The operation was practised on one to one replicas of the compound by an elite squad of Seal Team Six operatives which were built in Nevada and Virginia. On April 28th, the operatives arrived in Jalalabad and awaited instructions.
That night, Obama was restless. If the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden were faulty or if the Pakistani government discovered the operation, it could set back him being tracked down by months or perhaps even years. On the other hand, if it was a success, the most wanted man in the world would be brought to justice. On May 1st, Obama decided what to do.
The White House staff, including President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, receiving updates on the mission progress
Operation Neptune Spear began at around 11 pm local time, with 2 black hawk helicopters, which were modified to make less sound, approaching the compound in Abbottabad. Aboard the helicopters were the 23 SEALS, a translator and a dog named Cairo, who was there to look for hidden rooms and check for incoming Pakistani militant forces. 2 chinooks, carrying a spare 25 SEALS, were stationed at the ready incase of a hostile reaction from the Pakistani military.
The first helicopter was supposed to hover above the yard, letting the SEALS slide down a rope onto the lawn. However, due to weather conditions, the helicopter crashed inside the lawn. No-one was injured but they had lost the element of surprise. The SEALS from helicopter 1 breached the gates and moved through the compound whilst a group from helicopter 2, which touched down safely just outside the compound, were deterring neighbouring villagers.
A replica of the crashed helicopter from the behind the scenes of Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
3 SEALS from helicopter 1 split off to deal with the guest house whilst the SEALS not tasked with crowd control from helicopter 2 breached from the north. Those who went to deal with the guest house encountered Ahmed, to whom they engaged in a small firefight, resulting in the death of Ahmed. Meanwhile, the other SEALS managed to breach the main building, killing Ahmed’s brother and his brother’s wife.
After the stairway was breached, bin Laden’s 23-year-old son, Khalid bin Laden was killed in the stairwell. On the third floor, they discovered a tall thin man, peering out from behind the doorway of a bedroom. The SEALS took fire but either missed or landed non-lethal shots. One of the women in the room made a motion as if to charge at the lead SEAL but was shot in the leg. Robert O’Neill charged past the leader and spotted the man behind a woman, with his hands on her shoulders. As he went to push her, O’Neill shot the man twice in the head and once more as he crumpled to the floor.
Over the radio, the White house staff heard “For God and country. Geronimo. Geronimo. Geronimo.” That was the code word for an enemy killed in action. The most hated man in the USA, the most wanted man on the planet, the architect behind the deaths of 3,000 innocent American lives was finally dead.
There were no casualties on the American side with only 5 dead inside the compound. The assault was completed in only 15 minutes, with the rest of the time spent collecting hard drives whilst a demolition team destroyed any evidence of the helicopter crash. One of the chinooks helped the SEALS home as well as carrying the corpse of bin Laden, to a safehouse where his identity was officially confirmed.
The millennium dawned and, that November, a new President was to be elected. Bill Clinton served his two terms as allowed in the 22nd Amendment the Democrats needed a new candidate to lead them this election. The obvious choice fell to Bill Clinton’s VP, Al Gore, who had Joe Lieberman as his running mate. Whilst the Republican Primaries were a lot more competitive, George Bush, son of George H. W. Bush and Governor of Texas, came out on top, choosing the now infamous Dick Cheney as his pick for VP. A lot of both the campaigns focused on domestic policy as, at the time, the United States was not involved in a single conflict. George Bush, during a debate, stated the line:
I don’t think our troops ought to be used for what’s called nation-building. I think our troops ought to be used to fight and win war.
George Bush, Second Presidential Debate, 2000
A photo of a debate between Gore (left) and Bush (right)
Election day came and no-one won. The states were relatively evenly divided, with Gore having 266 Electoral Votes and Bush having 246, out of the 270 needed to win. However, the problem was Florida. Their problem was that the ballots were designed to cater to old people, a large part of Florida’s population and especially in the county of Palm Beach, wherein a hole would be punched in the ballot as many could not hold a pen properly. Which seems reasonable enough until you see how the ballot was formatted.
A photo of the Florida Ballot for Palm Beach
Some punched two holes in a ballot, some punched a hole that wasn’t even in one of the designated holes and some suspected that many Gore supporters were attempting to vote for him but voted for Pat Buchanan of the Reform Party by mistake. In the end, the whole thing was a disaster. At one point it seemed like Gore had the lead, which would mean he would win. At others, it seemed as though Bush had the lead, meaning he would win.
Eventually the results came through and Bush won. However, the margin was so narrow that a recount was demanded. Once the recount came through, Bush still won but the margin was even smaller than before, with now only a 300 vote difference. Eventually, Gore ended up going to the Supreme Court to demand another recount. After 5 weeks of proceedings, Gore eventually conceded the election, with the official count standing at 570 votes in favour of Bush in Florida, meaning he won the election and became the 43rd President of the United States, with only 271 Electoral Votes. Gore still won the popular vote on a national scale by a 0.52% margin. This election was one of if not the closest in history. And it was an election that would change the world.
For the first few months of George Bush’s Presidency, he was considered relatively fine. He didn’t do much to change any of what had come before and mostly stuck to his campaign promises. However, all that changed one fateful day.
A photo of Flight 175 hitting the Second Tower of the WTC
In a response to 9/11, Congress, through the Authorisation for Use of Military Force, gave Bush the right to go to war against terrorism anywhere in the world, effectively declaring a War on Terror. Once Afghanistan was invaded and the Taliban was toppled, many in the Bush Administration wanted to link Iraq to 9/11. Even though it was an organisation led by Saudis, who set up terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and were housed by Pakistan after the invasion, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, and Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defence, were determined to link the two, by any means necessary, as they had been looking for an excuse to invade Iraq for a long time. Perhaps many in the Bush Administration saw 9/11 and the War on Terror as an opportunity to do so.
Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defence, claimed that Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq was funding terrorist groups across the world and that “It’s almost like cutting off the head of the snake, and the rest of the body will go”. Rumsfeld began his own campaign, claiming that Iraq was not only advancing its chemical weapons, but also developing biological weapons and a nuclear weapons programme. Cheney soon hopped on the bandwagon, also claiming that Saddam Hussein was now developing the infamous Weapons of Mass Destruction, saying that there was “no doubt” that he had them.
Finally Bush joined in, who, in his 2002 State of the Union Address, claimed that Hussein was developing anthrax, nerve agents and nuclear weapons. Bush allegedly had a personal vendetta against Hussein who had threatened, and even possibly tried, to kill his father. Despite there being a dire lack of any shred of evidence against him, the Bush Administration insisted that Hussein was not only developing WMDs but had the intent of selling them to terrorists so they could attack the United States and her allies. One of these allies, who believed these lies, was the United Kingdom.
