vanherck sat down with me to talk about the decision making that led to the balloon s ultimate destruction. it was set in motion days earlier in a high-stakes mission to intercept it over alaska. we sent a package that included f-22s and f-16s along with support package of an e3 awacs tanker support with aircraft. did you know what its mission was? we had worked with the intelligence community, and we had a good idea of what the mission actually was going to be. once we intercepted the high-altitude balloon just off the coast of alaska, i made the assessment that it didn t demonstrate hostile intent. the balloon briefly sailed over canada and then back into the u.s. and toward sensitive military sites. it was obviously a great political debate over the timing of the shoot-down. from your military perspective, did things go in the order they should have? the president directed us to shoot