Military Sharpens Their Skills For A Day They Hope Never Comes

by Scott Harrison, Jemal Duran

8/11/2005

F-16’s take to the skies over southern Colorado in hopes of preparing for the unspeakable. Small, private planes could now be the weapons of choice by terrorists.

Today, the military practiced dealing with such an attack over the skies of southern Colorado.

The military has never been forced to shoot down a domestic aircraft, but over Colorado Springs on thursday, F-16’s practiced pulling the trigger.

NORAD scrambled them from Buckley Air Force Base near Denver, in response to a suspicious plane. In this case, it’s flown by the Civil Air Patrol as part of the exercise.

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By Jon Fogg
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 11, 2005

The U.S. Defense Department will hold a walk and country music concert to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks and to honor U.S. troops and veterans.

Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense, said the walk is “the perfect marriage of both sentiments: commemorating September 11 and the importance of our freedom.”

The two-mile walk will begin at 10 a.m. past the section of the Pentagon hit in the attack and is tentatively scheduled to go through Arlington National Cemetery before crossing the Arlington Memorial Bridge and passing the Lincoln Memorial, said Air Force spokeswoman Tech. Sgt. Eileen Lainez.

The walk will conclude on the south side of the Reflecting Pool with a free concert by Grammy-award winning country music star Clint Black. The stage will be next to the John F. Kennedy hockey field, between the Lincoln Memorial and the National World War II Memorial.

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By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 10, 2005

The U.S.-Canadian military commands responsible for protecting North America from terrorists have changed the names of key readiness exercises to more politically correct words that do not offend American Indians.

U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs have struck the word “warrior” from one major exercise and replaced it with “phantom,” according to a July internal message from command headquarters. The message went to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the Joint Chiefs and other senior leaders. A copy was obtained by The Washington Times.

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