After a decade and a half rule under Thatcherism, Tony Blair, leader of the Labour Party, won the 1997 general election in a landslide, winning another massive majority in 2001, only months before 9/11. After 9/11, Blair declared that the UK would remain a steadfast ally of the United States. Having no reason to believe that Bush was lying, Blair also joined in on the rhetoric that Hussein was developing WMDs.
A photo of Blair after his historic election win in 1997
It became increasingly apparent that Bush was intent on invading Iraq if they found evidence or not of the WMDs. However, despite this, they still tried to get the UN on board. The UN obliged and sent weapons inspectors to Iraq to look for said WMDs. After over 700 inspections, nothing was found, and it became increasingly apparent that Clinton had destroyed them in Desert Fox. Hans Blix, head of the Weapons Inspections, claimed that Bush was pounding the war drums without sufficient evidence. Despite this, Bush still insisted on the WMDs existence.
In a now infamous presentation, Colin Powell pushed the case that Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction, at one point bringing out a small vial of a teaspoon of beige powder, claiming that that much anthrax “shut down the United States Senate in the fall of 2001. This forced several hundred people to undergo emergency medical treatment and killed two postal workers just from an amount just about this quantity that was inside of an envelope.” He then claimed that Saddam Hussein had anywhere between 8,500 to 20,000 litres of anthrax, “enough to fill tens upon tens upon tens of thousands of teaspoons.” The UN still, obviously, did not buy this.
Powell showing the vial
Eventually the US decided it was either their way of the highway and, on March 19th 2003, began Operation Iraqi Freedom, with the help of coalition forces from around the world, most notably the UK, Poland and Australia. It began with a bombing campaign, mostly of Iraqi military bases as well as targeting the Presidential Palace in Baghdad, whilst a ground invasion occurred, lasting around about a month. Hussein, as well as his inner circle, was forced into hiding. On May 1st, 2003, Bush declared “Mission Accomplished” aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in a now infamous speech declaring that the invasion was a success and that Iraq would never be a problem again.
Political Historian, Matthew Beat, calls this the beginning of the insurgency part of the war. Many soldiers found that they thought the Iraqi people would hate them. However, they only hated them once they stayed. Whilst Hussein was captured, put on trial and executed by the new Iraqi government, the United States stayed in Iraq for almost an entire decade.
During this time, many insurgents against the occupying force of the United States arrived. They were originally just Hussein’s hardliners, but they soon developed into Islamist factions, who believed that Hussein’s fall was a perfect power vacuum to establish an Islamic government. In fact it got so bad that the US ended up fighting Al-Qaeda, who had joined the side of the insurgents. That’s right. The Iraq War was so bad that they made a connection to Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Many factions began vying for power and, during the insurgency, these factions would break out into violence. The most notable parts of the insurgency were the IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), which would be set off through suicide bombings or car bombings.
A photo of Iraqi insurgents
Despite what was going on, Bush’s popularity hardly faltered, as he won a second term in the 2004 election against John Kerry. However, the situation in Iraq became more and more dire. Reports were coming out about torture of Iraqi people in Abu Ghaib prison, whilst elections were attempting to be established. Once it was discovered that Al-Qaeda forces were making their presence known in Iraq, Bush made the decision to send even more troops into Iraq in January of 2007.
By now, anti-war protests began erupting in Washington, calling for an end to the war. Many say that the Iraq War strongly damaged the reputation of the Republican Party. With a small dash of financial recession, this paved the perfect way for Barack Obama to win an overwhelming majority in 2008. Not only that, but many seats in the Senate and the House ended up flipping to the Democrats that election. Eventually, Obama pulled the majority of forces out of Iraq by 2011, leaving around 30,000 troops still in Iraq. Today, 2500 troops are still stationed in Iraq. To this day, not a single WMD was found. Bush lied to the American people and got off Scott free.
The FBI’s Most Wanted poster for Osama bin Laden. Until his death, bin Laden was wanted for $25,000,000
For three months after 9/11, new leads evaded the CIA and all the leads that they previously had went cold. This was even more troublesome for them when you consider that they very nearly looked evil in the eye. Towards the tail end of the Afghan Invasion, a battle was staged at Tora Bora. Afghan troops embedded themselves in the mountains of Tora Bora, with the possible objective of keeping Bin Laden safe. Whilst the battle raged on, it is believed that Bin Laden slipped into the neighbouring nation of Pakistan. Only 20 captives were detained and for a long time, none of them gave anything away. Until one of them did.
Previously off the FBI’s radar, Muhammad al-Qahtani denied any involvement in Al-Qaeda and the attacks on September 11th, saying that he was in Afghanistan to pursue his interests in falconry. However, once he was fingerprinted, the investigators realised that they already had a record of him.
al-Qhatani’s mugshot
On August 4th 2001, a little over 5 weeks before the attacks, al-Qahtani attempted to enter the United States at Orlando Airport. With $2,800 in cash and a one way ticket from Dubai to Orlando on him, the officer at customs denied him entry to the US, suspecting him of being an illegal immigrant. Furthermore, a call was made from Orlando Airport on that day to a number that investigators knew was connected to Al-Qaeda in the UAE. After scanning through hours upon hours of security footage of the airport in search of another lead, they discovered a rental car. A rental car which was currently being hired by Mohamed Atta, the ringleader behind the attacks and the main pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre. Investigators believed that Atta had arrived to pick up al-Qahtani, believing al-Qahtani to possibly be one of the hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93, being the rumoured 20th hijacker. Al-Qahtani was among many Al-Qaeda informants who managed to give investigators a lead on the whereabouts of Bin Laden.
Zubaydah’s mugshot
Another one of these informants was Abu Zubaydah, who was arrested in a US-Pakistani raid on Faisalabad safehouses in Pakistan in March 2002. He was interrogated until he ratted out Khalid Sheikh-Mohammed, Al-Qaeda’s operational commander, who had been the planner behind the attacks on America. Furthermore, Qahtani revealed that Khalid had introduced him to a man in July 2001. This man’s name was Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti.
Even with all this information being revealed, they were no closer to finding bin Laden. The man’s name was obviously a pseudonym, being a direct translation to “The Father of Ahmed from Kuwaiti”. However, they knew bin Laden could still communicate. Tapes would come through and investigators believed that bin Laden could have possible contact with more minor leaders inside Al-Qaeda The investigators decided to look through bin Laden’s courier network, the people who transmitted letters and documents to and from bin Laden, in a vain attempt to try and find where he was hiding. It would be a long time before any results came in.
