{"id":22014593,"date":"2026-09-13T11:35:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T09:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/9-11-f-16s-washington-defenders-preserved-museums-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T11:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T09:36:10","slug":"9-11-f-16s-washington-defenders-preserved-museums-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/9-11-f-16s-washington-defenders-preserved-museums-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"9\/11 F-16s: Three Jets That Defended Washington Are Saved"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n\r\n<p>On the morning of 11 September 2001, four pilots of the District of Columbia Air National Guard ran to their <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f-16-fighting-falcon\/\">F-16s<\/a> at Andrews without waiting for live weapons to be loaded. One of them, Lt. Heather Penney, had never scrambled an aircraft before. She had never even trained to.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Twenty-five years later, three of the jets those pilots flew that day have been pulled back from the edge of destruction. Two of them were already in the queue to be shot down over the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>This week, on the 25th anniversary of the attacks, the National Guard Bureau confirmed that the three aircraft will be retired and preserved as museum pieces rather than expended. It is a small decision with a long tail, and the reason it needed making at all is the uncomfortable part of the story.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px;margin:26px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700\">Quick Facts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>The unit:<\/strong> 121st Fighter Squadron, 113th Wing, District of Columbia Air National Guard &mdash; the &ldquo;Capital Guardians&rdquo;<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>85-1438:<\/strong> flown by then-Maj. Dan Caine, now the 22nd Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Bound for the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Dayton, Ohio<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>85-1461:<\/strong> flown by then-Maj. Marc Sasseville as escort for Air Force One later that day. Bound for static display at Joint Base Andrews<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>86-0255:<\/strong> flown by then-Lt. Heather Penney, second to scramble. Bound for the American Heritage Museum, Hudson, Massachusetts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>The near miss:<\/strong> three other 9\/11 jets were converted into QF-16 target drones. One has already been destroyed in a missile test<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Conversion cost:<\/strong> roughly $5 million per QF-16; the last of 127 was delivered by Boeing in April 2025<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A Hasty, Quickly Constructed Gameplan<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Caine was a major and the wing&rsquo;s weapons officer, running the flying programme that morning. When the second airliner hit the World Trade Center on the television in front of him, the ambiguity evaporated. &ldquo;It was clear that the United States was at war,&rdquo; he recalled in a National Guard Bureau video made for the anniversary.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>He called for live weapons to be readied on the flightline. Loading them takes time, and there was none. The White House called, telling the wing to get airborne. Caine, Sasseville &mdash; the wing&rsquo;s operations director &mdash; and two junior pilots, Penney and Brandon &ldquo;Igor&rdquo; Rasmussen, put together what Caine described as &ldquo;a hasty, quickly constructed gameplan&rdquo;.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>They waited on the authority to launch. When it came, the weapons still were not ready. On the way to the aircraft, Sasseville told Penney what the plan actually was: they would have to ram the airliner.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/lt-gen-marc-sasseville-portrait.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"flex-shrink:0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/lt-gen-marc-sasseville-portrait.jpg\" alt=\"Lt. Gen. Marc Sasseville\" style=\"width:96px;height:96px;border-radius:50%;object-fit:cover;object-position:center;display:block;border:2px solid #ddd\"><\/a><div><em>&ldquo;We had an entire wing of support behind us, getting things moving that day, reacting to that terrible attack. The White House communicated with us because we were one of the few units in a position to actually do something. We took off as soon as we could.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Lt. Gen. Marc Sasseville<\/strong> &mdash; Then a major with the 113th Wing; later Vice Chief of the National Guard Bureau, now retired<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>On the flightline they skipped the routine pre-flight check entirely, climbing straight into the cockpits and trusting their maintainers to have done everything right. They took off without clear rules of engagement; those were sorted out once they were already in the air. Then they turned up the Potomac, hunting for the airliner that would become known as Flight 93.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>It had already gone down in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, brought down by its own passengers storming the cockpit. Nobody airborne over Washington knew that yet.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;I like to think it was because I was a good pilot. But I think it was because I was single. It was just me and a dog.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Heather Penney<\/strong> &mdash; Then a lieutenant with the 121st Fighter Squadron; now director of research at AFA&rsquo;s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>That was Penney, asked why she had been the one chosen to go. Sasseville&rsquo;s memory of the mood is shorter still: everyone was running on adrenaline, and &ldquo;no one asked any questions&rdquo;.