The worst job

Imagine a scenario where by any measurable standard, you're considered a hero. Yet...

It didn't play out that way, but suppose you were the pilot that successfully shot down one of the passenger planes full of U.S. citizens in order to prevent it from hitting the twin tower, or another target.

The mindset prior to 911 probably wouldn't have prepared you as well for that idea - flying over NYC or Washington and being ordered to take down a US jet.

i know many would probably be saying a prayer for the people before firing, but I think I would be cursing the as yet unknown people flying the plane forcing me to take that action. And if it was the second plane, you might want to rationalize as long as you could that maybe it wasn't really going to do what the first one did.

That is all.

That's a fairly specific scenario you've come up with for a hypothetical.


It made me thing of something more realistic, although it comes from Hollywood: A scene from the movie An American President:

Quote: IMDB

President Andrew Shepherd: What I did tonight was not about political gain.
Leon Kodak: Yes sir. But it can be, sir. What you did tonight was very presidential.
President Andrew Shepherd: Leon, somewhere in Libya right now, a janitor's working the night shift at Libyan Intelligence headquarters. He's going about doing his job... because he has no idea, in about an hour he's going to die in a massive explosion. He's just going about his job, because he has no idea that about an hour ago I gave an order to have him killed. You've just seen me do the least presidential thing I do.

I think it was a very well-written scene.

To answer your question, in that scene, I'm not sure who would have had the worse job. The president, or the janitor.

Quote: rxwine

It didn't play out that way, but suppose you were the pilot that successfully shot down one of the passenger planes full of U.S. citizens in order to prevent it from hitting the twin tower, or another target.

The mindset prior to 911 probably wouldn't have prepared you as well for that idea - flying over NYC or Washington and being ordered to take down a US jet.

i know many would probably be saying a prayer for the people before firing, but I think I would be cursing the as yet unknown people flying the plane forcing me to take that action. And if it was the second plane, you might want to rationalize as long as you could that maybe it wasn't really going to do what the first one did.

I think that before 9-11, fighter pilots would have been screened and trained that they might need to do this. Even in "Executive Decision," a 1996 movie, it came into play. If you take the job of a fighter pilot you must accept that your job is to kill people. You must acccept that you will kill bystanders when you kill combatants. And if you are a USAF General, you have to want people in the cockpit that are willing to do this.

Before I get the reply, I will address that yes, Bush43 was a trained fighter pilot. And you can see the training in his leadership style. Take the facts, make a decision, and stick with it. Fly the airplane, complete the mission. Compare that to Obama who, when there was a huge oil spill, sent lawyers to "see who's ass to kick?" As a lawyer and politician all his life, Obama has been self-trained to look and talk about a problem, minimizing personal risk.

I think the pilots would have pulled the trigger.

So Obama should have sent fighter pilots to the oil spill? And, making a decision and sticking with is great, IF YOUR DECISION IS RIGHT!

Quote: FinsRule

So Obama should have sent fighter pilots to the oil spill?

No, but istead of lawyers and college professors he should have sent some roughnecks and others with, you know, actual drilling experience. Worry about stopping then cleaning it up first, not worry "who's ass to kick" when oil is still spilling.

I came across an interview of one of the two F-16 pilots scrambled on 9/11 to protect Washington D.C., after the order for all other planes to land. They had orders to take down United 93 if it didn't land, and were prepared to ram it kamikaze style since they didn't have time to load missiles or live ammunition before taking off.

Even more chilling is that the fighter pilot's father was a commercial pilot for United at the time, and there was the real possibility that the jet she would need to take down would have been his. As it turns out, the passengers on United 93 had already taken care of the situation, crashing the jet and hijackers into a field in Pennsylvania before they could reach Washington DC.

My sense from these interviews is that the pilots would have done their duty, and carried out their mission, not really thinking about the innocent lives onboard (since, in their minds, they were already dead, whether by getting rammed by them, or getting crashed by the hijackers into D.C.).

I didn't think they wouldn't do the job, it's just a lot more surreal flying into Washington, perhaps within sight of the capitol and shooting down* a U.S. jetliner, than a typical pilot assignment which is (Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.,)

Or in this case, flying into it.