Forces from Kurdistan apprehended a man called Hassan Ghul in January 2004. Ghul was carrying a letter addressed solely to Osama bin Laden. He was later handed over to the Americans, who claimed that the man behind the name of al-Kuwaiti operated as a personal courier to bin Laden. However, conflicting information emerged. While Ghul claimed that al-Kuwaiti had a much higher role in the chain of Al-Qaeda’s command, with him being on friendly terms with Khalid and his successor, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, Khalid and al-Libbi vehemently denied these claims, with Khalid claiming that al-Kuwaiti had retired and was long since inactive. When investigations expanded, a man named Riduan Isamuddin, or Hambali, came forward. Hamabli was the leader of an affiliate group of Al-Qaeda from South-East Asia. He claimed that Kuwaiti played a key role, with him saying that al-Kuwaiti managed a safehouse in Karachi during the Taliban fleeing from Afghanistan. This conflicting information about al-Kuwaiti only made him a higher priority for investigators, making them believe that he must be in a higher position inside Al-Qaeda.
While much of the information acquired from these prisoners was vital in the capture of bin Laden, it was obtained through questionable methods in the US’ interrogation area called Guantanamo Bay. Many prisoners were subjected to various torture methods, including, but not limited to water boarding, sleep deprivation and forced nudity. Zubaydah drew and described his torture in graphic detail.
Among the images [published, one of them shows] masked agents physically threatening Zubaydah with anal rape. […] In another image, Zubaydah draws himself chained in the nude in front of a female interrogator. A further drawing shows guards threatening to desecrate the Qur’an – techniques which were never officially approved by the justice department.
Ed Pilkington of The Guardian “‘The forever prisoner’: Abu Zubaydah’s drawings expose the US’s depraved torture policy”
Mark Denbeaux, Zubaydah’s lawyer had Zubaydah draw these pictures. He stated that:
He was the first person to be tortured, having been approved by the Department of Justice based on facts that the CIA knew to be false. His drawings are the ultimate repudiation of the failure and abuses of torture.
Denbeaux speaking on Zubaydah
An extract from a document about the torture against Zubaydah. One of the torturer’s face had to be censored as it was that realistic it threatened his identity being verified
These were called “enhanced interrogation techniques” by CIA officials. A 712 page long fraction of 6,700 long Committee report claims that not only were these torture techniques not effective in capturing Osama bin Laden but also damaged the standing of the United States in the world of foreign politics.
A protest against the interrogation methods used at Guantanamo Bay
Eventually, in 2007, the CIA finally attached a real name to al-Kuwaiti through an unknown foreign intelligence service. His real name was Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed, a Pakistani who lived in Kuwait for most of his childhood. It would not be until 2010 when they could finally track him down. Through phone calls, they were able to track Ahmed to Peshawar in northern Pakistan, where he was tailed by a Pakistani operative for the CIA back to his home. When they reached Ahmed’s home, the investigator’s were surprised.
What they found was a large mansion encased inside walls that were 10-18 feet high. These walls were topped with barbed wire and were sparsely populated by 4 gates littered around the compound border. If this was where Ahmed was living, investigators thought, then bin Laden could possibly be here also. Upon investigation of the compound, they found that only 3 people would go outside the mansion inside the compound, Ahmed, his brother and a mysterious figure who regularly walked around the interior courtyard on a daily basis. This figure was tall, thin, wore a pashtun dress and a prayer cap. When photos were captured, they were not very clear. This mysterious figure was nicknamed Pacer.
A diagram of the compound found by investigators
Whether Pacer was bin Laden or not, Barack Obama knew he needed to act sooner rather than later. Many options were considered. Assaulting bin Laden with the assistance of the Pakistani Government was entirely out of the question. Pakistan had previously favoured the Taliban in their escape from Afghanistan and had previously harboured many other members of Al-Qaeda. Bombing raids were favoured by the majority of the President’s advisors but Obama was concerned about civilian casualties and the difficulty of confirming whether they had eliminated bin Laden so ruled that out. Eventually, they settled on an aerial to ground assault, in which bin Laden was either captured or killed and the Pakistani Government would not be notified. This would be extra risky, considering that the compound is only 3 and a half kilometres away, or 2 miles away, from a Pakistani Military Academy.
I would like to touch on one important point in this address. The actions by these young men who destroyed the United States and launched the storm of planes against it have done a good deed. They transferred the battle into the US heartland. Let the United States know that with God’s permission, the battle will continue to be waged on its territory until it leaves our lands, stops its support for the Jews, and lifts the unjust embargo on the Iraqi people who have lost more than one million children. The Americans should know that the storm of plane attacks will not abate, with God’s permission. There are thousands of the Islamic nation’s youths who are eager to die just as the Americans are eager to live.
Sulaiman Abu Gaith claiming responsibility for 9/11 on behalf of Al-Qaeda in a video on Al Jazeera, 2001
A photo of United Airlines Flight 175 about to strike the South Tower of the WTC, 2001
Not even one hour after American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Centre, CIA officials confirmed to George W. Bush, then President of the United States that Al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, were behind the attacks on September 11th. Whilst bin Laden initially denied these claims, Al-Qaeda spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Gaith came forward in a video, where he claimed that the organisation was responsible for 9/11. A tape was later found by the CIA, where bin Laden also claimed responsibility for the attacks.
America initially took a diplomatic approach. Knowing that bin Laden was somewhere in Afghanistan, they met with Taliban commanders, who were currently in charge of the country, to negotiate the handover of bin Laden. However, while this was going on, Bush made a radical choice. In front of congress, Bush issued an ultimatum.
[T]he United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban. Deliver to United States authorities all the leaders of al Qaeda who hide in your land. Release all foreign nationals, including American citizens, you have unjustly imprisoned. Protect foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers in your country. Close immediately and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, and hand over every terrorist, and every person in their support structure, to appropriate authorities. Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer operating.
These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate.
Bush’s ultimatum, September 20th, 2001
A photo of Bush declaring the “War on Terror”, 2001
Whilst a bold demand, it was strongly backed by congress, who gave the go ahead to use “all necessary and appropriate force” to capture bin Laden and arrest any supporters of him or Al-Qaeda. Negotiations quickly broke down as the Taliban refused Bush’s ultimatum, denying the attacks were committed by bin Laden and citing the Oath of Allegiance bin Laden made to the leader of the Taliban as a reason not to surrender him.
On October 7th, 2001, bombing raids began in major Afghan cities. After ground invasions beginning from multiple areas, the Taliban was swiftly toppled and forced into hiding by mid-2002. Al-Qaeda was practically dismantled other than the underground insurgent groups, whilst bin Laden escaped into Pakistan during the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001. It would be a long hunt until they found him once again.
Once the occupation began, two new tasks fell upon the Americans and the other coalition forces that invaded, to reconstruct a new new government in a war torn nation whilst also countering terrorism. After the death of bin Laden in May 2011, Barack Obama increased drone operations in warfare, leading to mass airstrikes which sometimes ended up targeting civilians. Most notably was the airstrike on Kunduz Hospital in Afghanistan, which killed 15 innocent civilians.
