhanced posture remains in place today. In the eight years that have passed, 1st Air Force has become a rejuvenated, active and major player in the air defense of the U.S., he emphasized. Among its many accomplishments the organization has: -- more than doubled its steady state alert sites throughout the United States, -- added more launch-ready fighter aircraft, -- upgraded radar surveillance capabilities, -- installed enhanced communications and computer technology equipment, and -- established an air and space operations center in a state-of-the-art facility that operates 24/7/365 executing full-spectrum air operations. "What the Air Force has now, compared to right after 9/11, is exponentially better," Colonel Penning said. "We'll never be 100 percent immune from attack, but we're definitely more capable now than we were then." Colonel Penning's main concern these days is what he believes is the growing complacency among U.S. citizens about the potential for renewed terrorist threats to the U.S. "The more distance we get from 9/11, the less people seem to be concerned about homeland defense," he said. "But like Pearl Harbor, we can never forget what happened."