Looking back: 100th ARW commander shares memories of 9/11

  • Published
  • By Karen Abeyasekere
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  This year marks the 15th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks that changed the world forever.

On that fateful day, the 100th Air Refueling Wing Commander, Col. Thomas D. Torkelson, was a Captain serving as a Flight Commander with the 909th Air Refueling Squadron at Kadena Air Base, Japan.

In a recent interview with Public Affairs, Torkelson shared his memories of what happened that day. This is his story.

“When the events of 9/11 happened, nearly our whole squadron was at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam for a typhoon evacuation,” said Torkelson. “At the time the first plane struck the Twin Towers, it was about 10 p.m. in Guam. We landed earlier that day and were all out on the town. I was walking back to our hotel when our assistant director of operations found me and told me there was something big going on, and she needed me to go back and immediately find everybody.”

The 100th ARW commander described how he headed back to the restaurants and clubs, looking to pull people out, but they didn’t really want to leave.

“I didn’t know what was going on, but I’d just been told to get everybody in crew rest. After returning to the hotel, I turned on the TV. The news was on and one tower was smoking and I still didn’t know what was going on. Then the second plane hit the second tower. At the time, I didn’t understand the significance of what I was seeing.”

As they waited for permission to fly home, Torkelson and his squadron had no choice but to stay in crew rest because every plane had been grounded. Once back in Kadena, they reset for a potential deployment.

“Just being made to wait, and not being able to do anything while we were grounded, was weird. It was the anticipation – we knew something big was happening and we were going to be a part of it, but we didn’t know what it was going to look like. We were grateful to be in a part of the world where the tanker would be used to get amazing American air power where it needs to be in response to this terrible attack. It was a satisfying feeling of contributing at the highest levels to what our government was about to do. We knew it was coming, but we just didn’t know when or for how long.”

Later in September, his unit deployed to Utapao, Thailand. Once there, the tankers served as the initial air bridge refueling all of the first strike bombers into Afghanistan. They sent up daily rounds of three-ship tankers to refuel B-52s, B-1s, and B-2s as they came across the ocean to hit targets in Afghanistan.

The unit was there for over 90 days, but Torkelson was able to come back early because his wife, Debbie, was pregnant. He was fortunate that his leadership worked very hard to get him home in time for his second son’s birth on December 7.

“On the night of 9/11, Debbie called and we talked about what had just happened. She was anxious and wondering what it meant for us. The attacks affected everyone back in America, and she was aware of that. Debbie was anxious for our safety and didn’t know if there would be retaliation.”

Torkelson described how the Thailand deployment was the most real-world he had experienced up to that point in his career.

“Thailand wasn’t publicly supportive of our strikes in Afghanistan and their government wouldn’t admit that we were in the country conducting operations. Rather than staying in a hotel where everyone could see us, we stayed in Thai Marine barracks that were relatively hidden. Our billeting didn’t have any hot water and it didn’t even have any windows. They were just open bays with holes in the walls, but there was no glass or screens, or anything like that.”

“We had to travel to and from the base in civilian clothes and we had to vary our route because no one was supposed to know we were there – but then they’d see KC-135s taking off from the runway to go do the mission. There wasn’t Facetime or Skype, or regular connectivity to home like there is today. We had a satellite phone that we would use for personal reasons on a very infrequent basis. It was shared by the entire unit, so it would be ‘phone call time, here’s your five minutes’ and then we’d pass it along. remember Debbie being really excited for those precious minutes.”

Torkelson described that when everything first happened, he understood that it was an attack on America, but he didn’t understand the long-term impact to the Air Force or the Department of Defense.

“It was obviously some kind of attack on America, but if you’d told me then that it would shape how America and the Department of Defense conducts operations around the globe today, I would have said I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“I didn’t feel rage or upset. I was more asking myself, ‘What does this mean?’ As our national response became more refined, I began to understand more about what happened and how this was an intentional attack on our soil that demanded a response – I just didn’t think the response was going to be almost 20 years long!”

“If anything, the events of 9/11 solidified my resolve that I was doing the right thing, and I was serving where I should be. If there was ever a time in my life when there was an affirmation of the importance of military service, and being a tanker pilot in the Air Force in 2001, that was it!”

He said his most vivid memory of that day was the second aircraft hitting the tower. He watched it live on television as the world was still in the speculative mode.

“When you visually saw the second one hit, it was powerful. It was not an accident, and nor could the first have been. I get chills thinking about it. Later we began to hear the stories of survival, those who were trying to survive, and the poignant stories of families who were talking on the phone as the buildings were coming down,” said Torkelson. “Those stories are so powerful and a constant reminder today that our resistance matters against these terrorists who target innocents.”

“We didn’t know, coming up to 2001, that this world event would shape the rest of our service. History suggests that something significant will happen over a 20-year career in the military, if someone stays that long,” he said. “Be vigilant, and be ready for that strategic event. Part of what makes the Air Force great is our ability to flex to changing threats. As we’ve been focusing so hard as a nation on counter-terrorism, we’ve got to be mindful not to lose sight of other threats that look different that may challenge our Airmen in the coming decades.”

Torkelson said it was important not to forget the sacrifice of innocents that the attack represented.

“If you need to go look at video or documentary to be reminded of what happened that day and to hear about the lives that were affected first hand, then go do that so you understand what we’re trying to do today. I don’t know if we’re ever going to win. It’s tough to win against an extremist ideology, but we must continue our resistance along the way and not tolerate the targeting of innocents. That matters to me, and it should matter to all of us”.