It was the day the screens went black.
Sept. 11, 2001, was the day that breathed life into what some considered a “sunset mission.” It was the day when everything changed. In the hours before the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., 1st Air Force and the Continental United States North American Aerospace Defense Command Region were in an exercise. The combined air operations center at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., and its three air defense sector headquarters around the country were on a simulated full-scale alert. At Tyndall, the small room housing rows of radar screens beeped to life as people filed in for what was shaping up to be a typical exercise with a handful of long days and longer nights.
Within three hours, the busy air defense control centers in Florida, New York and Washington state went strangely silent as people listened to reports about what was happening in New York and Washington, D.C. The radar screens showing aircraft transiting U.S. airspace slowly went black as 1st Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all aircraft and put up a virtual brick wall around the nation.
“It was eerie,” said Tech. Sgt. Christie Watson, an air surveillance technician on duty at Tyndall’s Southeast Air Defense Sector that day. “The screen was black, like it was broken. Until then, life here was pretty routine.”
Before 2001, 1st Air Force was charged with keeping an eye on the nation’s borders, usually looking for threats in the form of Russian aircraft skirting too close for comfort to the mainland. In those few hours, the command’s mission went from looking outward to looking inward. Now 1st Air Force — with the assistance of Canadian partners, other services, multiple federal agencies and an intricate web of control centers and defense sectors throughout the United States — watches the nation’s skies for the threat from within. Operation Noble Eagle was born.
A new charter
In the weeks before the attacks, the future of 1st Air Force was grim. Some Pentagon officials believed the command had outlived its usefulness, that the Cold War mission of defending the nation’s borders from air attack could be handed to other Air Force units. The days of watching America’s skies may have been numbered, said Maj. Gen. Craig McKinley, 1st Air Force commander and commander of the Continental U.S. NORAD Region, all headquartered at Tyndall.
“(During the Cold War, the United States) was balancing against the threat,” he said. “(Without) a strategic outside threat, we had ‘built down’ as the Air Force reorganized to an active duty posture capable of dealing with any traditional threats. But terrorism doesn’t follow the rules of conventional warfare. The opening salvo of the war wasn’t traditional, and there’s not going to be an armistice. We had to change our way of thinking to deal with the threat.”
Changing the way of thinking started almost immediately. Within minutes of the attacks, fighter aircraft under NORAD control were airborne over key cities, and kept a near-constant sortie pace for almost six months. They flew more than 19,000 sorties, and since the attacks have racked up more than 34,000 sorties supporting Noble Eagle. In 2000, by contrast, the NORAD air defense mission logged only 147 sorties. National Guard fighter units made up the backbone of what would eventually become a large network of surveillance, support and war fighting aircraft flying Noble Eagle missions.
Operation Noble Eagle is part of the overall plan to protect North America from airborne attack. Under the auspices of NORAD, 1st Air Force supports the defense plan by organizing, equipping and operating the air defense forces. NORAD, a bi-national command of U.S. and Canadian forces headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., keeps an eye out for missiles and other non-aircraft related issues. The combined air operations center at Tyndall acts as a “battlefield” headquarters for the entire continental United States airspace. Three subordinate air sectors handle various regions of the country — Tyndall’s Southeast Air Defense Sector, the Northeast Air Defense Sector at Rome, N.Y., and the Western Air Defense Sector at McChord Air Force Base, Wash.
At any given time, Noble Eagle aircraft may be flying air patrol missions over more than 15 U.S. cities, the general said. Also, special security events like the Super Bowl usually warrant air protection. But the fighters aren’t the first line of defense. The defense of the nation’s skies begins in a dark room in Florida.
