Remembering 9/11: Del Campo Instructor's Classified Mission Transports Top-Ranking Officials From Capitol

Just prior to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Master Sgt. Noah Dula, then a Staff Sgt. with the First Helicopter Squadron at Andrews Air Force Base, had just launched Air Force One.

It was during those initial early-morning routine squadron launches, the Master Sgt., now an ROTC instructor at Del Campo High School, saw his first ominous glimpses of the first jet flying into the northern façade of the north tower.

Some of his fellow squad members standing around the TV started explaining to Dula their speculations on what had happened, he said.

“As we were watching we were all kind of like, ‘what is that, what’s going on,’ Dula said. “As we were saying that the second jet crashed into the second tower.”

As he sat and watched the flames and the panicked tone the newscasters developed, the realization started to set in.

“It started becoming a reality that this wasn’t an accident,” Dula said. “There is something else going on here.”

Immediately his squadron was placed on full alert and all aircraft were called back.

After a briefing describing what could at that point only be described as an attack, Dula’s squadron was given a classified mission. Even Dula didn’t know exactly what type of mission it would be.

“It was the World War II type of mission where we have to evacuate (Washington) D.C., but nobody knew where and what was supposed to go on,” Dula said.

Dula and his squadron launched 10 of the 16 helicopters. The remaining crafts would be launched after general maintenance was performed.

“We pretty much went to downtown D.C., picked up a lot of folks and took them to a safe location,” Dula said. “They were high-ranking officials, anyone from the mayor to congressmen; we probably picked up people from the Pentagon.”

The destination was still unknown, Dula explained, because “I wasn’t actually a part of that process.”

“It was an amazing thing, because normally we have a pilot, co-pilot and maybe an engineer and a (navigator),” Dula said. “(The helicopter) can usually seat three to fie people in the back and we were taking as many as eight extra people in the back.”

The helicopter returned those people, gassed up and went right back out and picked up another large group, Dula said.

Dula and his squad would continue doing this all over the D.C. area.

“There was about 21 aircraft in and out for about three to four hours picking up people downtown taking them to whatever destination they needed to go,” Dula said.