Title: Exercise Or Wargame Related
Description: USS George Washington Battle Group
Description: USS George Washington Battle Group
Ferric Oxide - July 14, 2007 05:51 PM (GMT)
Article in Spring 2007: Notre Dame Magazine
The USS George Washington and her battle group were already at sea conducting exercises, so Natter sent them north. The USNS Comfort was being prepared; the USS Bataan and the USS Shreveport were available if needed. Air cover was already up with Navy jets out of Naval Air Station Oceana.
Above: Patrick Burns: "Director of fleet support for the Navy, a civilian position that works closely with the mayor's office, New York police and fire departments, the FBI, FEMA, the Customs Service and the Coast Guard, as well as more than 60 federal, state and local law enforcement, regulatory and nonprofit agencies and 120 vendors throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. My office coordinated the Navy's major public events."
Excerpted.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was in the Norfolk, Virginia, office of Commodore Scott Jones when someone came in and said, "Hey, you're from New York. A plane just hit the World Trade Center." We ran to the TV. The commodore and I had recently worked the joint forces fly-overs as part of the president's International Naval Review held on the Hudson River on July 4, 2000. We knew the traffic patterns to Newark, LaGuardia and JFK and how careful and strict the FAA is. This didn't seem right. The television images showed us just how terribly wrong things were.
A few days before the attacks I had been at my office in the Coast Guard building in Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan. You could see both towers of the World Trade Center a few hundred yards away from my third-floor windows. I had been working for six years in the city as the director of fleet support for the Navy, a civilian position that works closely with the mayor's office, New York police and fire departments, the FBI, FEMA, the Customs Service and the Coast Guard, as well as more than 60 federal, state and local law enforcement, regulatory and nonprofit agencies and 120 vendors throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. My office coordinated the Navy's major public events.
I had reported to the Norfolk naval base on September 10 to meet my two-week Naval Reserve obligation. Since Jones and I had worked together in New York City on the president's Naval Review, he wanted me to support his command in Norfolk during my annual active duty.
Now, a moment after getting to the TV, my cell phone rang. It was Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington of New York City. "Pat, where are you?" he asked. When I said Norfolk, he said, "I need you here. I need that hospital ship." He was referring to the USNS Comfort, which he had toured a few months earlier during its port visit to NYC. After I hung up, Jones told me that if the Comfort was going to New York, I needed to be there, too.
Then the second plane hit. My cell phone rang again. It was Lieutenant Commander Steve Estrada, yelling into the phone, "A f---ing plane just flew over me and hit the South Tower!" And I blurted, "Because we are being f---ing attacked!" It was the first time anyone in the room had verbalized what we all knew.
Master Chief Don Westlye and Master Chief Bill Murnane were with me in Norfolk. Murnane's wife worked in the U.S. Customs House, Six World Trade Center. I'll never forget the look on his face. Westlye told me to go; they would catch up later. Then I remembered -- my brother was to be in New York for a meeting with Cantor Fitzgerald at the top of the World Trade Center.
My phone rang again, and it was Lieutenant Keith Davids, the flag lieutenant to Admiral Robert J. Natter, the commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet. Davids told me that Washington, the deputy mayor, had called Natter and asked for help. The USS George Washington and her battle group were already at sea conducting exercises, so Natter sent them north. The USNS Comfort was being prepared; the USS Bataan and the USS Shreveport were available if needed. Air cover was already up with Navy jets out of Naval Air Station Oceana.
Entire article
The USS George Washington and her battle group were already at sea conducting exercises, so Natter sent them north. The USNS Comfort was being prepared; the USS Bataan and the USS Shreveport were available if needed. Air cover was already up with Navy jets out of Naval Air Station Oceana.
Above: Patrick Burns: "Director of fleet support for the Navy, a civilian position that works closely with the mayor's office, New York police and fire departments, the FBI, FEMA, the Customs Service and the Coast Guard, as well as more than 60 federal, state and local law enforcement, regulatory and nonprofit agencies and 120 vendors throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. My office coordinated the Navy's major public events."
Excerpted.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was in the Norfolk, Virginia, office of Commodore Scott Jones when someone came in and said, "Hey, you're from New York. A plane just hit the World Trade Center." We ran to the TV. The commodore and I had recently worked the joint forces fly-overs as part of the president's International Naval Review held on the Hudson River on July 4, 2000. We knew the traffic patterns to Newark, LaGuardia and JFK and how careful and strict the FAA is. This didn't seem right. The television images showed us just how terribly wrong things were.
A few days before the attacks I had been at my office in the Coast Guard building in Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan. You could see both towers of the World Trade Center a few hundred yards away from my third-floor windows. I had been working for six years in the city as the director of fleet support for the Navy, a civilian position that works closely with the mayor's office, New York police and fire departments, the FBI, FEMA, the Customs Service and the Coast Guard, as well as more than 60 federal, state and local law enforcement, regulatory and nonprofit agencies and 120 vendors throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. My office coordinated the Navy's major public events.
I had reported to the Norfolk naval base on September 10 to meet my two-week Naval Reserve obligation. Since Jones and I had worked together in New York City on the president's Naval Review, he wanted me to support his command in Norfolk during my annual active duty.
Now, a moment after getting to the TV, my cell phone rang. It was Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington of New York City. "Pat, where are you?" he asked. When I said Norfolk, he said, "I need you here. I need that hospital ship." He was referring to the USNS Comfort, which he had toured a few months earlier during its port visit to NYC. After I hung up, Jones told me that if the Comfort was going to New York, I needed to be there, too.
Then the second plane hit. My cell phone rang again. It was Lieutenant Commander Steve Estrada, yelling into the phone, "A f---ing plane just flew over me and hit the South Tower!" And I blurted, "Because we are being f---ing attacked!" It was the first time anyone in the room had verbalized what we all knew.
Master Chief Don Westlye and Master Chief Bill Murnane were with me in Norfolk. Murnane's wife worked in the U.S. Customs House, Six World Trade Center. I'll never forget the look on his face. Westlye told me to go; they would catch up later. Then I remembered -- my brother was to be in New York for a meeting with Cantor Fitzgerald at the top of the World Trade Center.
My phone rang again, and it was Lieutenant Keith Davids, the flag lieutenant to Admiral Robert J. Natter, the commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet. Davids told me that Washington, the deputy mayor, had called Natter and asked for help. The USS George Washington and her battle group were already at sea conducting exercises, so Natter sent them north. The USNS Comfort was being prepared; the USS Bataan and the USS Shreveport were available if needed. Air cover was already up with Navy jets out of Naval Air Station Oceana.
Entire article