A photo of the hospital in the aftermath of the bombing, 2015
Due to these mass airstrikes, the occupying Americans began to slowly be despised by the Afghan population, leading to the Taliban making a comeback. They would organise terrorist attacks in the country, that would end up killing hundreds of innocent people and coalition soldiers. US Soldiers began training the Afghan army to combat the terrorists once they left and equipped them with American Weapons. Eventually, the occupation of Afghanistan ended up lasting 20 years.
Soon, Donald Trump, business entrepreneur turned POTUS, thought that Obama was too methodical with ISIS and wanted to take decisive action in Afghanistan. Trump wanted to crush terrorism whilst focusing resources into “Making America Great Again” instead of on the war. From 2018 to 2020, multiple ceasefire deals were proposed but ultimately shot down by the Taliban. However, a peace deal was signed in February 2020. Trump would not see the withdrawal of troops during his presidency however, due to his defeat in 2020 to Joe Biden.
Due to the coronavirus, many believed that the US should focus more resources on tackling the pandemic and the economic downturn caused by that, rather than focusing resources on a conflict that had lasted over two decades, making it the longest conflict in US history. In an attempt to honour the deal set up by his predecessor, Biden went ahead with the withdrawal. This announcement gave the Taliban an opportunity to take back control, advancing on Kabul, forcing many Afghan soldiers to surrender themselves to the Taliban, before the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was eventually toppled.
In one of the largest airlifts in history, 122,000 people were airlifted from Kabul airport. American soldiers managed to fend off the Taliban for over 2 weeks as the Taliban captured Kabul. The last US plane left on August 30th, with the Taliban capturing the airport the next day and declaring a victory. The War in Afghanistan is considered by many to not only be a somewhat pointless war but its ending is considered to be one of the greatest military catastrophes in history. As of today, the Taliban still run the country, and are not recognised by any nation as a legitimate government, with only 11 countries supporting the Taliban government.
On August 6th 2001, George W Bush, former President of the United States, received his daily brief. This day’s brief was titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US”. This report which was declassified in 2004 tells of a man called Osama bin Laden, who had been planning an attack on the USA since the late 1990s. The majority of the brief details previous attempts by Bin Laden to attack the United States. However, the ending of the report stated that since 1999, the FBI had been conducting investigations, reporting that Bin Laden was “[indicating] patterns of suspicious activity in this country, consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.” After having read this, Bush chose to brush it off and do nothing about it.
Page 1 of August 6th daily briefPage 2 of August 6th debrief
Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, 0800 hours. It is a cloudless day. At Logan International Airport in Boston, USA, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines flight 175 are having their passengers board. The American Airlines Flight is a Boeing 767-223ER and the United Airlines flight is a Boeing 767-222. The American Airlines Flight had 97 passengers onboard, little do they know that 5 of them are Al-Qaeda hijackers, one of which is one of the main leaders of the attacks called Mohamed Atta. While Flight 11 is taking off, United 175 has been delayed by fourteen minutes, which contains 65 passengers and 5 hijackers. At 8:14, it takes off. At the same time, United Airlines Flight 93 is being boarded at Newark Airport in New Jersey. Meanwhile, at Dulles Airport in Washington, American Airlines Flight 77 is also boarding. The aforementioned United 93 is delayed by 40 minutes, the most important 40 minutes in human history. Flight 77 is delayed by 20 minutes and took off at 8:20. As you guessed, all these planes were meant to take off at 8:00, and that was the terrorists plan the whole time. 0819 hours, Betty Ong, a flight attendant, contacts ground control and says “The cockpit’s not answering. Somebody’s stabbed in business class an I think there’s Mace, that we can’t breathe. I don’t know, I think we’re getting hijacked.”
Betty Ong’s words from the recorded call from Flight 11
5 minutes later they seem to accidentally receive a call from Mohammed Atta. 0833 hours, another announcement from Mohammed Atta plays, saying that they are “going back to the airport.”:
Ground Control unintentionally speaking to Atta
As most of you very well know, this was not the case. Over the state of New York, the plane turns around, with a target of New York City.
In New York City, in New Jersey, the Naudet Brothers are practicing their camera skills. While they are filming a drain with a firefighter, they hear a plane fly overhead. This is uncommon in Manhattan, so they decide to follow the track of the plane with the camera and the plane hits. This became some of the most famous footage associated with the attacks
The footage that the Naudet Brothers took of Flight 11 hitting the North Tower of the WTC
A few seconds before impact, flight attendant, Amy Sweeny, says: “We are in rapid descent…we are all over the place. Oh, my God, we are too low!” 0846 hours, Flight 11 strikes the North Tower of the World Trade Centre on the 93rd to 99th floor. Smoke clogs the air as United 93 passengers received the news. A world-wide panic ensues. Everyone across the globe are in shock. Every TV in the world are showing the events at the World Trade Centre unfold, and 15 minutes later the second one hit.
Flight 175 hitting the South Tower
Flight 175 was hijacked at around the same time that Flight 11 hit the North Tower. It had a near collision with Delta Airlines Flight 2315, having to roll on its side and missed the aircraft by 300 ft, or 90 m. 0903 hours, United 175 hit the south tower, having turned around over New Jersey. It crashes into the 77th and 85th floor. This is broadcast on live TV across the planet. All elevators in both buildings were taken out, so anyone in elevators could not escape. This concept is explored in the not very well received, 2017 movie, 9/11, with 4 people trapped in a north tower elevator. The heat of the blaze begins to weaken the infrastructure of the building. After this, The White house engage an evacuation. During this evacuation, another plane attacks, but instead of hitting another part of the World Trade Centre it attacks the military HQ of the United States in Washington DC in Virginia, The Pentagon. 0937 hours, Flight 77 crashed into the west side of the Pentagon, killing all 64 passengers and 5 hijackers on board. It turned around over the Ohio and Kentucky border and also ground control lost contact with the aircraft around about there as well. This attack had a total of around 189 deaths. No audio recordings were found of this hijacking but there is security camera footage of the plane striking the Pentagon.
The Pentagon after being struck by the plane
0850 hours, the United 93’s passengers were informed of the news about the Twin Towers and about 30 minutes later, the plane is Hijacked. Panic ensues as call after call is made from and to 93. The four hijackers take the 44 passengers and flight crew by storm and take over the aircraft and turn it around over Ohio towards Washington DC. So far, all the planes have attacked a symbol of the greatness and power of America, so the intended target could’ve been either the White House or the Capitol building. An audio clip shows that the passengers were genuinely frightened for in the background you can hear someone say, “We’re all going to die in here!” 0928 hours, there is an attempt to make contact with the crew of 93 but all they receive are announcements from the leader of this hijack, Ziad Jarrah. 0939 hours, pregnant passenger, Lauren Grandcolas, informs her husband, Jack, that “there’s just a little problem with the plane.” Later, another female passenger, CeeCee Lyles called her husband to tell her that she loves him very much. 0957 hours, Todd Beamer makes a request to Airplane Supervisor, Lisa Jefferson.
