November 2003 Colonel Tillman prepared
to fly the president into the heart of
the Iraq war to share Thanksgiving with
American troops to prevent an insurgent
attack on the president
no one except those on board could know
his destination in advance this mission
the president wanted to be completely
secret I think probably in the end there
was probably maybe five of us that had a
really good idea of what was going to
happen
even air traffic control had to be kept
in the dark if any hint of the mission
slipped out the operation would be
scrubbed how do I ask you to non-stop
covert mission without alerting anybody
of what we were doing how do you make
the president disappear for a few days
the president the most closely watched
man on earth needed to vanish for 48
hours to establish a cover story the
trip started at his ranch in Texas the
first family had gathered for
Thanksgiving but the president would not
be there for dinner
very few people in Crawford at the ranch
knew that I’d be leaving this is very
much a cloak-and-dagger operation
passenger one boarded secretly in Waco
Texas but the jet couldn’t fly nonstop
to Iraq without refueling
to keep the trip is Swift and secret as
possible the president’s plane touched
down outside Washington at Andrews and
pulled into the hangar inside the second
presidential plane was standing by
fueled up for immediate departure we did
everything inside the hangar because we
had to worry about the tower watching us
or anybody outside you know everyone’s
blood pressure was up it was very
interesting the you know the kind of the
choreography inside the hangar when we
left the president gets off he’s got his
polo shirt on he’s got a baseball cap on
he walks off one airplane walks on
another airplane everyone all the
maintenance guys recognized it was the
president as well as our cops inside
they all knew oh my god it’s the
president they knew at that point some
was going on minutes after arrival the
president was headed back into the air
but as far as the rest of the world know
the presidential plane never took off
when we left here we used a different
call sign so we weren’t Air Force one we
filed a flight plan
for a Gulfstream type of aircraft okay
so I changed the identity of our
airplane we changed the modes to codes
and everything associated with the
movement of an airplane so once it got
airborne all the center would see is
that there’s an airplane they didn’t
know it was a 747 six hours out all
systems go a bogus Gulfstream jet heads
east but in the skies over England a
chance encounter almost blows the planes
cover we’re going over London England
another pilot had gone by and seen the
airplane and asked if it was Air Force
One and the controller dutifully said no
sir it’s a Gulfstream type aircraft
well to say that we all missed the
heartbeat is an understatement
because all we needed was that civilian
pilot to say so that’s not a Gulfstream
aircraft that’s a 747s blue-and-white
sure looks like Air Force one that could
have been a reason to terminate the
operator
to fly the president into the heart of
the Iraq war to share Thanksgiving with
American troops to prevent an insurgent
attack on the president
no one except those on board could know
his destination in advance this mission
the president wanted to be completely
secret I think probably in the end there
was probably maybe five of us that had a
really good idea of what was going to
happen
even air traffic control had to be kept
in the dark if any hint of the mission
slipped out the operation would be
scrubbed how do I ask you to non-stop
covert mission without alerting anybody
of what we were doing how do you make
the president disappear for a few days
the president the most closely watched
man on earth needed to vanish for 48
hours to establish a cover story the
trip started at his ranch in Texas the
first family had gathered for
Thanksgiving but the president would not
be there for dinner
very few people in Crawford at the ranch
knew that I’d be leaving this is very
much a cloak-and-dagger operation
passenger one boarded secretly in Waco
Texas but the jet couldn’t fly nonstop
to Iraq without refueling
to keep the trip is Swift and secret as
possible the president’s plane touched
down outside Washington at Andrews and
pulled into the hangar inside the second
presidential plane was standing by
fueled up for immediate departure we did
everything inside the hangar because we
had to worry about the tower watching us
or anybody outside you know everyone’s
blood pressure was up it was very
interesting the you know the kind of the
choreography inside the hangar when we
left the president gets off he’s got his
polo shirt on he’s got a baseball cap on
he walks off one airplane walks on
another airplane everyone all the
maintenance guys recognized it was the
president as well as our cops inside
they all knew oh my god it’s the
president they knew at that point some
was going on minutes after arrival the
president was headed back into the air
but as far as the rest of the world know
the presidential plane never took off
when we left here we used a different
call sign so we weren’t Air Force one we
filed a flight plan
for a Gulfstream type of aircraft okay
so I changed the identity of our
airplane we changed the modes to codes
and everything associated with the
movement of an airplane so once it got
airborne all the center would see is
that there’s an airplane they didn’t
know it was a 747 six hours out all
systems go a bogus Gulfstream jet heads
east but in the skies over England a
chance encounter almost blows the planes
cover we’re going over London England
another pilot had gone by and seen the
airplane and asked if it was Air Force
One and the controller dutifully said no
sir it’s a Gulfstream type aircraft
well to say that we all missed the
heartbeat is an understatement
because all we needed was that civilian
pilot to say so that’s not a Gulfstream
aircraft that’s a 747s blue-and-white
sure looks like Air Force one that could
have been a reason to terminate the
operator
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