Warbird Information Exchange

I don't know how aggressive to get with this but....

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/savef-15a-770102

from the Petition:

On September 11th 2001, two F-15 Eagles from the 101st Fighter Squadron, 102nd Fighter Wing, Otis Air National Guard Base (ANGB) Massachusetts were scrambled by NORAD in response to commercial airliners being hijacked and used as weapons to attack the World Trade Center in New York City. This armed patrol was this nation's first airborne response to the terrorist attacks of that day arriving over Manhattan only moments after the World Trade Center was struck. The sight of these F-15s over New York City was the show of strength New Yorkers on the ground needed to see in their darkest hour.

Owing its heritage to the Massachusetts Minutemen, the 102nd Fighter Wing has been in continuous service since 1921, and the tail flash for this wing includes the Minuteman, the very symbol of the citizen soldier. On May 22, 2002 a Joint Resolution was passed by the Congress of the United States recognizing the members of the 102nd FW for their actions on September 11th, 2001.

One of those historic “First Responder” F-15 Eagles was retired to the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC) at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson Arizona on July 31st after nearly thirty years of service. This is the 102nd Fighter Wing Commander’s aircraft, serial number 77-0102 and was the lead aircraft that responded from the alert shelters at Otis ANGB on that fateful day. This aircraft bears the same historical significance as any American P-40 that flew over Pearl Harbor Hawaii on December 7th 1941, yet sadly, none of the P-40s that flew that day exist. Will it be the same sixty-years on for the aircraft that flew top cover in defense of our nation on September 11th, 2001?

This very important aircraft needs to find a safe place where it can be proudly displayed for the role it played on September 11th, 2001. Recommended museums include the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, on the Hudson River in New York City; The National Museum of the USAF, Dayton Ohio; or the National Air and Space Museum – Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Washington D.C.

In closing I am requesting your help to preserve this historically significant aircraft for future generations to see and to remember America’s immediate military response to the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration


I'm sure MAPS would love this aircraft and treat it right

I think one should be used as a memorial or something, but on the other hand, thats money that the government wants to spend the money.

No disrespect intended, but...
Let me play "Devil's Advocate" for a bit here.
Just how many "Memorials" to 9/11 do we need?
You'd like to see this airplane used as a memorial.
Suppose someone wants to have the first fire engine to respond as a memorial?
Or the first police car...
Or the first ambulance
Or the first phone that called 911

See what I mean. We're all "warbird" oriented here so it may seem that the first airplane would be appropriate. Other interests see it quite differently.
I, for one, would have to vote "no"

Mudge the devil

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Land of the free because of the brave

Mudge
If someone wants to have those fire trucks (we have one in Albany at the state Museum, which someday I will go down to see), cars and other things I say let them have them. But I see your point

I wonder how many museums would take a F-15? How about an F-15 with some ties to a event that changed our lives? I for one will sign it if the a/c has a party ready to mke the tip and give it a proper home.

Tim

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www.tailhookstudio.com

to be even more of a devils advocate:

This F15 did nothing except patrol the skys when it was all over. No shots were fired. No hijacked aircraft were intercepted. May as well have had a microlight up there.

seems pointless to me at least - just looking at facts here pain and simple - tihis would be more a memorial on how the govnmt didn't respond.

[start the flaming]

now a fire engine or something like that would be far more sensible - something that actually made a difference.

anyway - back to real aircraft!

Just how many "Memorials" to 9/11 do we need?


More as many have forgotten......

Forgotten? I don't think so. I think most people have just gotten on with their lives as we should do.
I've certainly not forgotten.
I, (and I'm sure most people) don't need a "reminder" in my face every time I turn around.
It's not the human condition to dwell on something like death. We move on.

Mudge the thinker

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Land of the free because of the brave

Forgotten we were attacked, and are at war with an enemy very similar to the Japanese during WWII. They will not stop until we are defeated. Will we stop before they are defeated?

Going on with your life is one thing. Removing those who would kill us from the human genome is another.

MUDGE, You dont have to sign it. Leave it at that.

Its what he does. Leave him alone.

And like what skippyscage said. The -15 did nothing. At least the P-40's did something, like shoot back?
And anyway we are going a little overbord with the memorials, Ive seen some down here in Florida which dosnt make much sense. When Pearl Harbour was attacked when didnt cry for a year, then construct memorials and the fight. No we morned for a few days the went to kick their as$.

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The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. - Gus Grissom

a worthy & responsible cause with foresight for the future of this country.

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Equating the IJN & A with a minority group of extremist fundmentalists... I guess you can find connections but they're tenuous at best.

The only difference is the numbers and that the Japanese were a nation. Everything else is quite similar.

Chamberlain tried to appease Hitler and we all know where that went. We got the job done after Pearl Harbor, but apparently today are unwilling to do that again.

Anyone here watch the Nick Berg beheading video? That is what we are up against. We'd better not loose. The only "cease fire" is when one side runs out of men machines and ammo. We won the battles in Viet Nam, but people like Kerry, Fonda etc lost the political conflict.

An important distinction - the Japanese knew when it was over and collectively submitted to occupation. These extremists... they will NEVER give up despite what some may think. The War on Terrorism will never end so long as there are angry and impressionable youth in the Middle East.

I support the preservation of the aircraft, but as a New Yorker who watched the towers burn and fall through an office window, I cannot support a petition containing this ludicrous rhetoric.



For the record, there was no "sight" of F-15s over NYC that day. They were too high to see. We could hear them, but they were not doing airshow-type flypasts over the East River, though they may as well have been. More importantly, it was no great source of comfort that the USAF stood ready -- for what? Perhaps to shoot down a jetliner, killing hundreds of Americans, if it looked like it was headed for a building containing more Americans. Surely the ultimate sign of desperation and failure.

It happens that I spent part of this past week with some of the business associates from around the country who were with me in NYC that beautiful, terrible morning. We all found many and unique sources of strength and solace that day. However, I have never met anyone who numbered the impotent display of military might by the United States Air Force among them.

By all means preserve the aircraft. I will be happy to visit and reflect on it as a symbol of America's simplistic, futile pre-2001 belief in security through superweapons.

I do not hope to persuade oscardeuce, any more than I can shift his understanding of Pearl Harbor or the Vietnam War beyond the rhetoric of 1941 and 1971, respectively, but for the rest of you, please do not assume that it has the warm associations for New Yorkers that the petition pretends.

August