By Lt. Commander Al Palmer, US Navy retired
Former F-4 Wild Weasel Pilot during the Vietnam War
STARRS Texas State Leader
Host, STARRS & Stripes Podcast
On the morning of 9/11 I was up early in my home in Escondido California, getting ready for another day as Executive Director and CEO of the San Diego Aerospace Museum (now the San Diego Air and Space Museum). it was around 6:30 AM and I was just getting out of the shower to turn on the television while my wife Susan was waking up.
Suddenly the morning news was interrupted by a notice that “a plane” had hit one of the World Trade Center towers so I switched to live coverage of the damage to the North Tower. I remember thinking how odd an accident was since it was an absolutely clear and sunny morning for flying. I watched in amazement as a few minutes later an airliner flew into the South Tower exploding out the other side.
I immediately dressed and ran out for my commute to the museum, knowing that only trouble lay ahead.
Days before, I had been offered a new computer program for a museum display that displayed a live map of the United States airspace with symbols of aircraft airborne and transiting the airspace…roughly 5,000 as I watched that morning. Slowly the dense national map of airborne aircraft dwindled to just a few in minutes as the FAA closed the airspace. Staring at my computer screen it looked like a slowly draining a bathtub.
The normal air traffic that flew only hundreds of feet overhead every two minutes on approach to San Diego’d Lindberg Field was gone. That was my first clue that this was not an aviation accident, but rather an attack of some sort.
I immediately shut down museum operations and sent employees and volunteers home. All of the other neighboring Balboa Park museums and San Diego visitor attractions quickly followed suit leaving big questions on what the future would hold for us.
A day or so later two seasoned museum volunteer docents, former Naval Aviators, came to my office and told me that weeks before two middle eastern men had approached them and asked if the museum had airline aircraft simulators. They remembered that these visitors were nervous and fidgety, and had not bought admission tickets.
They told the men that the museum only had military WWII simulators. They also asked if we had aircraft manuals and were referred to our large library. The duo didn’t respond and left.
I called the local FBI office and reported the incident. FBI Agents came to the museum, interviewed the docents and showed them photos of the terrorists to see if any looked familiar. Both docents reported that one of the middle eastern visitors looked like one of the photos…Mohamed Atta who was on American Airlines flight 11 that flew into the North Tower.
I later learned that several of the 9/11 attackers lived in an apartment complex adjacent to nearby Naval Air Station Miramar.
In the months that followed we only were able to return to partial staffing and revenue was minimal. However, I resisted actions other museums were taking to lay off or dismiss staff, instead keeping all employees and 200 volunteers onboard with some small cuts in executive salaries. it was a painful but proud time.
The Amazing Military Aviation Life of F-4 Wild Weasel Al Palmer
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