By Lt. Colonel Robert “Buzz”Patterson, USAF ret
STARRS Board of Advisors
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was a recently retired Air Force colonel, pilot, and a wet-behind-the-ears new hire for Delta Air Lines.
I was scheduled to fly that morning from Atlanta to New York’s LaGuardia Airport with a departure around 9:30 AM. As I was kissing my wife and children goodbye for a few days, I noticed the living room television in the background and witnessed the impact into the first World Trade Center tower.
Katie Couric and NBC were speculating that it was a small, private aircraft that had somehow wandered off course and collided with the tall tower. I sat down on the couch and told my wife, “There is no way.”
It was a crystal-clear blue day in New York City, absolutely perfect for flying. Pilots refer to this as “visual flight rules.” The aftermath of the first attack was demonstrably more devastating than anything a private small craft could produce.
As we sat there, I watched the second aircraft hit the sister tower. Same immediate damage, and a convincing display of force. “That’s a lot of jet fuel,” I said. “We’ve been attacked.”
It was yet to be determined who the attackers were, but we’d quickly learn that it was racial Islamic terrorists seeking to undermine the U.S. and kill Americans.
And I immediately knew that my former boss, President Bill Clinton and his administration were largely to blame.
A few years previously, I’d been assigned to the White House and was Clinton’s Air Force Military Aide and carrier of the “nuclear football.”
The “dereliction of duty” of the Clintons had come home to roost.
I’d seen it all and documented it in Dereliction of Duty: Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America’s National Security.
The Delta Operations Center called me and said, “You’re not going anywhere. Stay home and hunker down.”
The nation’s airspace had been completely closed with the exception of Air Force and Navy fighters that screamed across the silent skies over Atlanta searching for new attacks are eerily remembered. The republic of the United States had been forced to its knees by a group of terrorists operating from caves in Afghanistan.
When the airspace over the nation was reopened three days later, I resumed my trip for Delta and flew the original trip, or “rotation,” from Atlanta to NYC.
As we were making our final descent into LGA, I looked to my left and saw the attack scene in downtown New York. Just over my shoulder. It was still on fire, and the smoke billowed hundreds of feet into the sky. It was quiet and sobering.
I asked the passengers on the left side of the jet to take a look and remember.
Now, 25 years later, it’s important to remember exactly what happened and how we got there.
As the military aide to Bill Clinton, I was privileged to see the same intelligence that our president and senior staff members were privileged to see.
When I first arrived at the White House in the spring of 1996, I immediately began seeing message traffic that suggested there were Al Qaeda plans to pull off a significant attack on U.S. assets involving the hijacking of American targets of the Trade Center, Pentagon, Chicago’s Sears Tower, and Los Angeles.
As a pilot, that fact obviously raised the hairs on my neck. And I started paying attention to the commander-in-chief and the decisions that he made.
In the next piece here at the Buzz Cut, we’ll specifically address what Clinton knew, when he knew it, and the toll that Americans, then and now, had had to endure. Especially that of the direct victims of that tragic day.
Never forget.
The following is excerpted from my book, “Dereliction of Duty:”
The White House Situation Room was buzzing. It was fall 1998 and the National Security Council (NSC) and the “intelligence community” were tracking the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, the shadowy mastermind of terrorist attacks on American targets overseas. “They’ve successfully triangulated his location,” yelled a “Sit Room” watch stander. “We’ve got him.”
Beneath the West Wing of the White House, behind a vaulted steel door, the Sit Room staff sprang into action.
The watch officer notified National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, “Sir, we’ve located bin Laden. We have a two-hour window to strike.”
Berger ambled down the stairwell and entered the Sit Room.
He picked up the phone at one of the busy controller consoles and called the president. Amazingly, President Clinton was not available. Berger tried again and again. Bin Laden was within striking distance but the window of opportunity was closing fast. The plan of attack was set, with American patriots on the ground and in the air. Biden Laden was cornered.
For about an hour Berger couldn’t get the commander in chief on the line. Though the president was always accompanied by the Secret Service, he was somehow unavailable. Berger stalked the Sit Room, anxious and impatient.
Finally, the president accepted Berger’s call.
There was discussion, there were pauses—and no decision. We sat there.
The president wanted to talk with his secretaries of defense and state. He wanted to study the issue further. Berger was forced to wait. The clock was ticking. It was only a few hours that America had to pull the trigger or lose its prey, with assets on the ground and in the air.
The president eventually called back. He was still indecisive. He wanted more discussion. Berger alternated between phone calls and watching the clock.
The NSC watch officer was convinced we had the right target.
The intelligence sources were conclusive. The president, however, was concerned about offending neighboring nations in the region. He wanted a guaranteed hit or nothing at all.
This time, as was often with Clinton when offered the opportunity to defend America and Americans, it was nothing at all. We didn’t pull the trigger. We “studied” the issue until it was too late—the window of opportunity closed.
Al Qaeda’s spiritual and organizational leader slipped through the noose. And the citizens of the US would suffer the ultimate terrorist attack three years later.
