‘Little time for anger, fear or crying’: Retired Air Force Lt. General recounts 9/11

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)- Sept. 11, 2024, marks the 23rd anniversary of 9/11. Dozens gathered at Memorial Park in Colorado Springs to honor those lost and remember the day.

In a crowd full of service members and civilians all there for the same reason, each hold a different memory of that day. 

Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. General Mike Gould was just getting into work that day.

"When I walked into the Cheyenne operation command center on that morning, there was little time for anger, fear, or crying," said Lt. Gould.

"It became evident that this was no mistake. America was in fact under attack," recounted Lt. Gould.

Video from New York shows the shock of people on the street and also the Cheyenne Mountain Operation Center working in real-time. A video shows an announcement saying, "The president's plane Air Force One. The only one allowed to take off at this point because the FAA has halted all takeoff nationwide."

Those orders came from here in Colorado Springs. 

"We directed the grounding of all civil aircraft, to either land or turn around," shared Lt. Gould.

Those efforts were honored by the large crowd at Memorial Park.

"We all knew that that could have happened in our city, and we would have done the exact same thing. We would have been in the same position, without hesitation," said Colorado Springs Fire Department Captin J.J. Halsey.

During Lt. Gould's speech, he also called on the community to go and visit one of the multiple 9/11 monuments here in Colorado Springs to remember that fateful day.