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about his Air Force training. is Air Force pilot training. On the morning of September 11th, 2001, that would come into play. because he was the first military pilot in the air. over the burning twin towers.
Here's Peter. with his story. about his pilot training at the Air Force. In the T37 during training. It's a fully aerobatic subsonic trainer.
So you can like do loop de loops and MMs and Kubinates and all these other tricks and the thing. You know, just think the Thu Thunderbirds or the Blue Angels, you can do that stuff. We just do it way higher in the air.
Okay, we don't do it near the earth where there's zero room for error.
So. Um again pre-war I'm in pilot training. I wanted to be a doctor. I'm like flying around. And what they do is they make you solo.
You have to fly this thing alone. You know. fair fairly quickly, within like ten hours of flying. And, you know, some of its confidence and some of it's Can you do it?
Well, I remember At that point I was like, Well, I I guess I'm not gonna fly a fighter 'cause There's no base near where I grew up. I'll just I'll go fly. Like a C seventeen or KC10. This might be one of the last times I ever fly alone.
So, I'm like, you know what? I'm going to make it worth my while. There's a problem with me, I'm more of a Cadillac guy than a. Ferrari guy, right?
So I like things a little loose where I can Move and not restrict blood flow and all this other stuff. And, you know, you got like G, you got G suits and you're pulling G's and you're G straining. That's so funny. I I never used to This is embarrassing. I used, you know, you have the helmet on, and I would wear the chin strap like it was a hockey.
Like it was just dangling. Like this doesn't even need to be there, but it's got to be connected because that's part of the rules, right? Like if it's not connected, you're breaking safety law.
So I would connect everything, but I wouldn't tighten it, tighten it, tighten it down. to myself. And so I'm flying alone. I'm like, all right. Here's your chance.
Do all the loot, get it out of your system. Do it, do it all.
So I start whipping this jet. into full speed entering all of these maneuvers and then I get this bright idea that I'm gonna try to fly like top garb, like upside down. For a sustained period of time. And I forgot one thing. I didn't strap in tight.
So I flipped the plane upside down. gravity took over and I like fell out of that seat. And I remembered, I was like laying on the cockpit on the glass, upside down. Can't reach the controls. And the oxygen hose isn't built for this, so it's like yanking my head.
to the side. It's still connected. And I was like, oh. I'm an idiot. I'm like, I'm not immortal.
This is how it ends. I can't reach the ejection. Handles. I can't reach the the stick or the throttles. And Just like an like you see.
The altimeter just Yeah. It starts. Going down, and I'm at, I think I was at seven, I hit the block 14 to 17,000 feet. And I mean, I'm I'm going straight down and the jet is accelerating. And the vertical velocity must have been 10,000 feet a minute.
I probably had a minute and 18 seconds left. to live. And it's funny, these uh the base I was at was uh It was a student. pilot training base. It was also a student air traffic control base.
It was a zoo. It was a bunch of little kids. And so the the kind way to ask a pilot like what what are you doing is They say your int say intentions. That's the way they do it. Same tangents.
It means what are you doing? I see on my screen that you're No, you're gonna Right. It's like one of those things where your life flashes in front of your eyes in a millisecond. And I remember my grandmother, like. I don't know, feeding me or pushing me out of swing.
And my brain instantaneously took over and said, I'm going to fix this. We need to survive. It was like, we need to live. We can live. We can do it.
And I did this like neck push-up. And um I kind of like slid my leg on the stick, and instead of going straight down, I kind of sliced. down through the air and the gravity kinda like helped me shim me back in the seat. And I'm approaching like the speed limits of the airframe. And I remember.
I mean throttle's idle, speed brakes out, there's no speed limit on that, and pulling what's called to the buffet. Right, Max performing the plane. They're trying to pull out of this dive. That I've never been in and never been in since. And I'm like, I mean, it was, I mean, the whole thing is shaking, like, in the right stuff.
