2026-09-11T21:01:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻（CBS News）
撰稿
克里·布林 新闻编辑
更新于：2026年9月12日 / 美国东部时间凌晨00:00 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻（CBS News）
当数千名一线救援人员和应急人员冲向世贸中心废墟时，美国军方也迅速投入行动。
当天，美军参谋长联席会议主席丹·凯恩将军是马里兰州安德鲁斯空军基地第121战斗机中队的武器与战术负责人。他在接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻主播诺拉·奥唐奈采访时表示，他刚进入一个日程安排会议，一名年轻参谋就冲进来报告一架飞机撞上了世贸中心北楼。随后他和同事们通过电视直播看到，上午9点03分，第二架飞机撞向南楼。
“诺拉，直到今天我仍记得，当我们看着新闻直升机拍摄的燃烧大楼画面时，我的感受和想法。还有当第二架飞机进入镜头、撞上第二座塔楼时我的感受和想法，”凯恩说。“我立刻就知道我们的国家遭到了袭击，我们立即开始行动起来。”
凯恩表示，“毫无疑问”国家已经处于战争状态，他所在的中队开始备战。
他说，凯恩下令基地的武器，包括空对空导弹，开始准备就位。随着地平线上可见五角大楼冒出的浓烟，凯恩接到白宫的电话，命令该中队“起飞升空，执行防卫华盛顿特区的任务”。凯恩说，当时的交战规则“非常宽松”。
军方接到命令，试图拦截联合航空93号航班——劫机者计划将该飞机撞向华盛顿特区的一座联邦建筑，不久后这架航班在宾夕法尼亚州的一片田野坠毁。
“他们把责任交给了我们，他们找到了我们的联队长戴夫·惠利准将，”凯恩说。“他说了一句我永远不会忘记的话。他说：‘听着，丹，我不知道你在那里要做什么，但我知道你会做出正确的选择，我信任你。’”
有些飞机起飞得太快，来不及挂载导弹。其中两架飞机由中队作战官马克·萨瑟维尔中校和僚机飞行员希瑟·彭尼驾驶。2021年，萨瑟维尔和彭尼告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，他们当时计划用自己的飞机撞击该航班。这将是一项致命的行动。
“在军队中，我们不会派我们的服役人员执行自杀任务，”彭尼说。“但那天早上，很清楚我们需要做什么。”
不过凯恩的战机搭载了实弹导弹，他起飞时清楚自己可能不得不击落一架民航客机。所有飞机都被命令停止在华盛顿特区空域飞行，并收到警告：任何违抗命令的飞行器都将立即被击落。
丹·凯恩将军 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻 供图
“我记得当时在想：‘等等，要开枪的人会是我，’”凯恩说。“我脑海中闪过的最重要的念头，大概是战斗机飞行员的祈祷词：‘亲爱的上帝，请别让我搞砸了。’我只想升空，能够完成我的任务，在混乱中保持清醒，在不确定中保持冷静，如果可能的话，保护好这个国家。”
但由于联合航空93号航班上的乘客冲进驾驶舱，将飞机坠毁在远离任何预定目标的空旷田野里，凯恩不必开火，华盛顿特区也没有直接遭到袭击。凯恩赞扬了那些乘客的勇气。
“我们在军队中宣誓要保护和捍卫美利坚合众国。他们登上了客机，但却是在9月11日那些黑暗时刻里第一批反击的人，”凯恩说。
凯恩还赞扬了前往坠机现场的应急人员。
“正是这一点让我们的国家变得伟大：抛开不确定性和恐惧，为了他人而冲向危机现场，”凯恩说。
即便过去了25年，凯恩表示他仍深受当天事件的影响。
“在9·11事件之前，我并不明白为这个国家服役意味着什么，”凯恩说。“你知道，我当时可能只是个觉得开飞机很酷的年轻战斗机飞行员，但在9·11当天和之后的日子里，以及那天美国民众展现出的勇气、坚韧、 grit（ grit：不屈不挠的意志）、爱国主义精神，在很多方面都成为了我25年后仍珍藏的一份礼物。”
Gen. Dan Caine reflects on responding to 9/11 attacks: “No doubt” nation was at war
2026-09-11T21:01:00-0400 / CBS News
By
Kerry Breen News Editor
Updated on: September 12, 2026 / 12:00 AM EDT / CBS News
As thousands of first responders and emergency workers rushed to Ground Zero on 9/11, America’s military also rapidly leapt into action.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine was the chief of Weapons and Tactics for the 121st Fighter Squadron at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland that day. He told CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell that he had just entered a scheduling meeting when a young staffer burst in to say that a plane had struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. He and his colleagues then watched on live television as the second plane hit the South Tower at 9:03 a.m.