As I detailed in the first part of this series on 9/11 and Clinton, I was a recently retired Air Force pilot and flying as a Delta Airline’s copilot on that horrific day. I was scheduled to fly, ironically, that morning from Atlanta to New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
As I was kissing my wife and children goodbye passing our living room TV, I saw the immediate aftermath of the first Trade Center attack. I remember vividly NBC’s Katie Couric speculating that it was probably a small civilian aircraft that got lost. With that amount of fuel feeding that kind of fire, I knew there was no way.
I sat back on my couch and watched the second hijacked airliner hit the other tower live.
It was then I knew. I knew that the years of indifference and risk avoidance on the part of Bill Clinton had come home to roost. America had been attacked. The intelligence he’d seen and that I’d seen had predicted this. We knew they were going to do it…and he did nothing. And they did it.
The United States of America was founded on a foundation of God-granted principles, but we send our men and women into combat around the globe to defend and fight for those principles.
My former boss, Bill Clinton, failed us, and 3,000 were killed domestically and over 15,000 killed in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, due to his dereliction of duty.
America can’t afford another leader like Bill Clinton.
Vote accordingly.
Otherwise, we’ll be enduring more days like September 11, 2001.
Buzz Cut: Clinton and 9/11, Part One
We’re a day away from a remembrance.
(September 11—the twenty-five-year anniversary of the day that changed all of our lives forever. This is the first in a two-part series to commemorate the attacks of 9/11 and the roots of the biggest… pic.twitter.com/COLnhtArzP
— Buzz Patterson (@BuzzPatterson) September 10, 2026
STARRS Board of Advisors member Lt Colonel Robert “Buzz” Patterson, USAF (Ret.) served 20 years as a pilot on active duty in the United States Air Force and saw tours of duty world-wide including combat operations in Grenada, Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti, and Bosnia.
From 1996 to 1998, Colonel Patterson was the Senior Military Aide to President Bill Clinton. During that time he was responsible for the President’s Emergency Satchel, otherwise known as the “Nuclear Football,” the black bag with the nation’s nuclear capability that accompanies the president at all times.
In addition, Colonel Patterson was operational commander for all military units assigned to the White House, which included Air Force One, Marine One, Camp David, White House Transportation Agency and White House Mess.
Among his many military commendations, Patterson received the Defense Superior Service Medal for accomplishments while at the White House and was awarded the Air Force Air Medal for flying fifteen combat support missions into then-besieged Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1994.
He retired in 2001 to pursue a career as a commercial airline pilot, writer and conservative speaker, and is the author of two New York Times bestselling books.
He is a Distinguished Graduate from the Air Command and Staff College; he has his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Virginia Tech University and a Master’s in Business Administration from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Books:
Dereliction of Duty: Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America’s National Security
Lt. Col. Robert “Buzz” Patterson exposes the terrifying, behind-the-scenes story of the years when the most irresponsible President in our history had his finger on the nuclear trigger.
Dereliction of Duty is the inside story of the damage Bill Clinton did to the U.S. military and how he compromised our national security. From his laughable salutes, to his arrogant, anti-military staffers, the message came through loud and clear: the Clinton Administration had nothing but contempt for America’s men and women in uniform.
For two years, Patterson was the White House military aide who carried the “nuclear football,” which provides the President with remote nuclear strike capabilities. What he witnessed is shocking. In Dereliction of Duty, Patterson reveals:
- How Clinton missed a golden opportunity to take out Osama bin Laden long before September 11, 2001
- Why a minor “family matter” caused the Clintons to scramble a military jet
- How a young Clinton staffer tried to divert a full Navy carrier battle group just so the President could have a photo-op
- Why female stewards on Air Force One had to keep their distance from the President
But that’s not all. Colonel Patterson reveals that Clinton treated our nation’s most sensitive secrets and powerful weapons with cavalier disregard, while his aides regarded the military as just another tool for domestic politics.
Dereliction of Duty is the book every American concerned about our national security has been waiting for—written by a military man who was an eyewitness inside the Clinton White House, and who can no longer in good conscience keep silent.
Conduct Unbecoming: How Barack Obama is Destroying The Military and Endangering Our Security
In Conduct Unbecoming, Lt. Col. Robert Patterson—New York Times bestselling author and former Senior Military Aide to President Clinton—exposes how President Barack Obama’s national security policies are weakening our military and endangering America’s safety.
From underfunding and misusing the military to his “Apology Tour” across Europe and the Middle East, President Obama has made America more vulnerable with both our allies and our enemies. In Conduct Unbecoming, you’ll discover:
- How Obama is not listening to his generals’ recommendations on Afghanistan
- How Obama’s first two acts as Commander-In-Chief weakened our national security and military
- How Obama’s feckless diplomatic efforts with other countries are severely threatening our national security
Shocking and controversial, Conduct Unbecoming reveals how Obama’s disregard for the military and a strong foreign policy is exposing us to unprecedented risks in the 21st century.
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