Originally Posted by
Bearcat06
We've got fighters on stand-by now, ready to go at a minutes notice. We didn't have that when 9-11 happened.
Where? There have always been a few on alert, but the US is a pretty big place. If you have a fighter on alert in South Carolina, that doesn't do much for you if someone hijacks a plane taking off in Chicago.
As already covered in this thread, there were ANG fighters on alert on 9/11, and relatively close to DC. They didn't get anywhere close to the action that morning.