Sheesh. I try to ignore the NATCA BBS with all it's moderators and warning flags and tumbleweed blowing through the abandoned conferences and freelance editing (yes, before I was booted I had one of my posts edited by the staff....and they told me they were reposting it with their edit!) I try. I really, really try to just post my pretty pictures and go have breakfast with Spongebob and live my little normal awesome life.
But every now and again I have to publicly---how can I put this on the Sabbath---oh, yes, BITCH SLAP somebody over there because they are either completely lying about facts or they have decided to attack me, or they have decided to reinvent my legacy somewhere I cannot respond or their opinion is so wreckless that someone has to sit them down and whack their little wee wees. (Quick question for biblical scholars: can I say wee wees on the Sabbath?)
These Election Year Disciples could not be more transparent if they were Glad Wrap and thank God and Greyhound they will soon be gone. One of them (I will call him "Thing One") has surfaced on the BBS after no recent activism and certainly no BBS postings of any note or merit (ever, that I know of.) I think he is mad because I yelled at him five years ago but he won't cop to it. Imagine my surprise. The second (I will call him "Thing Two") is either a retired controller who drives a zamboni or a retired zamboni driver who controls airplanes. Or maybe he's a lawyer like all the other moonlighters, I don't really know. He's a gadfly of sorts, flitting in to offer a few Whitey-esque "heck yes, Mrs. Cleavers" every now and again.
So. After Thing One got his ass handed to him by me a few posts back he decided to try another tack. The most recent uncalled for and completely false attack on my legacy by the Thingster is this gauntlet of gibberish:
Thing One: "Trying to wrap air traffic controllers in the borrowed robes of first responders on 9-11 may have been a smart move in the minds of paid consultants, but I can tell you first hand that it made a lot of Congressional staff AND air traffic controllers squirm in their seats."
That was followed immediately by this:
Thing Two: (please note the immediate deployment of the pink pom poms:) "I've never seen that talked about here. It's a fact though and a good example supporting J.F.'s opinion." Followed by, "Simply - IMHO "hero" is a much over used word. It does not (in the least) diminish our efforts and accomplishments that day to recognize and point out that they did not rise to the level of those first responders who then and now lay their lives on the line for others."
First.....Kleenex on aisle two for these guys. please. Really. The waterworks. The heartstrings.
Boo.
Hoo even.
These two are sincerely clueless. It's a shame I can't correct their errant opinions on the NATCA BBS, home of the 1500 hits a day from the fifty lonely members, but what-the-hey. I have to drag their dirty laundry out here onto the real Internet, where it can be judged on it's relative merit.
Let's take the first point, by Thing One: "Trying to wrap air traffic controllers in the borrowed robes of first responders on 9-11 may have been a smart move in the minds of paid consultants, but I can tell you first hand that it made a lot of Congressional staff AND air traffic controllers squirm in their seats."
This Thing One is a dumb son of a bitch, ain't he? Shooting off at the lip without a nanosecond's worth of research or information or fact checking. Too much mango juice maybe. Lucky for Thing One he's got me to help clear up his misunderstanding.
Let's get the consultants off the table right away: These folks are paid to give you their opinion and they expect you to weigh that in your deliberations before making a decision. If you do not take their opinion....they still take your money. That's the beauty of consulting. I love it. Ours were Joe Lockart and Ed Gillespie. I can probably still get you in touch with either if you'd like to check my version of events with them.
In the September 11th case the hired guns were all over Ruth and I and Doug to release the hounds. We jointly told them all, right out of the chocks: Stand down. We know what you are going to say, and it isn't going to happen. We are running silent. Nobody speaks to the media, nobody speaks to anybody. Nobody." The word went out to the regions and I DEFY you to find a 9-11 story in the first six months to two years with our participation. (Can't.) Doug Church can give you the numbers if you call him, but the number of media requests....I take that back. I think Doug stopped counting at five hundred or something. And we told them all the same thing: No.
Here is my press release from September 12, 2001:
STATEMENT FROM NATCA
09/12/2001
WASHINGTON – This nation’s air traffic controllers are deeply shocked and saddened by Tuesday’s unspeakable events.
We extend our thoughts and prayers to the thousands of families affected by this horrific tragedy and to our fellow members of the aviation community, especially the pilots and flight attendants, who lost their colleagues.
As Americans and federal employees, we are working at the direction of the Department of Defense, Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration, doing everything possible to assist our government. We stand ready to help restore the safety and security of the air transportation system.
If you have any inquiries, we encourage you to direct them to the FAA.
###
Here is the ad we ran at the AOPA Expo in the fall of 2001 at the request of....just about everybody. Pilots union, Flight Attendants, FAA. Nobody wanted to fly. We waved the flag. Be patriotic. Go fly.
Download AOPAExpo2001
No, no...wait. I think I found the robes we wrapped ourselves in! They were in the ad we released on the first anniversary...the one that showed all the air traffic controllers....
Download USAToday90602
No, wait, wait....it is this Letter to the Editor of the Boston Globe, one short month after the attacks. This columnist was a pure Republican hit job on Jane...I will only print here the salient paragraphs of my letter in response....
10/05/2001
Globe Column Adds Another Innocent Victim To Terrorist Attack
Steve Bailey’s Oct. 5 critique of Administrator Jane Garvey is shameful. She is the finest administrator in the history of the FAA. That was true on September 10, and it’s true today.
While Mr. Bailey questions Ms. Garvey’s whereabouts, the FAA administrator has calmly and carefully orchestrated many of the nation’s responses to the attacks of September 11. She has been fully engaged in top-secret discussions at the Department of Transportation, the White House and on Capitol Hill. She knows more about these horrific events than we ever will, and her level of knowledge about the mundane and specific is now so complete that she qualifies as one of very few experts on that morning when hell was in session.
To say of the FAA administrator, “more than 6,000 people died on my watch,” is callous, insensitive yellow journalism. Mr. Bailey should visit New York City, as I did two days ago. Perhaps after looking at the 10-story pile of rubble, still burning, still giving up our war dead, and perhaps after smelling a stench even greater than the one his column gave off, Mr. Bailey would think twice about pinning blame on an innocent woman while others are still pinning “MISSING” posters to telephone poles.
In every way, Ms. Garvey has been more than up to the task of leading the FAA, and in the days and weeks since September 11, she has again proven her mettle. If it seems like the agency is keeping a low profile and staying, “off the radar screen,” that’s because the many heroes this nation is currently exalting deserve the high profile, while we go about the very serious business of getting this country flying again.
The strongest security measures known to man cannot prevent fanatical zealots bent on suicide from succeeding. It is grossly unfair to fashion Ms. Garvey and the FAA as the winner of the “Blame Game.” The 48,000 hard-working FAA employees who spend every day working to ensure the integrity of the finest aviation system in the world deserve much better.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks the FAA has tightened security at all of our nation’s airports, and it is through Ms. Garvey’s leadership that this was accomplished. She is in command, in control, and deserves the thanks of a grateful nation for her skill and expertise at leading our industry out of this dark time. Jane Garvey’s actions reflect great credit not only upon her home state of Massachusetts, but also on her agency and our nation.
John S. Carr
President
National Air Traffic Controllers Association, AFL-CIO
So, Things, I most certainly DID NOT "try to wrap air traffic controllers in the borrowed robes of first responders on 9-11." Ask anyone who was there or had a clue (which counts you both out.) NATCA went into immediate quarantine on all 9-11 related information, precisely to prevent attempting to grab the spotlight and turn it on us. If you will recall the country was only a few blown-up buildings shy of marshal law and anybody talking would have been shot.
As this story from six months later details (and I used to tell everyone in Facrep training,) things remained very fluid national-security wise for quite some time. We had missles on the National Mall, Humvees pulling guns on Mass Avenue. Jane and I used to laugh about playing "Make The Marshal" on flights into and out of DCA. Crop dusters were grounded until we knew they weren't dusting with Anthrax. NATCA was quieter than Get Smart under the Cone of Silence.
As this story details, several people (Jane Garvey and myself and quite a few in-the-know others) think that the grounding of the aircraft on 9-11 prevented other aircraft from being hijacked and used as weapons. This isn't even the article I went looking for but it is representative of the thinking at the time: ATC actions were a first response, and that response saved untold lives that either were landed or never took off before they could be put in harm's way.
And all, I say again, ALL the facts, documents and eye witness reports collaborate the fact that I put the lid on public knowledge of controller involvement in 9/11 for well over a year after the fact. My memory is fuzzy (and I am doing this from memory, hide your ass if I open any boxes) but we may have run silent for almost five years. My daily updates to the membership that week. (Verderamo where are those?) NEB Minutes from the following weeks. My Weekly Updates. Email threads. You name it. We were hush hush.
