Remember the "Happy Hooligans"? They are the F-16 pilots from Langley who were ordered to go west over the Ocean at 9:30 before they headed back to Washington at 9:36, arriving 5 minutes after the Pentagon crash.

Maybe there is an explanation for this peculiar flight path.

The "Happy Hooligans" are the 119th wing of the North Dakota ANG. They were stationed in Langley for only one week (source: Jere Longman, "Among the heroes", p. 64):

Two pilots had rotated in from North Dakota for a week...a week at Langley was a time to relax, watch television, work out, spend time on the computer, catch up on business. Like firemen, the pilots sat and waited for something to happen. When it did, they were usually scrambled to escort Navy jets with transponder problems to their home bases. Or to find doctors lost over the ocean in their Beechcraft Bonanzas. Or, occasionally, to sniff out drug runners. It was a sleepy job. Dozing for dollars, they called it.

So the pilots started their job at Langley probably on Monday - they have weekends, too - , and September 11 was their second day there. But, September 11 was also the second day of "Vigilant Guardian". (Source)

Did the Happy Hooligans take part in "Vigilant Guardian"? Is this speculation too far away?

This is a quote from Dean Eckmann, the lead pilot (source: 9/11 Commission report, p.45):

I reverted to the Russian threat...I'm thinking cruise missiles from the sea. You know you look down and see the Pentagon burning and I though the bastards snuck on us...

Eckmann's statment that he reverted to the Russian threat is remarkable: first, Vigilant Guardian was a simulation of a Russian aerial attack - and second, the term "reverted" implies that he dealt with a different threat before, a cruise missile attack from the sea.

A cruise missile attack from the sea, however, is as exotic as a Russian bomb attack from the North, i.e. : the pilots knew they reacted to simulated threats. So the thesis that they were part of Vigilant Guardian seems to be very reasonable.

But now: If the Happy Hooligans were part of the exercise - who was left to protect Washington? If their task was to play wargames, no fighters apart from Otis were on alert, leaving Washington completely unprotected. Did no NORAD official realize the big defense gap when planning the wargames?

This smells of high treason.