Wednesday, September 8, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
13
Air National Guard
patrolled Oregon’s skies
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
PHOTO PROVIDED
Oregon Flight for Freedom participants marched down Fifth Avenue in the 2001 Columbus Day Parade, a powerful
symbol of unity from sea to shining sea in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in New York City.
Jack McGowan of Sisters is front-row center, holding the American flag.
roil of mixed emotions —
resilience and the desire for
joy contending with the som-
ber weight of events.
“There was a certain sense
of guilt,” McGowan said.
“You’re not supposed to smile.
But there was such a sense of
welcome and sheer relief, I
think, that we were there.”
McGowan reckons that
the economic impact of a
thousand Oregonians was
welcome, but just “a drop
in the bucket” in an effort to
get the city back on its feet.
The real impact of the Flight
for Freedom was in knitting
the country together, in mak-
ing a tangible statement of
solidarity.
“It was the psychologi-
cal embrace that told New
Yorkers, ‘You’re not alone,’”
McGowan said.
A n d N e w Yo r k e r s
responded. The entire staff of
the Waldorf-Astoria turned out
on the steps and the sidewalk
to welcome the Oregonians,
waving American flags and
cheering. Flight participants
were invited to ring the bell
at the reopening of the New
York Stock Exchange, and
were asked to participate in
the city’s legendary Columbus
Day Parade.
In his Oregonian retro-
spective, Dozono recalled,
“Certainly the highlight of
the trip for many was march-
ing down Fifth Avenue in
the Columbus Day Parade.
Enthusiastic New Yorkers
[yelled] ‘We love you,
Oregone.’ We gave the
T-shirts off our backs —
‘Oregon Heart NY’ — to our
newfound friends along the
parade route.”
Oregonians were treated
to standing ovations in New
York restaurants.
For McGowan, the unity
and solidarity on display
during the Oregon Flight for
Freedom represents a precious
moment and an opportunity
to stand upon the best of our
ideals, a moment that he fears
Americans have allowed to
slip away.
“To say that we squan-
dered it, maybe that’s too
harsh,” he said. “But we
missed it. Without a compass,
we wandered into the wilder-
ness that is America today.”
Jack and Jan McGowan
have lived in Sisters for more
than 14 years now. Jack con-
tinues his public service with
the Sisters-Camp Sherman
Rural Fire Protection District
Board of Directors.
And no matter how far
we’ve wandered in the 20
years since the September
11, 2001 attacks, McGowan
recalls the Oregon Flight for
Freedom with deep emotion
and profound gratitude for
the opportunity to help bring
Americans together.
“I’m still so proud of that,”
he said. “I’m so thankful I
was part of that.”
PHOTO PROVIDED
beliefs. I think I can speak for
Peter in saying that we both
learned and grew from the
creativity of our relationship.
Working on the memorial was
a symbol and reflection of the
destructive power intolerance
can proliferate. And that it is
incumbent upon each of us to
set our own intolerance aside
for our own good, and the
greater good.”
PHOTO PROVIDED
A crystal shaped by Sisters Country artist Lawrence Stoller is the
centerpiece of the Eleven Tears Memorial, honoring 11 American Express
employees killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade
Center in New York.
For days after the ter-
rorist attacks of September
11, 2001, the only planes in
the skies over Sisters were
the F-15s of the Oregon Air
National Guard.
Sisters resident Jim
Cunningham was responsible
for those planes.
Brigadier General
Cunningham didn’t yet live in
Sisters full time, but he was
visiting his parents at their
home in Crossroads when the
attacks went down.
“I got a phone call,” he
recalled. “You are the only
general officer in Oregon
right now.’”
Jim’s wife, Dana, drove
him to Salem, and he got to
work assessing the state of the
nation’s air defenses, which
are entirely the province of
the Air National Guard.
“You don’t know if what’s
happening on the East Coast
is all of it or not,” he said.
“You don’t know.”
So his pilots had to be
ready for anything — another
terrorist strike or an oppor-
tunistic attack when the
U.S. was vulnerable and
distracted.
Cunningham was utterly
confident in the readiness of
the defenses for the Pacific
Northwest.
“The two best fighter
wings in the U.S. are in this
state,” he said. “Portland had
15 of their planes combat-
ready in 15 hours.”
The rest were operational
within 24 hours.
“They were the first in the
nation to be up and ready,” he
said.
Part of Cunningham’s role
was to address the media,
and to offer reassurance that
the skies in the region were
protected.
He recalls being struck
by the immediate outpouring
of patriotism, including in
Portland, where noise com-
plaints about military jets
were more common than dis-
plays of patriotism.
“I was just amazed at the
community response the day
after,” he said. “Flags went
up everywhere.”
Command in the
Oregon Air National Guard
was a part-time gig, and
Cunningham remained a
commercial pilot with United
Airlines. He recognized that
it could easily have been him
in the cockpit of one of the
doomed airliners. That gave
him yet another perspective
on readiness. He returned to
the civilian cockpit a month
after the 9/11 attacks.
“You could cut the atmo-
sphere with a knife,” he said.
United had taken immedi-
ate steps to improve security,
PHOTO BY JIM CORNELIUS
Brigadier
General
Jim
Cunningham of the Oregon Air
National Guard was responsible
for air defense over the Pacific
Northwest in the aftermath of the
September 11 attacks. He lives in
Sisters and has served many local
community organizations.
including offering Taser
training and installing air
marshals on flights. Cockpit
doors were hardened.
Twenty years down the
line, though, Cunningham is
dissatisfied with the level of
security. He notes that hard-
ened doors are not enough to
secure the cockpit. There are
still moments of vulnerabil-
ity, such as when a pilot has
to leave the cockpit to use the
restroom.
“Most of it has to do with
opening and closing that
door,” Cunningham said.
“Airport security — that’s
like locks: it keeps out the
honest people.”
He sees complacency set-
ting in.
“I don’t believe the nation
thinks another 9/11 can hap-
pen,” he said.
Cunningham is also
appalled at the outcome
of 20 years of warfare in
Afghanistan, where the 9/11
attacks originated. A Vietnam
veteran, he is dismayed to
see the lessons of that con-
flict forgotten so quickly,
and to see military and politi-
cal leaders deceiving the
American people.
“We haven’t had an exit
plan for warfare since World
War II,” he said. “National
security has become a politi-
cal issue that divides instead
of uniting the nation.”
After his career in the
Guard and the airlines,
Cunningham has continued to
serve his community through
organizations from Habitat
for Humanity to the Sisters
Folk Festival to Kiwanis. He
believes in country and com-
munity and service — but he
worries about the future and
the nation’s level of readiness,
especially in cybersecurity.
“We’re behind China,
we’re behind Russia,” he
said, “And the evidence is
everywhere.”