Those who were there will tell those who weren't: NATCA did not "try" to "wrap controllers" in anybody's "borrowed robes." NATCA clammed up in an unprecedented and historical way for a long, long, long time and threatened people to shut up. IN FACT....I told the whole world: If you say a word it is without union protection and we will stand idle as the agency fires you and you face prison for violations of as yet unwritten national security directives.
(If memory serves me correctly I also almost faced a subpoena from the 9-11 Commission staff because I initially told them to fuck off. They wanted to interview our people without a union rep. I said, "no problem. Just grant them immunity for anything they did, didn't or could have done and they're all yours." I had no idea what they might say, see? What if one of them said, "Allah Akbar?" You've got to be ready to REPRESENT that shit! So anyway...Commission staff says, "no can do." I say something that rhymes with, "well then fuck off." Tempers flare. Lawyers talk to lawyers. I talk to Jane. Our guys talk to Commission.)
No, I did not try to wrap controllers in borrowed robes.
Everybody else did, though.
These transcripts will detail the conversations between the ground and each of the four subject aircraft on September 11, 2001. If by, "first responder" you mean "first" to "respond," then certainly you must agree that the controllers involved were at least that. No, they didn't die. No, they didn't. But they first-responded just the same. It's too bad that some people's own fragile inferiority complexes (and probable days-off) won't let them see the bigger picture.
Then there's this, from the "9/11 Commission Report":
Page 29: "Ben Sliney ordered all FAA facilities to instruct all aircraft to land at the nearest airport. This was an unprecedented order. The air traffic control system handled it with great skill, as about 4,500 commerical and general aviation aircraft soon landed without incident." (Sounds like a first response to me.)
Page 31: "Individual FAA controllers, facility managers, and Command Center managers thought outside the box in recommending a nationwide alert, in ground-stopping local traffic, and, ultimately, in deciding to land all aircraft and executing that unprecedented order flawlessly." (Sounds like a first response to me.)
Page 32:
8:25; Boston Center aware of hijacking.
8:46:40: AA11 crashes into 1 WTC
9:16: AA headquarters aware that Flight 11 has crashed into WTC
9:24: NEADS scrambles Langley fighter jets in search of AA11.
(Sounds like a first response to me. The military was "first responding" almost forty minutes after the first, "boom.")
The other three aircraft summaries are identical to this one: Air traffic controllers heard, we reacted, we moved, we separated, we maintained, we notified. Half an hour later FAA, airline and military management find out something might be wrong. Ah, hell....who wants a donut?
From an email to me, Feb 06, when Doug and I began to orchestrate responsible, respectable media coverage for the 5th anniversary....the first time we really lifted the vail:
Dear John,
I'm sorry I haven't written earlier. We've had three edit rooms churning like crazy for our April 28 release date, and it's tight to say the least. The guys who came out (the controllers I sent him to) were truly fantastic - professional, real and incredibly interesting to see doing a job the majority of Americans have no comprehension of. I think you'll be proud to see them in the film.
As you may have heard through the grapevine, the director (Academy Award nominated Paul Greengrass), producer and Universal have asked me to put together a documentary about the making of the movie - particularly our extensive reliance on the insights of those who witnessed 9/11 intimately as first responders in the civilian and military air traffic roles. (I'll also interview the fighter pilots that were scrambled, 9/11 Commission members who helped us, etc.) The goal is to recall and elucidate what actually happened that day, while drawing lines from our research to what we'll see on screen in the movie. Put together in this way - particularly using footage from the film and production video shot on set - it will really bring it to life and be a valuable addition to the film. The working title for the documentary is "Witnesses to 9/11."
These interviews would be fairly similar in substance to what the guys did on the NBC piece with Tom Brokaw, but done in a more intimate, compelling way - again with scenes from the movie to bring them to life. A focus beyond what NBC did is to really explain how the system works - and how the controllers were the ones to first understand exactly what was going on that day.
I don't need any additional help from you, only your blessing. I realize the contract tensions are still high, but our subject matter is unrelated to the current conflict, and also very important. The more the public understands the role the controllers played that day - and what they do every day - the more value the public will place on their work. So that's my formal request with supporting explanation. I really hope we can make this work. I know I'm coming to you with short notice, but as always, I appreciate your help.
Sincerely, Michael Bronner
UK mobile: +44 (0) 7917 3XXXXX
[NYC mobile +1 646 331 XXXX"
Then there's this video, which won Tom Brokaw and NBC an Emmy and which routinely airs on the anniversary each year.
