On September 11, 2001, Lt. Heather Penney was tasked with the following incomprehensible mission: bring down Flight 93 — a hijacked plane that, at the time, was hurdling toward Washington DC.

The catch, however, was this: she had but two weapons.

Her F-16.

And her life.

This from the Washington Post:

Because the surprise attacks were unfolding, in that innocent age, faster than they could arm war planes, Penney and her commanding officer went up to fly their jets straight into a Boeing 757.

“We wouldn’t be shooting it down. We’d be ramming the aircraft,” Penney recalls of her charge that day. “I would essentially be a kamikaze pilot.”

Hear her, now an employee at Lockheed Martin working on the F-35 project, tell the story in living color, in the clip below: