One of my college roommates (now an O7) was suited up in the ready room at Lemoore getting ready for a training hop... on the morning of 9/11. The CO ran in and grabbed him, took him out to line where the the ordies were strapping live missiles on his jet. He launched solo, supersonic to the bay, and orbited for hours. When his plane got low on gas (quickly of course, hornet) he asked where he should go to refuel? He was told to stay put and that the tankers were coming to him. So he orbited the bay, no other planes in the air for hours with one or two AF tankers airborne for his exclusive use.

Backstory... SOCOM (seals) had conducted a CT raid in asia and acquired a concept version of the 9/11 plan from dead tangos a year or two before 9/11. That plan involved widebodies from Asia hijacked to hit buildings on the west coast. So from the DoD perspective, based on the intel in hand, the east coast was likely a sideshow and the main event was coming from the pacific. So my buddy (hometown bay area) thought he was going to have to shoot down airliners plural.