Was sent home with instructions to return that night for a flight. We launched out of Tinker AFB after midnight on a NORAD mission and orbited near Chicago where we were controlling a 2-ship flight of F-16s in a CAP.
We listened to Navy ships checking in on NORAD SATCOM all night. Everyone was super tired and I remember asking the guy next to me: “Did this **** really happen?”
The weird radio traffic, plus the almost empty radar picture made it a surreal experience.
I was on one of those ships (a DDG) you heard checking in - we were mid-way between Pearl Harbor and San Diego, returning from deployment with the Constellation Battle Group.
When my husband got home from work, (central Ohio ) and after flights had been grounded, we went to the gas station to fill our cars. Many, many cars were waiting and it was so quiet, no one was talking, just waiting. Suddenly someone yelled, look up! We did and way, way up there was a plane and a jet stream and fighters escorting. It was AF1 and I will never forget that ever, I still get goosebumps.