TRANSCRIPTO FINTERVIEW
Captain Craig Borgstrom
OperationsO f f ic e r ,119thFighter Wing/ A l e r t Detachment1
Conducted Thursday,25 October 2001at Langley AFB,VA
Interviewer: Master Sergeant DavidE.Somdahl, 119FW/HO
Q:You've beenthe operations officerout here, for how long?
A:Icame out inApril(2001).
Q:So, you've been outhere six months, seven months?
A:U h ,huh.
Q:And,y o u were here working the day of September11th.
A:- Y e s -
Q:..whichbeganlike what?How did itbegin?
A:Y o u just want m yrundown fo r that day?
Q:Yes, your rundownf o r that day.
A:I was sittingrighthere (his desk,admin,building at 119FW/Det1) and my
girlfriend called me and said, "Didyou hear what just happened?"No, so I heard
thatan airplanehad crashed intothe World Trade Center. ImmediatelyI was
thinking some sightseerin a Cessna1 7 2 , four-person airplaneout sightseeing
had gottenalittle too close,or someguy that wanted to end it all and wantedto
take a couple people with him. Righta f t e r thatLaura1 came down to mydoor
andsaid that DarrinAnde rson2 is on the phoneand needsto talk withyouright
away.So,hung up with Jen, went down (the hall) andDarrinsaid, "Did youhear
what happened?" Same question, said thatI heardan airplane went intothe
World Trade Center, and he said "Yep,you justbe ready,"not really know to the
extent ofwhat wasgoing on at this point.
1 Senior Airman LauraSc haue r,119 FW/Det1 information manager,Langle y AFB,Va.
2 Capt. Darrin Anderson,inte llige nc e officer,1 1 9 Fighter Wing,in Fargo,ND
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Hung up the phone with Darrin Anderson, looked overa t MarkKelly3out there
and said,'Did you hear about an airplane crash into the World TradeCenter?' He didn't. Nobody knewa t this point over here whatw a sgoingon, w edidn't have any TVs on, noC N N4 wasru n n in g ora n yth in g . Noc h a n n e ls fort h a t
matter.A n d witht h a t ,1 5 seconds laterth e scramble phone rang.A lot of our
folks were over here(a d m in , building)at that point, so, uh, Iyelled "Scramble"
and we all high tailed ito v e r to theh a n g a rs .
Q:Just out of curiosity,I knowit rings overthere.5
Doesitring over here
someplace?
A:Itr in g s on ate le p h o n e in the front office outth e r e , so we all know when this
special ring goes off, that chances are we are probablygoing to be scrambled.
It'sa hotlinef o r NEADS,t o approach here, command post and so on, tower.
So, Ia s s u m e d at that point it had to do with this deal, the trade center, again not
knowing to what extreme this whole incident wasg o in g to be. So, we ran to the
other sidea n d they (NEADS) gave us a Battle Stationsorder.6I went up and got
thew o r d s7from the (Langley) command post real quick and we sat onb a ttle
3Senior Master Sergeant Mark Kelley, chief enlisted manager,1 1 9 FW/Det1, Langley AFB,V a .
4Cable News Network, 24-hour news operation distributedb y satellitet o cabletelevision
systems.C N N began live T Vc o v e r a g ea f te r th e first aircraft struck th e World Trade Center tower
approx. 0846 Eastern Daylight Timeo n Tuesday, 11 Sep0 1 .
5Reference to the scramble telephone line from North EastA ir Defense Sector, Rome.N e w
York.
6Battle Stations is an orderfo r pilotstos u it u p with G-suit, harnessa n dflight gear,g e t strapped
into thefightera ir c r a f t and bep r e p a r e d forimmediatela u n c h .
7"Words" referring to the directions given from NEADS and the most current information abouta
particular battle station order,o r scramble order.A small enclosedc a b fromth e second flooro f
the overlookingth e LangleyA F B flight linei s equipped with secure radiosa n d computersallowing
classified information to be expeditiously passed to air sovereignty alert sites,sucha s1 1 9
FW/Det1.
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stations aco uple ofmin utes , so| walked down togive theguys8 aquickin tel
briefing.They were sittingin the jets alreadyand told them whatha d happened;
again notknowing it was ana irlin er (that collided into the World Trade Center).
Then, shortly after that,the phone rang in the hangar and Jay Jonson9 answered
it.He said, "It's NEADS and they need to talk with you." I got on thephone, I
don't know who it was, but hes a i d , " how many airplanes can you get airborne?"
Is a id,'w e got two on battle stations rightn o w ,' and he said, "No, that's notwha t I
asked.Howmany can you getinto theair?"'Well, with me, that makes three,
wehave three pilotsto ta l.'H e said, "OK,y o u betterg e trea dy." S o , they
(NEADS) apparently knew whatw a s going on righta w a y , if they were goingt o
scramble, launchthe fleet. Thatis something thatis unheardo f.
So, Iquick ran in, called Colonel Utecht10 just to let himknow oursituation out
here, thatw e were going to be without aSOF11 on theground so theyco uldS O F
from home and do what they needed to do to get more personnelo u t here,
althoughw ed id n 't knowa t that point that it was not going to be feasible, that
transportationat that pointwas going to be nil.
So Iwen t , got mygea r, sat up in the jet and by thetime I satdo wn we got a
greenli g h t12 to go.None of us at that point -Brad Derrig knew there was a
second airplane (to hit the World Trade Center)- he'sthe onlyo n e'ca us e he
5Alertp i lo t so nd u t yTues da y, 1 September 2001 a t1 1 9F W /D e t1 w e re Major Bradley Derrig a n d
Capt. Dean Eckmann, both from the 178 Fighter Squadron,1 1 9 Fighter Wing, North DakotaA ir
National Guarda t Fargo. Maj. Derrig is a full-time instructor pilot withth e178th a n d Capt.
Eckmann, is a pilotfo r Northwest Airlinesi n additiont o beinga 178th pilot.
9 Technical SergeantJ a y Jonson,o n duty flight chieffo r1 1 9 FW/Det1, Langley AFB,V a .
10Col.R ic h a r d Utecht, Commander,119Ih Fighter Wing, FargoN D
11Supervis o ro f Flyin g
9/11 Agency InternalM a t t e r s
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