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Jets Were Being Turned Into Targets<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Here is where the preservation story gets its edge. Of the D.C. Guard F-16s flown on 9\/11, only one has stayed in normal service &mdash; Caine&rsquo;s jet, still flying with the Air National Guard&rsquo;s 162nd Wing at Tucson, Arizona. Three others had already been converted into QF-16 Full Scale Aerial Targets: real fighters, stripped of their pilots, flown by remote control so that missiles can be tested against something that manoeuvres like a fighter.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>One of those three was the aircraft Sasseville actually scrambled in that morning. It was destroyed at the end of its flying life in a missile test. The remaining two were heading the same way.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/qf-16-full-scale-aerial-target-tyndall-takeoff.jpg\" alt=\"A QF-16 Full Scale Aerial Target taking off\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A QF-16 Full Scale Aerial Target lifts off at Tyndall Air Force Base. Converted F-16s like this one are flown unmanned so weapons can be tested against a genuine fighter. Three of the D.C. Guard jets flown on 9\/11 were rebuilt into these, and one has already been shot down. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Javier Cruz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Paperwork, Then Phone Calls<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Saving them started with archive work. Members of the wing began digging more than a year ago, hunting down old paperwork to establish who had signed out which aircraft on 9\/11, and then tracing where each of those tail numbers had ended up. Working with the National Guard Association of the United States, they took the case to the Air Force, the Air National Guard and the White House, proposing preservation under the National Museum of the United States Air Force Heritage Program.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;This was a team effort. We just reached out to some of our normal contacts. We went to the National Security Council. We went to Office of Public Liaison in the White House. We went to the Pentagon, and we alerted some folks up on Capitol Hill to this issue.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Jon &ldquo;Ice&rdquo; Eisberg<\/strong> &mdash; Vice president, National Guard Association of the United States<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The obstacle was not sentiment but arithmetic. QF-16s are a finite resource. Each conversion costs around $5 million, and the last of 127 was handed over by Boeing in April 2025, according to Air &amp; Space Forces Magazine&rsquo;s 2026 almanac. Once a QF-16 has used up its available flying hours it becomes useful for destructive live-ordnance testing &mdash; and there is a queue for that. The AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile, the Air Force&rsquo;s programme to push air-to-air engagement ranges well beyond visual range, is exactly the kind of effort that needs targets to shoot at.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The compromise was neat: let the two aircraft fly out the rest of their allotted hours as drones, and when the clock runs down, hand them over for preservation instead of sending them out to be destroyed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>In the National Guard Bureau&rsquo;s anniversary video, Caine and his fellow pilots go back through that morning in their own words:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/d1Da8yu9b-Y\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>Which F-16s that defended Washington on 9\/11 are being preserved?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Three F-16s of the District of Columbia Air National Guard&rsquo;s 121st Fighter Squadron. Tail number 85-1438, flown by then-Maj. Dan Caine, goes to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Tail number 85-1461, flown by then-Maj. Marc Sasseville as escort for Air Force One, becomes a static display at Joint Base Andrews. Tail number 86-0255, flown by then-Lt. Heather Penney, goes to the American Heritage Museum in Hudson, Massachusetts.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Did the F-16 pilots who scrambled on 9\/11 take off unarmed?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">They took off before live weapons could be loaded. Maj. Dan Caine called for live munitions to be readied, but arming the aircraft takes time and the order to launch came first. Because of that, Maj. Marc Sasseville told Lt. Heather Penney on the way to their jets that they would have to ram the airliner. They also launched without settled rules of engagement, which were arranged while they were already airborne.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Were any of the 9\/11 F-16s destroyed?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. Three of the D.C. Air National Guard F-16s flown on 9\/11 were later converted into QF-16 Full Scale Aerial Targets, and one of them &mdash; the aircraft Marc Sasseville actually scrambled in that morning &mdash; was destroyed in a missile test at the end of its flying life. The remaining two were on course for the same fate before the preservation effort intervened.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What is a QF-16?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">A QF-16 is a retired F-16 rebuilt as an unmanned Full Scale Aerial Target, flown by remote control so that air-to-air weapons can be tested against something that manoeuvres like a real fighter. Each conversion costs roughly $5 million, and the last of 127 was delivered to the U.S. Air Force by Boeing in April 2025. Once a QF-16 has used up its available flying hours it can be expended in destructive live-ordnance testing.