| Maj. Dean Eckmann is a soft-spoken North Dakota | | | | evil."Eckmann says he was originally ordered to |
| native whose lifelong love for military aviation | | | | "heading 010," and immediately recognized it as New |
| transformed him, in one profound moment on | | | | York. In retrospect, although he was unaware of it at |
| September 11, 2001, into what he acknowledges to be | | | | the time, he says at the moment he took off from |
| "an eyewitness to history, to the day that changed all | | | | Langley, a second airliner was plowing into the second |
| of America, forever."On the morning of 9/11, Eckmann, | | | | tower at the WTC.En route to Manhattan, Eckmann |
| 36, was with his Fargo-based 119th Fighter Pilot Wing | | | | received a revised order and a new heading, which he |
| at Virginia's Langley Air Force Base for a routine | | | | recognized as Washington D. C. Still, he was relatively |
| week-long 'alert dispatch' to protect seven American | | | | unworried, he says, still being 75 miles away and with |
| sites tagged, in "post-Cold War and pre-9/11 naivete," | | | | no smoke yet visible on the horizon. He associated |
| he says, as potential targets.At the unmistakable blare | | | | only the apparent trouble in New York with his new |
| of a Klaxon horn, he abandoned his scheduled training | | | | heading and assumed he'd be "flying CAP" -- Combat |
| mission and was ordered to his fully armed fighter jet, | | | | Air Patrol -- over Washington as a preventive |
| and became the first pilot scrambled to fly over -- just | | | | measure.At 50 to 60 miles out of Washington, |
| 700 feet over -- the flame-engulfed Pentagon just | | | | Eckmann got his first sight of smoke -- thick black |
| about four minutes after terrorists attacked.He and | | | | smoke -- pouring across the Potomac."The black |
| two wingmen spent more than five hours that day, | | | | smoke worried me. Usually, you'll see grey smoke or |
| securing and protecting miles of Washington D. C. | | | | white smoke in a typical accident or industrial fire. Black |
| airspace, the White House, Washington Memorial, | | | | smoke means very bad things."The Smoke's Source: |
| Jefferson Memorial, Capitol Building and other | | | | The PentagonFlying high, still miles out and unable to |
| American landmarks, from the ground up to 30,000 | | | | make out buildings or structures, he searched his |
| feet in the air.His perspective of the horrors of that | | | | memory, he says, to identify the smoke's source. At |
| tragic day, viewed from the cockpit of his F-16 fighter, | | | | 35 miles out, as oceans of smoke continued to pour |
| has been captured for future generations and history | | | | from the site, he realized the unknown horror was |
| books in the Air Force-commissioned painting, "First | | | | taking place somewhere near the Pentagon: "an |
| Pass: Defenders Over Washington" by artist Rick | | | | accident at Reagan National Airport, perhaps," he |
| Herter.Herter, 44, has also completed for the Air Force | | | | says."At 20 miles out, I knew it was the Pentagon, and |
| a painting entitled, "Ground Zero, Eagles on Station," a | | | | I'm thinking: truck bomb," he said. "That's what we |
| re-creation of the scene of the terrorist attacks on | | | | thought most of the day, in the air. I thought, 'we're at |
| New York's World Trade Center Twin Towers.The | | | | war.' But even flying at just 700 feet, I couldn't -- no |
| pilot, the artist and prints of the paintings have toured | | | | one could -- see that an airliner was burning inside the |
| the country to rave reviews, giving Americans a | | | | Pentagon. The smoke was too thick and, no one could |
| bird's-eye view of the magnitude of the tragedy of | | | | conceive of that."That initial perspective, and his |
| that brilliant September morning.The original oil | | | | bird's-eye view of the flaming Pentagon, with so many |
| renderings of both scenes hang in the halls of the | | | | historic American sites in the background, is the focus |
| refurbished Pentagon in Washington D.C., alongside | | | | of Herter's painting.Two subsequent orders confirmed |
| many other original art treasures depicting famous | | | | Eckmann's fears of an attack. The first was to |