Like, right, the whole thing is shaking, and I'm pulling out, and it's still flying. And I pull back into the area. And I remember responding to the controller. I was like, you know. Tiger 2-2 request river recovery, which is like I want to go home.
I want to go home. No more. I've had enough. That was enough fun. And Here's the issue.
The issue is these planes are so old. I mean, I think Chuck Yeager, I mean, these are like 1950s era. Training jet. They have a T6 now. And you have to fly the plane straight and level for one minute, holding this fast slave button.
to get to like the INS and and the and the compass. To snap into place after you're doing all these movies, because it kind of tumbles. And so you're like, I want to go home, and I request the recovery. And I hit the button and I hit it for like, I don't know, 45 seconds. Not.
a minute, but it looked like it snapped into place. It like it kind of tumbles and then it goes like this and then it goes and snaps. And I saw that happen.
So I was like, all right, let go. Yeah. And the controller Who's probably also a student? You know, it was like, you know, turn right. 030.
And I'm like, you know, I'm. I'm going zero three zero. Like, what do you mean? Are you talking to me? Tiger three That's all you say.
And they say, turn the gun right now. zero six zero So you do that, and then they're like. say intentions. The compass never Fully snapped back in. And oh, by the way, I was looking out the window, I didn't recognize any of the stuff on the ground.
I was like flying into Mexico. I was going the wrong direction.
Well, here's the problem. Um Well, if you don't know, you that you have something called no gyro. You know, I don't have any gyro I need I need like you to tell me when it Start my turn and stop my turn.
So we're trained to do this like in an emergency.
So I'm like, look, I need, I have no gyro, I need no gyro vectors back to. And they're telling me. And then it's coming to me that my compass isn't, so I re-slave the compass. Straight and level. Hold the finger down.
Okay. And it Stamps back into place, and now everything's making sense.
Well, here's the problem: I'm so far away that I'm running out of gas. And in the T37, we have these lights, we call them the disco lights. There's a red light and a yellow light. When you're getting low on fuel, they start to like dance. They'll flash on and off like in an ambulance or something.
And so. Um I'm coming back, I'm back, I'm back. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I think I'm running a field. I need direct to initial. I need a vector direct to initial, which is where you fly in, fly with field and land.
And I had obviously already said I know gyro, so they knew something was wrong.
Okay. And I'm running out of gas and I'm like, you know what? You better strap in. You better put those seat belts back on. Because if you have to eject.
You know, your body's going to be torn to shreds. You want to go out as one piece, not like a bunch of different pieces.
So I really I mean I buckled everything up and I landed. Wanted to a full stop, pulled into parking. And One of my engines started flaming out. Like just automatically shutting down. When I was on the ground.
I think fuel starvation, I guess, or fuel cavitation. I don't know, but I was out of gas. I was literally, I was out of gas.
So I come in, and it's funny, the flight commander has like a little radio, and he listens, especially to the students that are solo. And he's like, what was going on up there? And we have a saying, and it's: I will tell my kids this: mess up, fess up. You mess up, you fess up.
So I told him, this is what happened. Yeah. And remember this is back in the day. I mean these guys are like gruffy. fighter pilots that are training ki he had like a Like dipped in his mouth.
And he takes it out and he puts it into this cup, and it's disgusting, right? It's a disgusting habit. I think it's a disgusting habit. People do it. Enjoy your nicotine.
I don't really care. And he's like, you ain't gonna do that again, are you? Never. Ever, ever again. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler.
And a special thanks to Peter Braxton for sharing his story with us. He also shared us the story of being the first pilot. over the twin towers. and that he was the last to find out what happened there. It was a lesson in just doing your job and doing what's ahead of you.
And we heard a lot about that pilot training in this particular story. And I love that line, you mess up, you fess up. If only we all live by that credo. how much simpler our lives would be and better. And the story of how the training, well, it has to sort of get kicked into you sometimes through a crisis.
But pretty soon, the protocols and the training.
Well, they turn you into a professional. The story of Peter Braxton. His near-death experience here. on our American stories. Mm.
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