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In commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, KUNC presents a day of special programming from NPR News, StoryCorps, The Sonic Memorial Project, and independent radio producers and reporters nationwide. All coverage will be collected in this archive.6:00 AM – 12:00 PM: NPR Special Coverage“To mark 10 years since the attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon on September 11, NPR will air coverage leading up to September 11 and on the day itself. The overarching theme of coverage is: How has America changed? NPR will air rigorous reporting on everything from national security to politics to our culture, and also reflecting on the human toll -- the impact of September 11th on people's lives and our country. Hosted by Audie Cornish”12:00 PM – 1:00 PM: StoryCorps: We Remember“An intimate look at lives forever changed by the attacks on 9/11. These are stories from families and friends who tell us about their loved ones and their loss: the father who recalls the last words he shared with his son, the recovery worker who discovers a new meaning for normal, the fireman's daughter who knew that her dad who perished in the line of duty wouldn't have wanted it any other way. On the 10th anniversary of the attacks, host Audie Cornish checks in with StoryCorps families to find out how they make their way today.”1:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Our 9/11: Growing Up in The Aftermath“WNYC's Radio Rookies and PRX, in partnership with the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, looks at the 9/11 attacks through the eyes of young people who were just kids when the towers fell: a girl whose dad never returned from police duty, two families ripped apart by trauma, a Muslim girl who coped with the angry reaction to her faith, and a young man who has helped one community remember. Hosted by On the Media's Brooke Gladstone.”2:00 PM – 3:00: The Sonic Memorial Project“On the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, we re-visit The Sonic Memorial Project, which commemorates the life and history of the World Trade Center and the people who passed through its doors. A collaboration between The Kitchen Sisters Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, PRX, NPR, independent producers, and stations and listeners nationwide, the project was created with audio artifacts, rare recordings, and the input of thousands of people who called in with their personal stories.”3:00 PM: Bob Edwards Weekend Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times joins Bob to talk about 9/11, then and now. Shortly after the terror attacks of September 11th, 2001 writer Joan Murray read her poem, “Survivors Found,” on NPR’s Morning Edition, the program Bob hosted at the time. Ten years later, she’s back to reflect on that poem, and how it helped people heal from the tragedy.4:00 PM: This American LifeTEN YEARS IN: In this show, we return to people who've been on This American Life in the last ten years, whose lives were drastically altered by 9/11, including Hyder Akbar, an Afghan-American teen who moved to Afghanistan after his father was tapped to become governor of Kunar province there; Marian Fontana, whose husband Dave was a fireman who died in the Twin Towers; and Lynn Simpson, who escaped from the 89th floor and made it out of the World Trade Center with about a minute to spare.6:00 PM: NPR Special CoverageNPR will offer live, anchored coverage of A Concert for Hope, which will be held at The Kennedy Center at 8pm ET. President Obama will speak during the concert, which will also feature performances by Patti Labelle, Alan Jackson and Denyce Graves.

Fighter Pilots Were Prepared To Die On Sept. 11

An F-16 fighter jet.
Michael Williams
/
Getty Images
An F-16 fighter jet.

As the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks draws closer, we're pointing to some of the stories being told about that day and the days since.

"We wouldn't be shooting it down. We'd be ramming the aircraft. ... I would essentially be a kamikaze pilot."

That's what Maj. Heather "Lucky" Penney tells The Washington Post in a remarkable story today.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Penney, then a lieutenant, "had her hand on the throttle of an F-16 and she had her orders: Bring down United Airlines Flight 93," the Post writes. But neither she nor her commander, who was ready to go in another fighter, had any weapons to fire at the hijacked jet — which was headed toward Washington, D.C. The jets only had dummy bullets, still loaded after a training mission.

So the plan was, if necessary, to fly straight into the passenger jet.

Penney and Col. Marc Sasseville did scramble their jets and were on their way to intercept Flight 93 when passengers on board took action and fought back against the hijackers. The jet crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pa.

"The real heroes are the passengers on Flight 93 who were willing to sacrifice themselves," Penney tells the Post. "I was just an accidental witness to history."

Update at 11:45 a.m. ET. Other Pilots' Stories:

Earlier this week, our colleagues at WBUR in Boston aired an interview with National Guard pilots Lt. Col. Dan Nash and Col. Tim Duffy. They also scrambled that day and were headed toward New York when the second of the World Trade Center towers was hit. Their jets were armed that day and the pilots were prepared to fire if other hijacked passenger jets were in the air.

"The hardest part of the day," Duffy says, came when they were flying over the Trade Center just as the second tower collapsed.

"As I'm looking at the square, the roof, it starts getting smaller," he says. "All of a sudden I saw the plume coming out of the bottom, it was falling away from me when we're looking at it."

"You give yourself a little bit of time — 10, 15 seconds, whatever it is — to kind of be horrified, and then you have to just kind of push it out of your mind," Duffy adds. "Not that you won't deal with it at some point, but just not now."

WBUR's Sept. 11-related stories are collected here.

Other Sept. 11-related stories of note today include:

-- " 'The Banality Of Evil': Following The Steps To Sept. 11." ( Morning Edition)

-- "Mission Unfinished: In the twilight of America's decade-long, multibillion-dollar intervention, Afghanistan remains highly unstable, the Pakistanis trust us less than ever, and it is not at all clear how 'the big things are going to turn out.' " ( The New York Times)

And for much more, see NPR.org's "Reflecting on Sept. 11, 2001" page.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.