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Flinching momentarily as another tremendous explosion resounded from the
direction of the Lincoln
Memorial, the leader of the detail had only a split second to make his
decision, and it was a fateful one.
The Guard will bring that guy down, switch to the second target. He s going
to be tough to bring down with a bullet until he gets closer.
See if you can take him before he gets across the Tidal Pool.
The Stinger team did as they were ordered, and quickly moved across the room,
pivoted, got a clean lock on the approaching aircraft just as it crossed back
over land& and over thousands of panicking citizens& and fired.
The stinger rocketed from the top of the Monument with aWHOOSH , leaving heavy
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smoke in its wake and momentarily blinding the agents on that side of the
Monument. The missile quickly approached the ultralight, whose pilot saw it
coming and immediately dove towards the crowd. Just before the missile
impacted, some of the ill-fated members of the crowd below heard him yell,
Allah Ahkbar! At that instant he detonated the package of explosives behind
him and disappeared in a blinding flash, into which the Stinger missile dove,
and also exploded.
Over 4,500 shards of metal, ball bearings, and other shrapnel were blasted at
high velocity out of the explosion and into the crowd of people below, all of
whom were now madly running from the intersection of Independence Avenue and
Constitution. Scores were killed by the explosions. More still were killed by
the crush and stampede of the crowd; hundreds more were injured.
At the same moment, another violent explosion occurred over towards the
Lincoln Memorial as the third armored truck ignited. The pilot of the National
Guard Black Hawk helicopter had no time to consider or worry about that third
large explosion. His aircraft had already taken the other ultralight under
fire and
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had wounded the pilot in his left thigh, causing the aircraft to begin to fly
unstably as its pilot tried to maintain control of the aircraft. It became
impossible for him to continue jinking to avoid the attacker behind him and he
knew his fate was sealed.
The Black Hawk was now closing in for the kill from behind the ultralight
aircraft which was only a hundred yards from the Washington Monument. Just as
the gunner was preparing to take the final shots, the second terrorist pilot,
finally realizing that he would never make it to his target, which had been
the sniper team atop the Washington Monument all along, chose to detonate the
explosives on his aircraft. In so doing at that particular instant, he
unwittingly achieved his original purpose.
The explosion of the improvised destructive device threw shrapnel in all
directions. Blown forward by the blast, hundreds of pieces impacted against
the sides of the Washington Monument, a number of them finding their way into
the observation post where the Secret Service agents were stationed. One of
the agents was killed outright and another injured while below, the sky was
raining shards of metal.
As the leader of the detail quickly checked for any sign of life from the dead
agent, a crackling, wrenching noise in the air outside of his position drew
his attention.
My God, was all he had time to whisper to himself.
The blast from the second ultralight also expanded to the rear, and threw
shrapnel behind it& right into the path of the oncoming National Guard
helicopter. As the pilot madly adjusted his collective and cyclic controls to
avoid the blast by climbing over and around it, the shock wave struck the
helicopter and jammed both his cyclic and stabilator control systems into
position. It also severely damaged the tail rotor. At the same instant,
shrapnel blasted through the compartment, killing the pilot and severely
wounding the copilot.
With the aircraft locked into its current attitude, the tail rotor tearing
itself apart, and the helicopter beginning to spin wildly, the Black Hawk
impacted the side of the Washington Monument, five feet below the doomed
Secret Service detail leader and the remainder of his team, who were
mercifully, quickly incinerated by the fire and blast that raced through their
observation deck.
& and there was still a third ultralight.
May 31, 2009, that same time
Near the Presentation Stand
The Lincoln Memorial
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Washington, D.C.
After the initial explosion, when the head of the President s Secret Service
detail received word of the approaching ultralight aircraft, another warning
was quickly communicated.
Another truck was seen racing east on C Street towards the site of the initial
explosion. This was followed almost immediately by yet another warning, a
third armored security truck was approaching along 21stStreet.
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Burt Stevens informed the President, Mr. President, we have to turn around
and get out of here right now& more threats are appearing all around. Two more
truck bombs are coming this way and will be here before we can make the limo.
Follow me, he urged as he led them away from the Memorial, to the south and
west.
As he did so, two agents, who had retrieved a LAWS (Light Armor Weapon System)
out of one of the armored Suburbans parked in the circular drive on the south
side of the monument, ran to the northeast corner of the Lincoln Memorial and
took up a firing position there.
Just as they got set up, there was a mad crackling of small arms fire and then
another resounding explosion to their northeast, where another of the armored
trucks set itself off against the last concrete blockade manned by National
Guard troops, this one on Constitution Avenue.
The agents with the LAWS moved back behind the wall on the interior of the
Memorial to avoid the worst of the shock wave, which blasted across the area,
again knocking everyone in its path to the ground. When they returned to their
position, they were greeted by the sight of an armored security van speeding
madly out of the dust and debris, right down the diagonal road toward the
Lincoln Memorial and the President s retreating party.
There was no time to wonder; there was no time to waste; there was only time
to react in defense of their President.
Target acquired. FIRE! shouted the agent manning the weapon as his partner
prepared another round.
But a second missile would neither be necessary, nor possible. Just feet from
the circular drive, the missile impacted the onrushing truck and there was a
third violent explosion. The shock wave from this explosion was not contained
by trees or buildings. The two agents at the northeast corner of the Lincoln
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