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Who were the pilots that defended Washington on 9\/11?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Four pilots of the 113th Wing were involved that morning: Maj. Dan Caine, the wing&rsquo;s weapons officer, who is now the 22nd Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Maj. Marc Sasseville, the operations director, who later became Vice Chief of the National Guard Bureau and is now retired; Lt. Heather Penney, now director of research at AFA&rsquo;s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies; and Lt. Brandon &ldquo;Igor&rdquo; Rasmussen.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How were the aircraft saved from being used as targets?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Members of the wing spent more than a year tracing which pilot signed out which aircraft on 9\/11 and where those tail numbers had gone. Working with the National Guard Association of the United States, they raised the case with the Air Force, the National Security Council, the White House, the Pentagon and Congress. The Air Force&rsquo;s solution was to let the two surviving QF-16s fly out their remaining allotted hours and then transfer them for preservation rather than expend them.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Which F-16s that defended Washington on 9\/11 are being preserved?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Three F-16s of the District of Columbia Air National Guard\u2019s 121st Fighter Squadron. Tail number 85-1438, flown by then-Maj. Dan Caine, goes to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Tail number 85-1461, flown by then-Maj. Marc Sasseville as escort for Air Force One, becomes a static display at Joint Base Andrews. Tail number 86-0255, flown by then-Lt. Heather Penney, goes to the American Heritage Museum in Hudson, Massachusetts.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Did the F-16 pilots who scrambled on 9\/11 take off unarmed?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"They took off before live weapons could be loaded. Maj. Dan Caine called for live munitions to be readied, but arming the aircraft takes time and the order to launch came first. Because of that, Maj. Marc Sasseville told Lt. Heather Penney on the way to their jets that they would have to ram the airliner. They also launched without settled rules of engagement, which were arranged while they were already airborne.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Were any of the 9\/11 F-16s destroyed?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Yes. Three of the D.C. Air National Guard F-16s flown on 9\/11 were later converted into QF-16 Full Scale Aerial Targets, and one of them \u2014 the aircraft Marc Sasseville actually scrambled in that morning \u2014 was destroyed in a missile test at the end of its flying life. The remaining two were on course for the same fate before the preservation effort intervened.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What is a QF-16?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"A QF-16 is a retired F-16 rebuilt as an unmanned Full Scale Aerial Target, flown by remote control so that air-to-air weapons can be tested against something that manoeuvres like a real fighter. Each conversion costs roughly $5 million, and the last of 127 was delivered to the U.S. Air Force by Boeing in April 2025. Once a QF-16 has used up its available flying hours it can be expended in destructive live-ordnance testing.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Who were the pilots that defended Washington on 9\/11?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Four pilots of the 113th Wing were involved that morning: Maj. Dan Caine, the wing\u2019s weapons officer, who is now the 22nd Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Maj. Marc Sasseville, the operations director, who later became Vice Chief of the National Guard Bureau and is now retired; Lt. Heather Penney, now director of research at AFA\u2019s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies; and Lt. Brandon \\\"Igor\\\" Rasmussen.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How were the aircraft saved from being used as targets?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Members of the wing spent more than a year tracing which pilot signed out which aircraft on 9\/11 and where those tail numbers had gone. Working with the National Guard Association of the United States, they raised the case with the Air Force, the National Security Council, the White House, the Pentagon and Congress. The Air Force\u2019s solution was to let the two surviving QF-16s fly out their remaining allotted hours and then transfer them for preservation rather than expend them.\"}}]}<\/script><p><em>Sources: Air &amp; Space Forces Magazine (Tobias Naegele), National Guard Bureau, National Guard Association of the United States, National Museum of the United States Air Force Heritage Program.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/tom-froling-f-16-selfridge-9-11-25th-anniversary\/\">Tom Froling: The Selfridge F-16 Pilot Airborne on 9\/11<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/united-airlines-denver-9-11-flyover-cancelled-2026\/\">United Airlines Cancels Its Denver 9\/11 Flyover<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two of the F-16s flown in defence of the capital on 9\/11 had already been rebuilt as target drones. A third was shot down. On the 25th anniversary, the rest were rescued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":22014392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[664,670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22014593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-aviation","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>9\/11 F-16s: The Jets That Defended Washington Are Saved<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The 9\/11 F-16s that defended Washington were being turned into target drones. 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