[Editor's note: Here in my little barrio in Swamp City, we're close enough to an old Air Force base to witness flights bearing important visitors. This big news just in ...]
(from the emails of David G. Morris, with permission)
Comes now (actually it'll be in the neighborhood of something like 4:00 PM, today, in Houston, TX as I am told by those who know of these things to come soon -- the news, that is) the behemoth of the skies, known to most as "Air Force One," the carrier to all points of travel of the President of the United States of America. He will visit with Houstonians of wealth and non-wealth to obtain monies to get himself elected to the office of President of the USA once more, ya see!
Am told that his carrier will enter our air space and land at my old air force base, Ellington AFB (where I was forced to live and work (and drink a little) from 11-17-53 thru 11-15-54), then be transported to one of our many stadiums to speak to all. Later in the evening he's off to the home of one of the wealthy folks in River Oaks (upscale, I mean really) for dinner and then a party. Some estimated 70 folks will have personal access to the President if they fork over $35,000.00 a head. That'll come out to be a total close to nearly 2.5 million big bucks -- pretty good pickins for an overnight trip, huh? (Had a waitress in a small cafe/restaurant somewhere in Michigan one time yell, "A fifty dollar bill, yipes, big bucks!" when I gave her the fifty for our lunch there... bless her little country heart.)
Never you mind, howsomever, all this jest don't matter at the moment -- I'm gettin' to it now and it goes like this: Gonna try to position mahsef close to the flight path of the Presidential Behemoth just to have a look-see at the thing go by. To me, it's a thrilling thing to see.
Have observed the behemoth in air a couple of times in the past and it always gives me a thrill, maybe even chills, just to see it, and know who and what it carries. Ah been known to get a lump in mah throat seeing the beast glidin' thru the air, after giving it a lot of thought to what those in other countries think when they see it, too. It doesn't matter who happens to be the president within it's belly!
It's just a big, raw form of power slippin' thru the sky. 'Course, ahm thinking, too, "Man, I used to be a part of that big ol' military thing called The Air Force for four years, way back in the mid-fifties." I's kinda like, "Well lucky me -- I reckon!" Wouldn'ta missed it! Now I gotta go into the kitchen and pull some more KP -- pots, pans and dishes do keep stackin' up, ya know!? Also, gotta put together a nice meat-loaf for tonight, we'll see!
Dave (Fox)
I saw it one time at Ellington. I heard President Clinton was coming in and at the same time the latest returning Shuttle Astronauts were coming in, all at the same time. I think the Shuttle flight had been on the Endeavor. The kids were little and not in school full time yet so I packed 'em all up and we trekked from Sugar Land to what used to be Ellington AFB. It was rainy so I brought my umbrella too.
Because of the rain the crowd was not too bad. I unloaded the kids from the car, strapped Alex on my back, and we made our way to where the President and the Astronauts would meet up. Secret Service searched everybody. Alex was all of 5 years old. He was wanded, his brother and sister were wanded, I was wanded and the umbrella opened and checked. We passed inspection and stood in a light drizzle waiting for the plane.
IT WAS AMAZING. Air Force One is an impressive looking plane - Big, blue and white and very presidential looking. We watched it land and it eventually taxied to near where we waited. The kids were so patient. The President disembarked. The Astronauts were already there, including Shannon Lucid, who I think had just become the woman with the longest record in space. I wanted Sarah to see her. We listened to a short speech by the President welcoming them home and then it was over.
I hear that our current President was just able to land a short time ago - Houston weather.
Posted by: Lynn | 03/10/2012 at 07:34 PM
Good story! We're full of em in our family! (and those kids did look pretty suspicious back then...)
Posted by: TPK Bodhisattva | 03/10/2012 at 07:58 PM