25 Years Later: Texas Air Guard Pilot Recalls Protecting Air Force One on 9/11

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Colonel Rolando Aguilar, an F-16 pilot with the Texas Air National Guard, recalls the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, a day off that turned into a scramble to intercept an inbound aircraft he didn't yet know was Air Force One.

Woken by his unit's crew chiefs with news that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, Harris ran for his jet and was strapped in when his wing commander gave the order: intercept an aircraft belonging to "one of our former members." Harris didn't understand what that meant until he was airborne and caught his first look at the unmistakable blue-and-white livery of Air Force One.

With the FAA having grounded every other aircraft in the country, Aguilar and his fellow Houston-based Guardsmen, flying for the same squadron a young George W. Bush once flew fighters with, escorted the president's plane toward Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, carrying authorization to fire on any aircraft that failed to respond. The mission, Aguilar said, was executed "flawlessly."

Twenty-five years later, he calls it a legacy his unit can be proud of. "The National Guard stepped up," Aguilar said. "We had a role in a real important day in history."

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