“I still remember to this day, Norah, what I felt and what I thought as we all watched that news helicopter camera filming the burning tower. What I felt and thought when the second airplane entered that shot and hit the second tower,” Caine said. “I knew right away that our nation was under attack, and we began to move right into action immediately.”
There was “no doubt” that the country was at war, Caine said, and his squadron began preparations.
Caine gave orders for the base’s weapons, including air-to-air missiles, to start moving, he said. With smoke from the Pentagon visible on the horizon, Caine received a call from the White House ordering the squadron “to get airborne to scramble to defend” Washington, D.C. The rules of engagement were “very liberal,” Caine said.
Orders were given to try to intercept United Flight 93, which hijackers planned to fly into a federal building in Washington, D.C., shortly before it crashed in a Pennsylvania field.
“They put the responsibility on us, and they came to our wing commander, Brig. Gen. Dave Wherley,” Caine said. “He said something that I’ll never, ever forget. He said, ‘Look, Dan, I don’t know what you’re going to have to do out there, but I know you’re going to do the right thing. I trust you.’”
Some planes were put in the air so quickly that there wasn’t time to arm them with missiles. Two of those planes were piloted by squadron operations officer Lt. Col. Mark Sasseville and wingman Heather Penney. In 2021, Sasseville and Penney told CBS News they had planned to ram their aircraft into the plane. It would have been a fatal maneuver.
“In the military, we don’t send our service members on suicide missions,” Penney said. “But it was clear what needed to be done that morning.”
Caine’s jet, however, was loaded with live missiles, and he took off knowing that he might have to take down a commercial airliner. All planes had been ordered to stop flying in the airspace over Washington, D.C., with a warning given that any disobedient craft would be shot down immediately.
Gen. Dan Caine CBS News
“I remember thinking, ‘Wait a minute, that’s me that’s going to do the shooting here,’” Caine said. “And I think the biggest thing that ran through my mind is the, sort of, the fighter jet pilot prayer: ‘Dear God, please don’t let me screw this up.’ I just want to get out there and be able to do my job, to think through chaos, to remain calm through uncertainty, and if possible, protect, protect the country.”
But because the passengers aboard United Flight 93 stormed the cockpit and crashed the plane in an empty field far from any intended target, Caine didn’t have to fire, and Washington, D.C., was not directly hit. Caine praised the courage of those passengers.
“We take an oath in the military to protect and defend the United States of America. They got on an airliner, and yet they were the first ones that fought back in those dark, dark moments on September 11,” Caine said.
Caine also commended the emergency workers who responded to the crash sites.
“That is what makes our country great: to set aside that uncertainty and that fear and move towards the problem for somebody else,” Caine said.
Even 25 years later, Caine said he still remains affected by the events of the day.
“I don’t think I understood what it means to serve this country until September 11,” Caine said. “You know, I was probably a young fighter pilot who thought it was cool to fly jets, but then it got very real on September 11 and the days that followed, and the examples that the American people got on that day of courage, tenacity, grit, patriotism, remain a gift in many ways for me 25 years later.”
发表回复