“Would you do one last thing for me?”
“Yes. What is it?”
“Would you pray with me?”
The passengers then recited the Lord’s Prayer together. At the end of this improvised sermon on the plane, Beamer concluded with this verse from Psalms 23
“Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For thou art with me”
The verse that Beamer recited on United 93, Psalms 23:4
Then Beamer tells the other passengers and crew members “Are you guys ready? OK, let’s roll.”
The plane starts moving
around violently as Jarrah says, “Is there something? A fight?” CeeCee called
her husband saying that the passengers are forcing their way into the cockpit
of the aircraft. Jarrah turns the plane from side to side to knock the
passengers off balance as he tells another hijacker, “They want to get in here.
Hold, hold from the inside. Hold from the inside. Hold.” He then jerks the
plane up and down 2 minutes into the assault. There is crashing, screaming and
china and glass smashing. There are also shouts of pain from another hijacker
outside the cockpit, presumed to be attacked. Jarrah stabilizes the plane at
1000 hours and asks, “Is that it? Shall we finish it off?” “No. Not yet.” Says
another Hijacker, “When they all come, we finish it off.” Jarrah starts jerking
the plane again and a passenger says, “In the cockpit. If we don’t, we’ll die.”
And 16 seconds pass by. As a passenger screams, “Roll it!” they start using the
food cart as a battering ram for the cockpit door.
The Twin Towers burning on the morning of September 11th
Back in New York, people are in awe of the spectacle of the horrific Twin Towers burning and some committing suicide from jumping from the building from the heat. The structure of the building is weak from all the build-up of heat and, at 0959 hours, the South Tower collapsed like a house of cards in 10 seconds. In the collapse, Police officers and contemporary firefighters were trapped under the wreckage, many of whom would not come out.
As this occurs, Flight 93
plummets into a nosedive and is upside down. As one of the hijackers says, “Allahu
Akbar” the plane makes a final nosedive into a field in Shanksville,
Pennsylvania.
The final part of the attack
was at 1028 hours when the North Tower collapsed and since then, the ground in
that area has been flat. America has never recovered since.
George W. Bush making a speech atop Ground Zero
“I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”
George W. Bush on the site of ground zero
Immediately after the attacks, Osama bin Laden praised the attack and its efforts but denied all claims of it being done by him, allegedly stating to an Arabic news corporation that he “[stresses] that [he had] not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation.” He later went on to email a Pakistani newspaper, saying that “I have already said that I am not involved in the September 11 attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other humans as an appreciable act.” However, the Taliban stated that Bin Laden had no source of contact during this time so could not have emailed this company with such a claim. In October 2001, an underground terrorist organisation called Al-Qaeda declared that they were responsible for the attacks. Al-Qaeda spokesperson, Sulaiman Abu Gaith, said that “I would like to touch on one important point in this address. The actions by these young men who destroyed the United States and launched the storm of planes against it have done a good deed. They transferred the battle into the US heartland. Let the United States know that with God’s permission, the battle will continue to be waged on its territory until it leaves our lands, stops its support for the Jews, and lifts the unjust embargo on the Iraqi people who have lost more than one million children. The Americans should know that the storm of plane attacks will not abate, with God’s permission. There are thousands of the Islamic nation’s youths who are eager to die just as the Americans are eager to live.” This led George Bush to invade Afghanistan, in the hope to find those responsible for the attack.
Later that month, CNN illicitly broadcasted an interview with Bin Laden, conducted by Al Jazeera about 9/11, in which Bin Laden stated that “If inciting people to do that is terrorism, and if killing those who kill our sons is terrorism, then let history be witness that we are terrorists […] We will work to continue this battle, God permitting, until victory or until we meet God before that occurs.” Furthermore, in November 2001, US Forces uncovered a video tape of Bin Laden speaking to Khaled al-Harbi, a member of Al Qaeda, where he explicitly planned the way in which the attacks went ahead, saying that “The brothers, who conducted the operation, all they knew was that they have a martyrdom operation and we asked each of them to go to America but they didn’t know anything about the operation, not even one letter. But they were trained and we did not reveal the operation to them until they are there and just before they boarded the planes.” They could now put a face to the name. The head of the terrorist organisation, Al-Qaeda, who caused the bloodiest terrorist attack on American soil, was called Osama bin Laden.
Due to some territorial disputes, Iraq was thrust into war with Iran, a country that had recently undergone a fundamentalist Islamic revolution. During the fighting, Saddam Hussein deployed chemical weapons on his own people in the Kurdish areas, where Iran’s forces were advancing. At the time, the US, an ally of Iraq, turned a blind eye to these war crimes. However, the war eventually came to an end with no real winner on either side. However, because of the effort it took, Iraq had a lot of countries donate money, weapons and resources. One such country was Kuwait.
Kuwait was an incredibly rich country due to its plentiful oil fields however was currently undergoing a financial recession due to a stock market crash. Kuwait was in desperate need of money so they began asking Saddam Hussein for the money back. However, Iraq was in no position itself to give the money back. Iraq, as well as many other countries in OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) were also frustrated that Kuwait was producing too much oil and overfilling their quotas. Once Kuwait announced it would limit oil production, Hussein found another bone to pick with Kuwait, claiming that they were tapping Iraqi oil fields for their own production.
It is also possible that Hussein had an ulterior motive. Iraq and Kuwait were both formerly a part of the Ottoman Empire until its collapse after World War 1 and Hussein believed that Kuwait was rightful Iraqi territory.
Iraq demanded that Kuwait pay $10 billion to them. In exchange, Kuwait offered only a fraction of that, at $500 million. Outraged by this, Hussein ordered troops to begin invading Kuwait on August 2nd, 1990, around a year and a half before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Kuwait, due to its dire lack of military … anything, put up practically no fight. A puppet government was established before Hussein declared that Kuwait was now simply a province of Iraq.
A photo of the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait
The UN Security Council immediately denounced the invasion unanimously, and demanded the immediate withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait. This council included the United States, who believed that Hussein was threatening US oil interests in the region. George H. W. Bush, the then president and former VP to Ronald Reagan and director of the CIA, feared that Hussein may invade Saudi Arabia next, a strong ally of the United States.
Bush managed to bring many other NATO countries on board for an attack if needed, including the United Kingdom, France, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with many others providing support. However, the US would still lead the majority of the effort. Due to Gorbachev’s policies, the US had now become the lone superpower. However, Gorbachev and Bush both agreed that the Iraqi aggression had to be crushed.
