On this episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show: Twenty years ago this past Saturday, a phone call at 5:50 in the morning caused me to go from fast asleep to full up war in 30 minutes. The United States was under attack.

While driving into work that day I was doing "Taker Math" in my head, the number of sorties and amount of gas it would take to keep all the fighters and Command and Control planes airborne to maintain a NO FLY ZONE over America, and these numbers will astound you!

Talking with a very good friend of mine this past weekend he told me what a fighter pilot is probably thinking when tasked to shoot down an airliner over the U.S. because on 9/11 there were no rules of engagement to do this. How do you stop a jetliner filled with American citizens from becoming a cruise missile that might be flown by one of your airline buddies?

This episode is sponsored by the book Tanker Pilot: Lessons from the Cockpit available in all four formats on Amazon.