Benchmarks & Bullseyes

Photo: www.historicalaircraftsquadron.com

Well, here we are at the 100th post on this blog.

With nothing earth-shatttering to announce, I will simply share a recent story from the farm....

There is an Air Force base not very far away from here. Considering the abundant farm land, isolation, and scarce population, it is not uncommon for pilots to fly their jets out to "this neck of the woods" for practice. In fact, most of the air space around here (according to a special pilot map we looked at) is considered a "Military Operations Area."

This can make it tricky for the crop dusters. (Remember THIS story?)

Although we have watched many-a-dogfight (both day and night), I have to admit the one I saw the other day was enough to make me stop. In fact, it caused many to stop and watch.

I heard them practicing above us all morning, seeming to be unusually close. It wasn't until I started to load Hayden up in the car for a morning of errands that I realized just how close they really were.

There were four A-10 Warthogs that day. As I turned around to face the sky, after buckling Hayden's seatbelt, I saw the first one coming straight toward our house at a slight downward angle before turning to the left and pulling up over the pecan grove. Then, the second came toward us in the same pattern.

It was then that I realized I was being used as pretend target practice.

They were SO close! At times they were only about three telephone pole lengths high. I could almost see the pilot in the cockpit, so I smiled and waved at the third one as if to say, "I know what you're doing!"

Driving down to the main highway, I suddenly noticed that there were cars and trucks pulled over and people watching the private air show from the side of the road. As they circled back around twisting, turning, and flipping over and over, I had to keep reminding myself to watch the road.

Soon, they disappeared again over the mountains and vanished into the "wild blue yonder."

Photo: www.viewimages.com

Hey, speaking of the US military...

I checked something out on Snopes.com yesterday. (For those who are new to Snopes, it's a definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation.) I visited the site to check the validity of a forwarded email I received and found that THIS story is true:

There is a new warship being built right now called the USS New York, which is being built from melted down steel recovered from the World Trade Center after September 11th. The motto of the ship is going to be "Never Forget."

Check it out HERE!

...and HERE.