Attack on America: September 11, 2001 & the U.S. Coast Guard
Operation Noble Eagle Documentation Project
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The Operation Noble Eagle Documentation Project is an initiative of the U.S. Coast Guard Historian’s Office to capture, in participants’ own words, the service’s response to the September 11, 2001 attacks before those firsthand memories faded or were lost. Through recorded oral history interviews with the officers and personnel who directed port closures, redeployed cutters, and coordinated with other agencies in the attacks’ immediate aftermath, the project preserves an institutional record that official reports and after-action summaries alone cannot capture — the on-the-ground judgment calls, the uncertainty, and the operational improvisation that defined the Coast Guard’s response. These transcripts now serve as a primary-source foundation for future historians, researchers, and Coast Guard personnel seeking to understand how the service adapted to an unprecedented homeland security mission in real time.
Interview: VADM Thad Allen, Commander LANTAREA & District 5 on September 11, 2001
“Well I went to the Ops Center and found out what was going on; that basically we had closed the Port of New York. We were looking to try and gain some situational awareness. We immediately closed the port in the Potomac River above the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.”
Interview: RADM Richard E. Bennis, USCG, Commander, Coast Guard Activities New York, Captain of the Port, OCMI
“We made a conscience decision not to bring DoD assets into the New York Harbor… we felt the Coast Guard presence would reinforce, reassure, and make people feel very good about what was going on in the water.”
Interview: RADM Erroll M. Brown, USCG, Commander, 13th Coast Guard District
“Every Coast Guardsman’s a lifesaver and I think that’s where it all starts. It all starts with the core of our humanitarian service.”
Interview: Radm Roy J. Casto, USCG, Commander, 8th Coast Guard District with Capt. Joel Whitehead, USCG, Chief of Staff, 8th Coast Guard District, and Capt. Richard Sullivan, USCGR, Chief of Homeland Security, 8th Coast Guard District
“I actually went out and spent $513 of my own money to go out and buy an M-9 from a local gun store here to prove that it wasn’t hard to get these… I just felt that it was unforgivable to send people out in harm’s way hoping to confront a terrorist… and not have that individual even have the means to protect himself.”