[Gorbachev and I] are united in the belief that Iraq’s aggression must not be tolerated. No peaceful international order is possible if larger states can devour their smaller neighbors. [I]f old adversaries like the Soviet Union and the United States can work in common cause, then surely we who are so fortunate to be in this great Chamber—Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives—can come together to fulfill our responsibilities here.
George H. W. Bush, Joint Congress Session, 1990
A trade embargo was then established on August 6th. However, despite all this, Hussein refused to back down, as many Kuwaiti protests occurred, which were often violently crushed. Eventually, an ultimatum was issued to Iraq, for troops to leave Kuwait by January of 1991 or the United Nations (and when I say the UN here, I mean the US but that’s not technically official but we move) would “use all necessary means” to force him out. Hussein, obviously, ignored this ultimatum and, on January 16th, Operation Desert Storm began.
A photo from the Battle of Medina Ridge
Bombing raids were conducted from the air whilst marines began moving into the Persian Gulf. In an attempt to bring other Muslim majority countries into the war, Hussein attacked Israel with missiles, hoping they would counter attack. Israel did not and Iraq stood alone against the coalition. Soon, ground forces began moving through Kuwait and overwhelmed the Iraqi soldiers. Their vastly inferior technology and weaponry stood no chance against the United States. Iraqi troops began burning oil fields, causing massive air pollution and costing Kuwait $1.5 billion. Instead of choosing to fully invade Iraq, Bush chose to withhold coalition forces, stating that:
“To occupy Iraq would shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us, and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day Arab hero,”
George H. W. Bush, “A World Transformed”, 1998
The embargo was never lifted on Iraq, which led to poverty and starvation skyrocketing to unforeseen levels. Northern Kurds and southern Shiites (a branch of Islam, like Catholicism or Protestantism in Christianity) both rebelled against Saddam in uprisings that were brutally crushed.
Due to the chemical weapons that were used in the Iran-Iraq War, the United States accused Hussein of hiding WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction), which is a wider umbrella term that includes nuclear and biological weapons as well as chemical. After Hussein denied the United Nations to check for such weapons, Bill Clinton, the president after George H. W. Bush, initiated Operation Desert Fox, which involved the dropping of bombs on Iraqi military sites, in an attempt to destroy any possible WMDs that Iraq may have had. George H. W. Bush’s son, also called George Bush, later invaded Iraq in the Iraq War, with troops not leaving until 2011.
In 1973, Mohammad Daoud Khan overthrew his own first cousin, the King of Afghanistan, establishing an autocratic one party nation. Despite his many economic reforms, similar to those of his cousins, Khan’s foreign policy strained tension with neighbours and factions within his own country. Eventually, Khan was overthrown and killed by the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan lead by Hafizullah Amin in 1978, making Afghanistan a Communist nation.
Insurgent cars arriving at the Presidential Palace, 1978
Soon, the new Communist Afghanistan, with new President, Nur Muhammed Taraki, began facing struggles. They tried to reform women’s rights, mainly to education, make the state more secular and enacted some awful land reforms. Anyone who spoke out about these reforms would be arrested. Soon, uprisings from Islamic Rural areas began occurring and Taraki began losing control of his nation. During the violence, Taraki was killed by Amin, allowing Amin to ascend to power
Meanwhile, Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Soviet Union, and the rest of the Kremlin did not trust Amin and decided that in order to secure their next door neighbour, not wanting yet another fundamentalist Islamic country on their doorstep like Iran before it, Amin had to die. On December 27th, 1979, Soviet forces raided the palace, killing Amin, putting a Soviet puppet in his place, Babrak Karmal. Whilst Soviet forces did manage to capture key military forts in cities and urban areas, they were unable to secure the insurgents in the mountainous countryside, who would use the mountainous terrain to wage brutal guerilla warfare. These insurgents were called the Mujahideen. And this was just the ticket, the US needed.
Outside of the Warsaw Pact, the international community strongly opposed the invasion, with many other Communist nations such as China, Muslim majority countries such as Pakistan and many more opposing the occupation. However, no-one was a stronger opponent than the United States, who imposed a trade embargo on Soviet products, boycotted the Olympic Games, which were being held in Moscow that year, and, most importantly funded the Mujahideen.
It was the height of the Cold War, and, after the Iran Hostage Crisis, Jimmy Carter had not won a second term. The new “tough on Communism” Ronald Reagan wanted to limit Soviet expansion as much as possible, whilst also wanting to give the Soviets their own Vietnam.
Reagan meeting with members of the Mujahideen in the Oval Office, 1983
We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives—on every continent from Afghanistan to Nicaragua—to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth.
Reagan in his 1985 State of the Union address.
Over six years, in Operation Cyclone, the CIA would funnel $3.2 billion worth of weapons, economic help and military training towards the Mujahideen. Pakistan was also a large supporter of the Mujahideen’s efforts against the Soviets, serving as an operational base for the Mujahideen. The British were also a key supplier of finances and weapons, with MI6 assisting from their base in Islamabad.
During the war, atrocities were committed by both sides, with the Soviet Forces engaging in chemical warfare and airstrikes on civilian targets, whilst the Mujahideen brutally tortured captives. These acts forced 4 million citizens to seek asylum and did nothing to help either side.
Soon, the USSR, under the new leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, realised that there was no winning this conflict. It began to slowly withdraw whilst stabilising a Communist government under their new puppet, Mohammad Najibullah, who, despite his decent reforms, did not help the trust in the communist government. They also restricted direct involvement, only training and funding a new Communist Afghan Army, which ultimately resulted in failure.
The Soviet-Afghan War was an absolute catastrophe for the Soviets. It showed the weakness in the Belly of the Bear, and proved that, with time, the Soviet Union could be defeated. Many historians cite the war as laying the groundwork for the collapse of the Soviet Union, only 2 years after the end of the war. The Communist regime eventually collapsed, thrusting Afghanistan into civil war, with one of the factions of the Mujahideen, the Taliban, taking control of the country in 1996 and were not deposed until 2001 during the War in Afghanistan, starting a terrorist insurgency that would last 2 decades, eventually returning to power in 2021 after the American withdrawal from the country. By many scholars, the Taliban and the rule they imposed over Afghanistan, as well as their insurgency, is currently considered to be one of the greatest enemies to the United States and the world at large
A modern day photo of Taliban Insurgents in Afghanistan
The United States respects the people of Afghanistan […] but we condemn the Taliban regime. […] It is not only repressing its own people, it is threatening people everywhere by sponsoring and sheltering and supplying terrorists. By aiding and abetting murder, the Taliban regime is committing murder.
