Editor's note: Patient-specific details have been removed to protect privacy.

In the dark, uncertain hours following Sept. 11, 2001, the United States was under an unprecedented, total military lockdown. Civilian aviation had vanished. Air traffic control screens were completely blank, commercial tarmacs were dark, and the sky belonged exclusively to heavily armed military fighter jets.

Yet hundreds of miles away, a critically ill infant needed specialized care available at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth. A ground ambulance would take hours, making air transport essential. It was a literal matter of life or death, requiring a miracle just to get off the ground.

While the rest of the nation held its breath, the dispatchers and command at Cook Children’s waged a frantic battle on the phones, coordinating directly with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and military command. Recognizing the stakes, authorities granted the Teddy Bear Transport crew a historic, highly exclusive emergency waiver.

Approximately 48 hours after the nation was attacked, pilots Todd Stephens and Ray Crain stepped into the cockpit of the King Air 200 along with the Neonatal Critical Care Team. When they advanced the throttles and lifted off into the North Texas night, they became one of the only civilian flight crews permitted into United States airspace.

The crew flew into a historical vacuum. Surrounded by eerie, echoing silence on the radio, looking down at completely dark, abandoned commercial runways, and flying with the watchful eyes of NORAD tracking their every move, Todd and Ray pressed onward through the empty sky.

As they neared their destination, the true magnitude of their mission became visually striking. Out of the darkness, two military fighter jets scrambled from a nearby base and dropped into formation, flanking the Teddy Bear Transport plane. Escorted closely by the roaring, heavily armed fighters through a locked-down sky, Todd and Ray piloted the medical aircraft safely to its destination under the protective watch of the United States military.

They flew not out of comfort, but out of a profound duty to a child they had never met. Because of their courage, skill, and willingness to fly when the world was gripped by fear, they safely retrieved that newborn. They delivered the baby to the intensive care unit in Fort Worth and gave a family a lifetime of birthdays.

As we mark the 25th observance of 9/11, we honor the crew of that flight. Todd Stephens, Ray Crain and Cook Children’s stand as a shining reminder that even in humanity’s darkest and quietest moments, heroes will always find a way to bring light, hope and life back into the sky.

That’s why the addition of a new Cessna Citation Encore + jet will make the team, already one of the largest transport programs in the nation, even better.

The new aircraft is special, providing its crew shorter travel times, a greater reach and more efficiently placed equipment to get critical need patients to Cook Children’s faster.

The new jet, made possible by a generous gift from Clarabele "Pit" Dodson, also provides capacity for two parents to be transported with the patient, if needed. The current plane only has room for one.

And the new jet can get to these patients faster than ever before. Transport will shave an entire hour off round trip when traveling to Odessa. The flight will take 45 minutes each way.

Plus, this new plane can travel nearly 1,400 miles farther in a day than the previous plane because it doesn’t have to refuel as often. Without the delay to get fuel, Transport will not be as restricted due to pilot duty time either (they have a maximum number of flying hours per day).

With nearly 2,500 transports each year, Cook Children’s Teddy Bear Transport is plenty busy and will make full use of its fleet of five ambulances, one fixed-wing airplane, a jet and one helicopter.

But the Teddy Bear Transport is about more than just getting to the patients. It’s the care that takes place once the team arrives that makes them really stand out. Currently, the transport team includes 54 pediatric nurses, respiratory therapists, paramedics and communications specialists with more than 400 combined years of experience.

“It’s not just the jet that can get to these kids faster. It’s Cook Children’s that can get to these kids faster,” Deborah Boudreaux, director of Transport said. “We are bringing the expertise of our care to our patients as soon as we walk through that door. I can now relay that information to the physician sooner and we can begin care at that moment.”