Community Corner
Veteran Shares Story of Diversion for the President on 9/11
An Air Force veteran recalls his story of landing Air Force One, flying figure eights above Washington D.C. and the healing process on the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
On Sept. 11, 2001, the Rev. Sgt. Robert Phillips directed Air Force One to land at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.
Phillips then spent 16 hours in a Boeing E-4, known as the “doomsday” plane, flying above Washington D.C. as a diversion in case of a possible attack on the president.
“We were flying around, doing figure eights around Washington D.C. all that time,” he said when he spoke to a small congregation at PMI Glory Institute in St. Charles on Sunday. “We were the only plane in the sky.”
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Now a retired veteran after 30 years of service, Phillips knew what his duty was as part of the Air Force that day.
“One of our jobs on that airplane was to be willing to take a missile if shot at the president,” he said. “It just kind of blows me away how much I actually did that day, but I don’t even remember all that I did.”
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But the impact of the day hit him, and has affected him, throughout the last 10 years.
“It didn’t really sink in until a few days after it happened,” Phillips said. “I still hardly slept, because I just couldn’t. I could hardly eat.”
Since then, he started Be a Hero to Heroes, an organization dedicated to honoring veterans. But healing has still been a process for him.
“I used to have nightmares,” he said, "usually over 9/11 and about the planes hitting the towers. I didn’t realize what was going on. I just knew that I would wake up and I would scream or shout. This is the first time I’ve put it down on paper.”
The Rev. Theresa Phillips, who is married to Robert, had led prayer services on Sept. 11, 2001, before finally sitting down to watch the news at 11 p.m. Sunday was the first time Robert had spoken about his experience in public and the first time Theresa had fully heard her husband's story.
“I’m very proud of him, and I’m proud that he’s my husband,” Theresa said. “I’m really shocked because there are a lot of things that I didn’t know, because it’s been hard to ask him. It’s been interesting to hear what he had to say.”
While speaking about his experience is important to his healing, Robert said it’s more about remembering the .
“We have to keep remembering,” he said. “If we don’t, we will forget.”