So, to recap:
ATC first discovered...."we have some PLANES" plural;
ATC identified UAL93 down in field with visual confirmation by the military aircraft that coincidentally saw AAL77 drill into the Pentagon;
ATC identified AAL77 bearing down on the Captol and/or White House and/or Pentagon as it crossed the Dulles final box (and I grabbed a subsequent ABC exclusive for Brian Ross with the controllers involved.) ATC red phone call causes Cheney to be moved to the basement by force;
ATC first heard the struggle...and murder...inthe cockpit of UAL93;
ATC eyewitnessed and ID'ed the second WTC hit
((all this time, FAA and DOT and military heirarchy thought these aircraft were airborne))
ATC apparently did enough that day to be PROMINENTLY featured in the movie,"UAL93," nominated for an Academy Award
ATC did enough to merit specials on every network once I lifted the embargo on coverage
ATC did enough that the History Channel approached Jane about doing "Grounded on 9/11." She asked me to do it too and of course we did. This is currently shown to every FAA Academy class and is rerun at all hours of the day and night.
ATC landed 5000 airplanes in a few hours with no practice, training or margin for error
ATC surveyed the skies post-9/11, and NOBODY ELSE COULD. The only agency with radar coverage in the majority of the lower 48 is then and still is the FAA.
ATC kept an eye on crop dusters
Ruth flew back to DC with Bill Peacock and staff on 9-11....the only thing flying other than SAR in NY and the President of the United States
Jane, myself and others believe there were other aircraft planned for that day and the grounding kept those plans from being carried out. If memory serves...and this is memory....they found some box cutters or other funny business on some of the grounded aircraft. I think.
Anybody who thinks we WEREN'T first responders hasn't talked to
the controllers involved
the firefighters involved
the facilities involved
the families of the dead on UAL 93
the National Defense organizations involved
the Federal Agencies involved
the family of Doug McKay
I have done ALL of the above and they think we most certainly were. NOT ME. THEY. I have not wrapped our controllers in anything but I can tell you this: As much as ANYBODY IN THE NATCA ORGANIZATION....more than Pat, Phil, Paul, Barry, Bob, or anyone else...I have looked into the eyes of the people of September 11th and I am comfortable with history's characterization of our profession. God knows I was careful enough with it.
I love the, "made Congress squirm" part. This is like the Big Jimmy Ray lie. What part of Congress? The pedophiles? The ones in affairs? The ones that bought off their mistress and her husband? The ones that want to honor Michael Jackson? The ones that bought their seat from Blago? The ones being investigated? Or just John Mica? NAME THEM.
What, you say? It was the ever elusive "staffers?" Grow a sack. NAME THEM. Take those kids out for a couple of beers or alternatively meet them after work and kick some sense into their girly asses. They are children of privilege, shlepping all over Capitol Hill with their law degrees from Harvard and Yale, hoping Daddy's money will help them be somebody. To any of them who dared challenge me concerning the professions I represented on that day I would say, fuck you. You weren't there, asshole. You didn't hear the screams. You didn't see the jumpers. You didn't watch the airplane hit. You didn't sit at your station while flying bombs rained down. You weren't told to save everybody you were talking to. Last time I saw you, you were running out of the Capitol, holding your penny loafers in self defense and screaming your fucking head off like a little girl. Fuck you.
But....truth be known....I didn't deal with staffers. NATCA-1=NO HABLO STAFFER. I left that for you while I took the glamour shot with the actual MEMBER OF CONGRESS. But do tell all the little staffer turds in the punch bowl how sorry I am if their feelings got hurt and all squirmy and shit.
As for controllers "squirming in their seats," NAME THEM, tough guy. In the meantime, while you are wetting your Disney princess panties over that prospect, if you want to see REAL controllers squirm in their seat talk to the men who were talking to these four aircraft. THEY squirmed in their seats plenty. I know them personally. And you two...you are cut from a different headset cord than they are, that's for sure.
I won't spend too much time on Thing Two.
Thing Two: "It's a fact"
Me: No it's not you moron. It's no wonder I never noticed you in NATCA. You must have always been hiding behind somebody's apron strings. Read above. There's some facts, sunshine.
Thing Two: "Simply - IMHO "hero" is a much over used word. It does not (in the least) diminish our efforts and accomplishments that day to recognize and point out that they did not rise to the level of those first responders who then and now lay their lives on the line for others."
