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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

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