Inside Central New York’s Major Role On September 11th 2001

September 11, 2001 began like any other day at the Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS), stationed at Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome. Men and women in uniform were watching radar screens, and weren't expecting what happened next.

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As WIBX reported, they were preparing for scheduled training missions, including a hijacking exercise later in the day. No one could have imagined how quickly a routine morning would change history forever.

Colonel Dawne L. Deskins remembers the quiet before the storm that day:

“The morning was fairly quiet, the exercise had just really started, and we were in a build-up phase of that. Sometime after about 8:30 was when Boston Center came in with a phone call that they wanted some assistance with American Airlines Flight 11”

That call marked the start of a day unlike any other. Flight 11 would soon crash into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Within hours, three other planes were hijacked, striking the South Tower, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

“It wasn’t until the plane hit the Trade Center that we started getting more of a sense of dread… that this was something much worse”

The aftermath changed NEADS in Rome forever. Outdated Q-93 radar systems at Griffiss were replaced with advanced technology like the Battle Control Station-Fixed, giving operators color-coded, interactive displays. NEADS also merged with the Southeast Air Defense System, expanding its watch to more than one million square miles and 16 major cities, from Boston and New York to Miami and Indianapolis.

“The Battle Control System-Fixed was our big upgrade,” Deskins explained. “We always are evolving to assess and look at new capabilities that we need.”

But the biggest change wasn’t just technology, it was perspective.

“There are some things that I had put off before that I don’t put off anymore,” Deskins reflected. For her, that meant taking family vacations and even building the family home sooner than planned.

At Griffiss, reminders of that day remain close. Three cases sit in the lobby: a fragment from the Pentagon, a piece from Shanksville, and a twisted shard of steel from the World Trade Center. Each serves as a solemn reminder of why their mission matters.

“Every September 11, we’ve had a moment of silence on the operations floor, just to focus us and remind us. Everything we do today… is driven by that day.”

On November 1st 2005, the NEADS and SEADS consolidated, giving the Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) the responsibility of providing detection and air defense for the entire eastern half of the United States. NEADS was officially re-designated the Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS) on July 15th 2009. The Northeast Air Defense Squadron (NY ANG) formally became the 224th Air Defense Group in December 2014.