Ash and Honor

Ash and Honor is a masterclass of narrative journalism, putting into a shocking new context what really happened on September 11, 2001. Investigative journalist Jeffrey Robinson weaves together the stories of more than 60 eye-witnesses to history, many of whom have never spoken publicly.

The pilot in the cockpit of what was possibly "the fifth plane"; the pilots of the fighter jets on a suicide mission to stop the attack; the pilot of Air Force One, facing a direct threat to the plane, who told himself, "Time to be Tom Cruise."

Officials in a bunker five stories below the White House, where an illegal order was made to shoot down a civilian passenger jet; in a tense meeting in the National Military Command Center's top-secret Air Threat Conference; and in NORAD's underground Cheyenne Mountain, where the commanding General declared "Battle stations" deep inside and ordered the 30-ton hardened steel blast doors shut.

And the FAA's national operations manager, who ordered all planes in the air to land; the Canadian Minister of Transport, who dealt with 238 planes and 33,000 passengers diverted to Canada; and a three-star general in Alaska, who stared down Vladimir Putin, while Russian bombers flew right up to the edge of US airspace as America's nuclear response was put on worldwide alert.

Ash and Honor is a thrilling, first-hand account of the ash and honor of America's darkest day.