F-16 pilot who was prepared to take on suicide mission to save lives on 9/11 retires

U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Marc Sasseville speaks with Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz about his retirement and the heroic operation he undertook on Sept. 11, 2001.

"One of the memories that will stay with me forever is seeing the Pentagon on fire and being able to smell the fumes that were coming off of that," Sasseville said. "The burning concrete, the fuel from the airplane that it hit." At home, Sasseville had a wife and two young children, aged five and three, who were unaware of his mission – including being prepared to give his own life to save others.

When he returned home to his wife, Karin, and their children, Sasseville kept quiet about his role on 9/11. He hugged his family tightly, told them that he loved them and said that he would be away at work "for a long time because something very bad had happened to America." Now, after 40 years of service to his country, U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Sasseville retired from the Air Force on Wednesday. He took his final flight on an F-16 on May 15 out of Joint Base Andrews, the same base from which he and Penney departed on Sept. 11, 2001, with orders to find Flight 93 and to destroy it as it made its way to D.C.

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