Editing Debt of Honor (section)

==Legacy==
In later years, the novel was noted for its similarity to the circumstances surrounding [[United Airlines Flight 93]], especially regarding its climax, where an embittered Japanese pilot crashes his 747 on a joint session of Congress in the Capitol. While researching for the novel's ending, Clancy consulted an Air Force officer and described his reaction: "I ran this idea past him and all of a sudden this guy's eyeballing me rather closely and I said, 'Come on General, I know you must have looked at this before, you've got to have a plan for it.'  And the guy goes, 'Mr. Clancy, to the best of my knowledge, if we had a plan to deal with this, it would be secret, I wouldn't be able to talk to you about it, but to the best of my knowledge we've never looked at this possibility before.'"<ref>{{cite web |title=Transcript from a BBC program titled "A Warning from Hollywood" dated March 24, 2002 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/audio_video/programmes/panorama/transcripts/transcript_24_03_02.txt |website=BBC.co.uk |access-date=7 September 2018}}</ref>

In April 1995, United States senator [[Sam Nunn]] outlined a scenario similar to the novel's ending, in which terrorists attack the Capitol on the night of a [[State of the Union address]] by crashing a radio-controlled airplane filled with chemical weapons into it. Nunn concluded that the scenario is "not far-fetched" and that the required technology is readily available.<ref>{{cite web |title=Context of 'August 17, 1994: Tom Clancy Bestseller Includes Plane Deliberately Crashed into U.S. Capitol Building' |url=http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a94clancybook |access-date=7 September 2018 |archive-date=September 8, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180908054252/http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a94clancybook |url-status=dead }}</ref> However, the [[9/11 Commission Report]] revealed that national security officials did not consider the possibility: “[Counterterror official] [[Richard A. Clarke|Richard Clarke]] told us that he was concerned about the danger posed by aircraft in the context of protecting the [[1996 Summer Olympics|Atlanta Olympics of 1996]], the [[White House complex]], and the [[2001 G-8 summit]] in [[Genoa]]. But he attributed his awareness more to Tom Clancy novels than to warnings from the intelligence community.”<ref>{{cite news |last1=Groll |first1=Elias |title=Why Tom Clancy was a terrorism visionary |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/10/12/why_tom_clancy_was_a_terrorism_visionary.html |newspaper=The Toronto Star |date=2013-10-12 |access-date=7 September 2018}}</ref>

In the aftermath of the attacks, Clancy was called into [[CNN]] and commented on the similarity between a plane crash depicted in the novel and the crash of United Flight 93. CNN anchor [[Judy Woodruff]] later remarked: "People in our newsroom have been saying today that what is happening is like right out of a Tom Clancy novel."<ref>{{cite web | title=Transcripts: America Under Attack: Israeli Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Offer Condolences to the American People | date=September 11, 2001 | url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/11/bn.74.html | website=CNN.com | access-date=September 7, 2018}}</ref>