Me: Say WHAT?!?!?!?!? Oh....I see.
You are already conceding that everything else is bullshit and you are ready to strike out in another new direction, completely dissassociated with everything else said up until that point. Ritalin might be able to help there, ADHD boy. I'm going to perscribe 10mg/x3/ibid 3X/day.
NOBODY EVER SAID OUR EFFORTS ROSE TO THE LEVEL OF ANYONE ELSE. NOBODY EVER SAID THAT. NOBODY. But you imply that someone did while your filly prances in a different direction. And for you to sideways insert it now makes it sound as if someone did and you are defending the other hill. Which means you are once again talking out at least one of the cheeks of your bum.
People like these two really make me sick. The people who dishonor 9/11 or try to make 9/11 some sort of weapon to bludgeon me with are weak, sick, twisted, childish and sad. How pathetic do you have to be to dredge up 9/11 eight years later to drill me with? Talk about wrapping yourself in 9/11 magic...what, John? Did that get you and Chucky a couple extra hits on your dying thread? Give you more attention that you "confess you enjoy?" That is really some sick shit.
I saw and heard and smelled and learned things then that I will never forget. I went to the Pentagon and saw the melted phones hanging down the bloodstained wall. I went to New York and saw the pile. The smell. The horror. I went to Pennsylvania and saw the singed trees, the burned ground, the crater, the makeshift memorials on the barbed wire. I have pictures of all three. I saw them on three consecutve days two weeks after the attacks. I saw our country's leadership staring into the abyss. I felt the fear in the air. In the room. In the city. I don't bring it up much.
And for two armchair revisionist historians to bring this up now....man. How disgusting. Things 1 and 2 are grasping at straws and they do NOT have either facts or history on their side. But they trash talk for the fame and attention that they get by being embarassed and humiliated by me. It's really odd, deviant behavior. At this point they are pretty much like abused spouses...they think when I slap the shit out of them I love them. No, corndogs, I don't. I feel sorry for you, and I pity you, and I am embarassed....not BY you, but FOR you.
And perhaps most tragically, after all my horrible, sick, twisted exploitation of the air traffic controllers, me, crawling through the smoking wreckage of the WTC looking to plant some controller FAM paperwork, besmirching the heroes and exploiting the dead for our own selfish motives....after all that grotesque, callous, unbelievably inhuman and wrong headed leadership...
John Carr ran UNOPPOSED in the 2003 NATCA Presidential Election, the only time that has ever happened in NATCA history. Just two short years after my complete debacle, the ignorant mishandling of the September 11th story, the exploitation of grieving controllers and families for personal gain, the swiping of the robes, the overused hero word, the rising accomplishment.....after all that, I ran unopposed.
Thing One didn't run.
Thing Two didn't run.
It seems the only thing these "things" can run is their mouths.
Funny, too: THIS IS THE FIRST WE HAVE HEARD OF THIS FROM THESE 9/11 THINGS. What.....did they just get done researching this? For EIGHT YEARS these two have stood mute (and moot I might add), sitting on this time-bomb of information. For eight years these detectives have painstakingly charted the history of the events surrounding air traffic control and September 11th. And they have found the smoking gun. Hundreds of Lobby Week debrief forms must be covered with staffer horror stories. And controllers. All a'squirmin.
(One Reason: Less controllers=longer hours=older people=smaller bladders=gotta pee=whole lotta squirmin'.) (Really.)
And yet....it did not come out in 2003. It did not come out in 2006. It did not come out in 2007,when I retired. These defamations have never been said to me, emailed to me or communicated to me in any way, shape, form or fashion.
No. Suddenly these two rumor mongers and whisperers try to tangent off in another scurrilous, libelous direction. Or two. I think maybe they're each sporting a little chubby over the whole mess to be honest with you.
"You cloaked us in borrowed robes!"
"You made the metrosexual staffer squirm!"
"You made me itchy down there!"
"It's a fact...even though I never heard it before!"
"Hero is overused! Switch to the femenine version--- "she-ro!"
I can't believe I am saying this but it is true: I respect Marion Blakey a hell of a lot more than these two. At least she put some time and effort and staff work into her lies about me. It took me an hour to come up with these measly cites in defense of my notion that these two are full of shit. And you know what that means: it's about time for Things 1 and 2 to go off on another tangent.
No, I did not have sex with that woman. That Monica Lewinsky. Just in case T1&2 are wonderin' and all.
