On September 11th 2001, I was driving towards downtown Los Angeles very early in the morning when the local radio station reports began to trickle in. After the second plane hit, it was clear to me that the USA was under attack. At that time, I called my wife and woke her up to let her know what was happening.

When I arrived in downtown Los Angeles, all of my coworkers were watching live CNN video feeds as both WTC towers were ablaze. At that time, I thought, this is like something out of the Tom Clancy novel, “Debt of Honor”. For anyone who has not read it, I would highly recommend it. The story has an airliner crashing into Washington D.C. The book was written in 1994 and describes how such an attack would be almost unpreventable if properly planned.

Today, the thought of someone hijacking an airliner and taking over the crew is not very likely because the crew and passengers will fight back. The passenger and crew now have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain if they resist. A recent example of this occurred when a terrorist was attempting to set off a shoe bomb onboard an American Airlines flight in December 2001. The terrorist was confronted by a female flight attendant who fought him as hard as she could before being assisted by another female flight attendant and fellow passengers.

The United States Navy has a history of trying to protect their ships from Kamikaze attacks. When the attacks became common place in late 1944, they put a high priority of destroying Japanese land based aircraft that could stage attacks on their fleet. They also beefed up their air defenses on all of their combat vessels. This action reduced the devastating effect of future attacks.

In 1981 the Navy installed a CIWS (Close In Weapon System) on the ship I was assigned to, the USS Enterprise. The CIWS was sometimes referred to as “Sea Whiz” and it was designed as a last ditch, close in weapon to fend off low flying cruise missiles / aircraft aimed at attacking the ship. It deploys radar controlled 20mm Gatling guns that fire at a high rate of fire. In fleet tests it was very effective at downing any known airborne threat. I witnessed a Navy live fire test once and it is an incredible sight to see, hear, and you can feel it even from a good distance away when the weapon is firing.

The CIWS and other systems were deployed to counter missile attacks similar to the 1987 Iraqi missile attack. The USS Stark had the CIWS, but it was not operational when they were attacked. The attack occurred during the Iran / Iraq war and it was another wake up call to the Navy, they put forth plans to prevent it from happening again. I know this technology and others can be very effective protecting the fleet at sea.

So, as you can see, the military has learned some important lessons from history. They have taken these lessons and deployed weapons that are designed to destroy or limit the effectiveness of an actual attack. The Navy has learned from their mistakes.

In the fall of 2000, over Afghanistan, an interesting event occurred. An unmanned Predator spy plane detected its target.

Today, the thought of someone hijacking an airliner and taking over the crew is not very likely because the crew and passengers will fight back. The passenger and crew now have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain if they resist. A recent example of this occurred when a terrorist was attempting to set off a shoe bomb onboard an American Airlines flight in December 2001. The terrorist was confronted by a female flight attendant who fought him as hard as she could before being assisted by another female flight attendant and fellow passengers.

The United States Navy has a history of trying to protect their ships from Kamikaze attacks. When the attacks became common place in late 1944, they put a high priority of destroying Japanese land based aircraft that could stage attacks on their fleet. They also beefed up their air defenses on all of their combat vessels. This action reduced the devastating effect of future attacks.

In 1981 the Navy installed a CIWS (Close In Weapon System) on the ship I was assigned to, the USS Enterprise. The CIWS was sometimes referred to as “Sea Whiz” and it was designed as a last ditch, close in weapon to fend off low flying cruise missiles / aircraft aimed at attacking the ship. It deploys radar controlled 20mm Gatling guns that fire at a high rate of fire. In fleet tests it was very effective at downing any known airborne threat. I witnessed a Navy live fire test once and it is an incredible sight to see, hear, and you can feel it even from a good distance away when the weapon is firing.

The CIWS and other systems were deployed to counter missile attacks similar to the 1987 Iraqi missile attack. The USS Stark had the CIWS, but it was not operational when they were attacked. The attack occurred during the Iran / Iraq war and it was another wake up call to the Navy, they put forth plans to prevent it from happening again. I know this technology and others can be very effective protecting the fleet at sea.

So, as you can see, the military has learned some important lessons from history. They have taken these lessons and deployed weapons that are designed to destroy or limit the effectiveness of an actual attack. The Navy has learned from their mistakes.

In the fall of 2000, over Afghanistan, an interesting event occurred. An unmanned Predator spy plane detected its target.

In 1981 the Navy installed a CIWS (Close In Weapon System) on the ship I was assigned to, the USS Enterprise. The CIWS was sometimes referred to as “Sea Whiz” and it was designed as a last ditch, close in weapon to fend off low flying cruise missiles / aircraft aimed at attacking the ship. It deploys radar controlled 20mm Gatling guns that fire at a high rate of fire. In fleet tests it was very effective at downing any known airborne threat. I witnessed a Navy live fire test once and it is an incredible sight to see, hear, and you can feel it even from a good distance away when the weapon is firing.

The CIWS and other systems were deployed to counter missile attacks similar to the 1987 Iraqi missile attack. The USS Stark had the CIWS, but it was not operational when they were attacked. The attack occurred during the Iran / Iraq war and it was another wake up call to the Navy, they put forth plans to prevent it from happening again. I know this technology and others can be very effective protecting the fleet at sea.

So, as you can see, the military has learned some important lessons from history. They have taken these lessons and deployed weapons that are designed to destroy or limit the effectiveness of an actual attack. The Navy has learned from their mistakes.

In the fall of 2000, over Afghanistan, an interesting event occurred. An unmanned Predator spy plane detected its target.

So, as you can see, the military has learned some important lessons from history. They have taken these lessons and deployed weapons that are designed to destroy or limit the effectiveness of an actual attack. The Navy has learned from their mistakes.

In the fall of 2000, over Afghanistan, an interesting event occurred. An unmanned Predator spy plane detected its target. The aircraft was tasked to fly recon flights to locate Osama Bin Laden who was based in Afghanistan. Specifically, over a placed called Tarnak Farm which was a walled Al Qaeda compound being used by Osama Bin Laden. The video recorded terrorists firing at targets and conducting military drills. The live video feed showed a tall man who was surrounded by armed guards. The intelligence officers had enemy number one in their sights and it was in “Real Time”. They knew at the time they hit the jackpot, but nothing was done other than reporting the incident.

You can’t rewrite history books on something that happened in the year 2000. But I wonder what could have happened if the person who was in command of that unmanned Predator would have had the authority and or ingenuity to actually act. The cost of a Predator at the time was less than 5 million. I wonder what would of happened if? Hmmmm…

When I read the “911 Commission Report”, some of the people interviewed made statements on moving up the upgrade date for the Predator to carry air to ground missiles. In the year 2000, it was still unarmed. But not once did anyone suggest using the machine itself as a weapon. It’s really true, “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.”