| battles and events in American military history.The Art | | | | confirm the Pentagon was burning. The second was |
| of CombatHerter's mother, Diana, is president of the | | | | to identify two unknown aircraft in flight toward the |
| Dowagiac (Michigan) Art Guild who describes her son | | | | Pentagon. Those two aircraft turned out to be "good |
| as "an artist with the soul of a pilot." As a member of | | | | guys," Eckmann says, one a Medi-Vac helicopter and |
| the elite Air Force Art Corps, he spent two weeks | | | | one a chopper from the local police, heading in to try to |
| flying with combat missions in Iraq as research for | | | | assist Pentagon victims.Eckmann immediately set off |
| paintings of current military actions.The fighter pilot and | | | | to "buzz the Mall," he says, or overfly the Washington |
| the artist are now good friends, but they didn't know | | | | government complex. His eyes scanned the ground, |
| each other until the Air Force called Herter in | | | | searching for a yellow truck or anything that might be |
| November 2001 and inquired about his interest in | | | | another truck bomb heading for another landmark.He |
| painting the official 9/11 scenes.Although he gives all of | | | | and his wingmen maintained skywatch over |
| his Air Force-commissioned paintings to the | | | | Washington for nearly six hours, refueling twice in-flight, |
| government free of charge, Herter said he never | | | | until being returned to Langley for just an hour before |
| hesitated when asked if he would speak with the | | | | heading out again.A Final ShockAt Langley, he heard |
| pilots, research the events and commit the September | | | | the mechanics expressing shock and horror at "what |
| 11 attacks to canvas."I jumped at the opportunity. I | | | | happened to the World Trade Center towers."I still |
| knew this was history," he said, pointing to the | | | | didn't know at that point," he said. "I said, 'What towers? |
| "Defenders Over Washington" painting, with its | | | | What happened?' And they told me the towers had |
| mountainous clouds of black smoke billowing upwards | | | | collapsed, that someone had flown commercial airliners |
| from the Pentagon to nearly touch the underbelly of | | | | into them. I couldn't believe it."At home, his wife had |
| Eckmann's F-16.September 11: A Normal MorningThe | | | | spent the frantic day fielding more than 50 phone calls |
| morning of 9/11 began "so normally," Eckmann says. "I | | | | from friends and relatives wondering whether |
| was getting ready for a training mission when the | | | | Eckmann was flying that day, and if so, in what aircraft |
| Klaxon alarm went off and we scrambled to our 'hot' | | | | and for which employer, the U. S. Air National Guard, or |
| (armed) planes. When you're scrambled, you get to | | | | the commercial airline industry.Both Herter and |
| your jet and do what you're told."He'd heard that a | | | | Eckmann say they're awed by the notion that what |
| plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, but | | | | they've seen and done will inevitably become as much |
| assumed it was "a puddle jumper, a tourist plane, that | | | | a part of the American historical fabric as the scene |
| lost its way and had an accident." As a former | | | | of George Washington crossing the Delaware River, |
| commercial pilot for Northwestern Airlines, Eckmann | | | | or the first film footage of the attacks on Pearl |
| said the idea that a fully loaded commercial jet could | | | | Harbor."This is what no one else saw and could not |
| be plunged into an occupied building was | | | | see," Herter says. "Only a handful of people ever saw |
| "inconceivable."We all had a false sense of security," | | | | the immediate aftermath of the Pentagon attack and |
| he says. "Even on alert, before 9/11, we were focused | | | | this is the first sight of it. There are no aerial |
| on a danger coming in to us from outside, not coming | | | | photographs of the Pentagon burning, because Dean |
| the inside as it happened that day. To take a | | | | (Eckmann) and his fighters did their jobs -- protected |
| commercial airliner full of people and force it into a | | | | the nation's capital, secured the airspace. No one else |
| building? No one in America could imagine anything so | | | | got in, thanks to them. |