Interview with Lt Col Tim
Duffy
and
Leslie
Filson no date
Beginning
of
Tape
side
A
This
is a
phon
interview,
sounds like airplanes
in the
background.
Also
she is
typing
the
tape
is
very hard
to
understand)
F:
Your name
is Tim
right?
T: Yes
F: Lt Col Tim
Duffy,
okay since you know what I m looking on and I already talked toChris
McDonald and he was cool
with
me
calling
you
guys.
So as
long
as
you re
okay
with it
well
get
started.
T:
Okay
F: How
long have
you
been
with
the
unit
there?T: Little over 10 years.F: Part time?T: Yes, go back 1 year, I was on active duty for 2 years and back here for
1?????
F: You
have been there
awhile,
are
from there originally?
T:
Yes,
I am,
when
I was
active
duty,
I was all
over.F: So you re an airline pilot as well?
T:
Yes, ma am
F:
What
I
want
to
talk
to you
about
is the
initial
response
on
September
11
th
,
when
you
guys
got the
scramble order
from
the
Northeast there. From what
I
here,
you
actually
got
a
phone
call
from JCA(?).
T: It
didn t happen
the way it was
suppose
to
(inaudible)
the way it
came
down
was
(inaudible)
contacted
right
away
and as
soon
as we
hear there
was
something about
a
high
jack
we got
moving. We re proactive,
we
were proactively moving before
the air
division
had any
idea about
it.F: I
need
to ask
you.
Do you
mind
if I
tape
this
phone conversation?
I m
sorry,
I
meant
to
tell
you
that
the
minute
we got on the
phone, just
so 1 can
have
a
copy
of all my
notes.
It s
all
going
to be
unclas
stuff
anyway.NCT0067650
T:
Right
F:
Okay,
so
tell
me
kind
of the
sequence
of
events
and
what
happened.
I'll
just
ask you
stuff
from there, about when you guys got the first call and what you saw.
T:
Well,
we
swap
out at
around
8
o'clock
in the
morning,
so I
showed
up at
7:30
to set
up my material and get all my flying
gear
together,
(inaudible) so about 8:00 we wereready
to go and the
guys were getting ready
to fly the
morning
go and it was a
9:00 take
off.
One of the guys that was flying with me was suppose to be in the morning go, so
nasty(?)
was just going to hold the alert for him until he got back on the ground then hewas going to resume his alert. I guess at about 8:30, 8:35 out by the ops desk I got aphone call from one of the sergeants he said
you've
got a phone call. I just assumed itwas
my
wife, nobody
else
knew
I was
here.
I
said who
is
it ,
he
said it's Otis tower,something about a highjacking , that's not something that we throw around blatantly,
that
word,
so I had a
radio with
me and I
called
for a (?)
suit
up
right away.
So I was a
little
bit ahead of nasty getting suited up, probably about a minute or two, so when hecame
in I
said have
you
ever done
a
highjacking
before?
he
said no ,
I
said
I
have
he said
okay
you get the
lead.
F: Let me back up on the highjacking, I think Col
Marr
told me you flew a highjacking
in
92?
T: Yea
F:
Real
quick,
I
guess
that...
T: 92, the jet
that
was
high jacked
in the
Kennedy.F: That's
kind
of weird, okay , go ahead.T: He said okay you've got the lead ?? command post because the sergeant at the desk
as
soon
as I
called
for the
suit
up, I
just yelled
to him
patch
us
through
to the
commandpost. The squadron commander Tracer (?) was supervisor of
flying
that day, so he was
in
the
command post already,
1
told
him
I'm
#1 and
nasty
is
gong
to be
#2
at the
time,
he was on the
phone
trying
to get if the air
division
was
being notified yet.F: Who is the squadron commander again?T: He was at the time, he's not here anymore, he's retired moved down to WashingtonF: OkayT: Lt Col John Tracy
F: So
he's
trying
to get in
touch
with
the
Northeast then?
NCT 6765
T:
When
I run in,
I'm
all
suited
up and he has a
phone
in
both
ears,
but he
looked
at me,
told
him
I'm
1
Nasty
is 2 he
said
this
looks like
the
real thing.
It is
American
757on
route
to
California.
I
said okay, we're going
to the
jets
so at
that point,
I ran out and
told Nasty
??
the
truck
let's
go
straight
to the
planes
so we
hopped
in the
truck
and
going
out to the
alert
jets,
we
were
about half
way
there when
we got
battle station, which
at
that point now the air division was in the
loop
on what's ??F: When you are at battle stations, am I
correct,
you see a
light
that indicates that?
T:
Yes, when
we run out
there
??? in the
way,
but
when
the
horn
goes
off,
we
have
a
large
PA
that
goes
off and we
also
have
radios that
we
carry with
us all the
time.
They
go off and say
off kilo
1 and 2
battle stations
and
then when
we get out
there,
they have
like
stop lights, red, green, yellow and depending on what light is on tells us what statuswe are in.F: So you
actually
at this point, you here there is an American 67, so you know
something
is pretty serious?T:
Right
now
it
is a suspected highjacking. We are not sure what the
problem
is, I mean
it
was one of prettiest days I'd ever
flown,
literally
not a cloud in the sky, visibility was
probably
better than 100 miles.F: Wow
T: It was
funny
when
I was
driving
in
that
morning,
I
knew
I
wasn't
on the
flying
schedule and I was
what
a day to go
flying
it was a
beautiful
fall
morning, just
crystal
clear.
9/11 Personal Privacy
F: If you don't mind me asking .
T:
F:
T:
F:
T:
F:
T:
F:
NCT 6765
Reward Your Curiosity
Everything you want to read.
Anytime. Anywhere. Any device.
No Commitment. Cancel anytime.