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Voices of 9/11 : Col Deane Konowicz

  • Published
  • By Col. Deane Konowicz, 90th Missile Wing Vice Commander
  • 90th Missile Wing

On Sept. 11, 2001, I was in building 1294 (Missile Procedure Trainers) in the OG here on FEW. I had come in early at 5:30 a.m. to open up the facility and we had the morning news on in the lobby waiting area. The news coverage quickly went to the first tower reporting that a plane had crashed. While we were watching the news cover the first tower, we watched live as the second plane hit the second tower. I had just been to the top of the World Trade Center in July of 2001 while on leave because you could get a free elevator ride to the top with a military ID.

The base went into FPCON D pretty quickly and traffic began to stack up down to the capitol as each car was searched coming in gate #1. Missile Crews went to A1/A2 on four day alerts.

I left for Salzburg, Austria a few weeks later on a multi-month TDY for German Language immersion at the University of Salzburg as the military quickly wanted to energize its Foreign Area Officer corps as we engaged in counter-terrorism efforts around the globe.