In the aftermath of World War 2, many of the war torn countries, such as France and Poland, began to turn to Communism in order to rebuild. Wanting to expand their influence, the Communist USSR, lead by Joseph Stalin, wanted to expand Communism all across Europe. Meanwhile, the United States opposed this, wanting more countries to embrace free market economies, capitalism and democracy. This lead to tensions rising between the two factions who were once allies against the Nazis. This divide between Western Capitalism and Eastern Communism was no clearer than in Greece.
A photo of Greek Nationalist troops
From 1946-1949, Greece was in a civil war, between the Nationalists, backed by the United States, and the Communists. Whilst Harry Truman, President of the United States, feared that the Soviets may back the Greek Communists, Stalin’s focus was more on Turkey, and seeing if they would become a Communist nation, due to their oil production in Iran needing to pass through Turkish waters, requesting a military base in the country and transit rights through the Dardanelles Strait and the Sea of Marmara. Due to the economic impacts of having the water being Soviet Occupied, the United States sought a democracy in Turkey.
Many people feared that the Soviet Union would have a monopoly over the Mediterranean if Greece and Turkey fell to Communism. Truman chose to take action and addressed Congress with his plan on March 12th, 1947
Truman addressing Congress
One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression.
The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio; fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.
I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.
An excerpt from Truman’s speech to Congress
Truman was very careful to not explicitly name Communism or the USSR, but everyone knew what he was talking about. In order to truly combat communism, Truman, with the advise from Senator Arthur Vandenburg, over exaggerated the crisis, to such a degree where it would scare the American people and get them to side against Communism. Many modern historians cite the Truman Doctrine as the declaration of the Cold War.
In 1932, in Cavendish University, J. D. Cockcroft and E. T. S. Walton bombarded lithium with protons from a particle accelerator. The protons caused the lithium atom to split. Many scientists realised that if they continued to split uranium and plutonium atoms, with the protons from one atom splitting another and the process repeating in a process called fission, they could make a new source of energy. However, with this power, the results could also be used for much more sinister means.
August, 1939. About a month before the outbreak of WW2, Albert Einstein, a highly accomplished scientist who discovered the theory of relativity (E=mc2) sent a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, then President of the United States, on a highly serious matter. Einstein believed that the Germans were working on a super weapon, a super weapon that would harness the power of Cockcroft and Walton’s work and make a fission bomb, that could wipe cities off the map. Despite being a pacifist, Einstein believed that such a weapon would be better in the hands of the Americans than the Germans. By October of 1942, two months before American entry into the conflict, the development of an atomic weapon was granted by FDR. A group of hundreds of scientists all were called upon by the US government to assist in the development of the technology.
One of the top scientists on the project, who led the scientific research and design of the bomb, was Dr J Robert Oppenheimer. He graduated in chemistry from Harvard and got a doctorate in physics from the University of Gottingen in Germany. He learned a lot about quantum physics, a field that was not that expanded in the US.
A photo of Oppenheimer
One of the most notable German physicians was Werner Heisenberg, who thought of the famous Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Many believed that Heisenberg was working on the German Nuclear bomb.
Back to Oppenheimer, he joined the faculty of the University of California, where he expanded the field of Quantum Physics in the United States. He even partially discovered a black hole in 1939. He was considered to be one of the greatest minds in Atomic Research, the kind of man that the US was after. Him, as well as many other notable scientists such as Richard Feynman, Edward Teller and Isidor Isaac Rabi, were gathered in Los Alamos, a remote part of the New Mexican Desert where a small town was built in order for the scientists to do their research.
The project, named the Manhattan Project, was worked on for months on end. The first contained chain reaction occurred in a secret lab under a Chicago University football stadium. The theory’s were now fact and the development of the bomb begun. During the time creating the bomb, Italy fell after an allied invasion and a small civil war. The Axis powers were on the ropes and the President, now Harry Truman after the death of FDR on April 12th of 1945, was confident that this bomb would be the final push to end the German War Machine. However, it ended a lot sooner than expected.
On the 21st of April 1945, the Soviet forces entered Berlin. Only 9 days later, Hitler fed cyanide to his wife, Eva Braun, and shot himself in his bunker in Berlin. 2 days later, Germany surrendered. 2 out of the 3 major Axis powers were out of the war as well as the bomb’s target. Truman began to reconsider the target. He had been bombing the Japanese for months on end and he believed that a mainland invasion of Japan would only cost more American lives. With the Soviets beginning to invade Japanese occupied Manchuria, he decided what to do.
A photo of the bomb test
On July 16th 1945, in the middle of the New Mexican desert, a fireball erupted. The infamous Trinity Test had been conducted. The bomb worked. Around a month later, in the city of Hiroshima, Japan, the first bomb was dropped.
Photos of the bombings (Hiroshima left and Nagasaki right)
Buildings were instantly turned to rubble and people were vaporised on the spot, leaving only their shadows on the pavement. Those who weren’t immediately killed suffered from radiation sickness for years afterwards. 3 days later, another bomb was dropped, this time on Nagasaki, another nearby city. Anywhere between 150,000 and 246,000 people were killed in the bombings, the majority of which were civilians. The Japanese issued surrender on August 15th, with the surrender taking effect on September 2nd. World War 2 was over, lasting 6 years and 1 day.
After the bombing, Oppenheimer became and advisor to the United States Atomic Energy Commission, where he strongly advocated for international control of nuclear power in order to prevent a nuclear arms race with the Soviets. After the testing of the first Soviet nuclear bomb in 1949, Oppenheimer was suspected of allowing Russian spies into Los Alamos due to his communist ties. Oppenheimer eventually had his security clearance revoked in 1954 and was shunned from the government until 1963, when Lyndon B Johnson awarded him the Enrico Fermi Award.
Many scholars today still wonder if the use of nuclear bombs on Japan was necessary. Some say that Japan would’ve surrendered regardless and that the bombing was merely Truman showing the power of the United States. No matter what you may think of the ethics of the bombing may be, the impact of the bombing was undeniable, with many people fearing nuclear annihilation due to rising tensions between nuclear powers, a fear that began in the 40s and is still very prevalent to this day.
A military parade in North Korea in present day, showing off North Korea’s nuclear warheads
John F. Kennedy was, in 1941, a young up-and-comer in the political and law world. His father, Joseph Kennedy, was appointed as the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom by Franklin Roosevelt. Once World War 2 had begun, Joe spoke on this, saying that “Democracy is finished in England. It may be here [in the United States]” and was forced to resign his position due to the controversy around this statement. Due to his father’s position in government, the young John travelled all across Europe, accompanying his father on diplomatic missions during the lead up to the war. During this time, he wrote his thesis for Harvard, on Neville Chamberlains appeasement methods with Adolf Hitler. The thesis was published and, as one of the first sources of information about these events, quickly became a best-seller. Kennedy was adamant that the US must intervene in the war, opposing his father’s beliefs.
A photo of the young JFK in 1941
He attempted to join the Officer Candidate School, but wasn’t allowed in due to his physical health, which may have included the chronic back pain that he may have had since he was very young. Eventually, he was assigned to the United States Naval Reserve, commissioned to ensign in October of 1941.
Once Pearl Harbour was attacked by the Japanese, the US was thrust into World War 2. In January of 1942, Kennedy was assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence field office in Charleston. Kennedy had wanted to command a Patrol Torpedo Boat but believed that he would be stopped from doing so due to his medical conditions. His father ended up falsifying medical records and convincing PT command that his son’s presence would bring good publicity. He completed his sixth months training and was assigned to the PT-101. Not wanting to be stuck in the Panama canal, Kennedy convinced the Massachusetts Senator to assign him to the South Pacific in order to get some real combat action. By April 1943, he had been assigned to the PT-109.
A model of the PT-109
The PT-109 was a 80 foot (20m) long patrol torpedo boat. It had 3 twelve cylinder, 1,500 horsepower engines, and had a top speed of 41 knots (76 km/h or 47 mph). It was fitted with four 21-inch torpedoes and a 20mm anti-aircraft gun and four .50 calibre machine guns but was not equipped with a radar. At the start of the ship’s deployment, it had a crew of 15:
Lieutenant and Commanding Officer John F. Kennedy
Executive Officer Leonard Jay Thom
Quartermaster, cook and signalman Edgar E. Mauer
Radioman John E. Maguire
Gunners Raymond Albert, Charles A. Harris, Harold W. Marney, Maurice L. Kowal, Edmund T. Drewitch, Leon E. Drawdy and William Johnston
Motor Mechanics Gerald E. Zinser and Patrick Henry McMahon
And Torpedomen Raymond L. Starkey and Andrew Jackson Kirksey
The crew of the PT-109. Top row left to right are Al Webb (friend and not a crew member) Leon E. Drawdy, Edgar E. Mauer, Edmund T. Drewitch, John E. Maguire. Bottom row left to right are Charles A. Harris, Maurice L. Kowal, Andrew J. Kirkesy, Leonard J. Thom, and John F. Kennedy.
In June of 1943, Drewitch had to be discharged after an injury occured when a depth charge was dislodged and landed on his bunk bed. Kowal and Drwady were both injured in July during an attack from Japanese Aircraft.
By the time of the 109’s final mission, there were 13 men aboard, as George H. R. Ross was assigned after his boat was destroyed and was an observer aboard the boat. A 37mm gun was lashed down to the front of the boat in August.
On the night of August 1st, fourteen PT boats, including the 109, were assigned to Kolombangra, an island in the middle of the Solomon islands, where 4 Japanese destroyers were alleged to appear, carrying food supplies and 900 Japanese soldiers to the Japanese Garrison on the island and were set to pass through that night. Their orders were to repel or block the Japanese advance to the island. 24 torpedoes were shot from 8 of the PTs and not one hit the convoy. The entire convoy arrived unscathed at the Naval Base in Kolombangra, due to attacks taking place at night and radio silence being enforced throughout the PTs
The region that the PTs were assigned. The naval base is stationed on the south of the island and was coming south through the Vella Gulf
At around 2:27 am, Kennedy spotted a Japanese destroyer, the Amagiri, returning from the base, heading north, straight at them. Kennedy decided to turn the boat to attack the destroyer with a torpedo and the newly mounted 37mm. Ross was assigned to the 37mm but he unfortunately suffered from night blindness, meaning that the could not effectively attack the boat. Within the next ten seconds, the 109 began to turn to the starboard side, with the Amagiri being commanded to match the turn.
The collision path of the two boats, graphics by Historigraph (YouTube)
After having made a sharp right turn to avoid a potential collision, the PT-109 was rammed by the Amagiri and split in half. A large fireball erupted from the 109, rising to around 100ft (30m) in the air. Some of the oil that had spilled from the boat had ignited the surface of the water. Kirksey and Marney were killed instantly, whilst McMahon was burnt from being thrown into the flaming water.
A drawing of the crash
The 11 survivors clung to the side of the bow, that had not yet gone under water. They drifted south, down the Vella Gulf. Eventually, Kennedy decided that they needed to reach land before another destroyer found them or the bow sunk. The two largest islands wither side of them, Kolombangara and Ghizo were, at the time, occupied by Japanese forces. Kennedy decided to go to the small Plum Pudding Island, about 3.5 miles (5.6km) south west of their position. Unfortunately, McMahon was unable to swim, as well as two others who had been badly injured during the crash. Kennedy decided to make a raft out of a spare piece of drift wood, broken off from the boat. He then loaded two of the injured men onto the raft, whilst he hoisted McMahon onto his back and swam to Plum Pudding Island. They started the swim at 2pm on August 2 and lasted 4 hours.
Eventually, Kennedy with McMahon on his back reached the northern tip of the island, with the other 9 survivors arriving a little behind. The nearby American naval base at Rendova had received word of the 109’s crash but due to the size of the fireball reported believed that there would be no survivors so no rescue attempt was made. However, American coast watchers on Kolombangara had seen the wreckage of the bow drift down the gulf, who sent out the message to look out for any survivors
Both Kennedy and Ross swam out relatively far off the coast of the island on separate occasions. Both times came up fruitless. The crew had now been stranded for 2 days and were beginning to get hungry and thirsty. Kennedy organised the group to swim a mile (1.6km) south to the larger island of Olasana in search of supplies. Upon arrival, there was no fresh water and nothing to eat but unripe coconuts. That night, the weather worsened, meaning that they could not travel to another island in search of supplies
The next day, Kennedy and Ross swam half a mile over to Naru Island, finding an abandoned wreckage of a Japanese Barge upon their arrival, where there was food, water and other various supplies, including a small canoe. Meanwhile, a patrol boat of Solomon Natives, on the orders of the coast watchers, were investigating the barge from the water and saw Kennedy and Ross aboard the island, heavily sunburnt. Believing them to be the survivors of the barge, they decided to turn away from Naru Island, heading north to Olasana for some water. They passed by the beach, spotting the rest of the heavily sunburnt crew, believing them to also be Japanese. However, Thom’s distinct blonde beard made them realise that they were not Japanese.
The scouts informed the coast watch of the survivors, who immediately organised food and provisions to be sent over to the crew. A torpedo boat was then deployed to rescue the crew and brought them back to the base on Rendova. Battered, bruised but breathing, the crew had made it home.
The much more seriously injured crew were treated while the rest were reassigned to other PT boats. Kennedy would later go on to tell this story of survival whilst campaigning for Senator of Massachusetts and President of the United States.
A campaign parade for JFK’s 1960 Presidential Campaign
