I Am a Peace-Loving Woman, But . . . .

I am a peace-loving woman, but . . . there is something positively thrilling about being a couple hundred yards away from an F-15 fighter jet as it rips up the runway and blasts into the sky. It was awe-inspiring standing next to, and even inside, a military aircraft. Today was Young America Day at the Oregon Air National Guard base. The place was crawling with Cub Scouts. ;> It is the one day a year that the base is open to the public. There were fire engines and police cars and hummers and choppers and fighter jets that the kids could actually sit inside. It was amazing. We are talking real planes here, people. Actual planes with their actual pilots (many of whom flew in this morning just for this event) standing right next to them answering questions and talking to the kids.

The helicopters are not officially part of the Portland base (it is right across the runway from PDX - I bet the people sitting in the Alaska Airlines wing had a great show today while they waited for their flights). One was an Army helicopter (shown above) and the other was a really big Coast Guard helicopter. We got to see the Coast Guard one actually lift off out of the midst of all of us people and head off into the horizon towards Astoria. The pilot even did some fancy photo-op flying by hovering like a hummingbird.

I took a lot, and I mean a lot, of pictures of airplanes today. I love the paint. I love the engines. I love the symmetry. I love the shapes and the angles. I love the names of the pilots and rios painted on the sides of the cockpits. I love that perfect pointed cone of a nose. They are really beautiful pieces of design and engineering.

What makes me sad is that we live in a world where we need them. I could not help but feel melancholy as I watched military daddies with their wives and children who had stories about their tour in Iraq. There were women in uniform, too. Men and women who risk their lives for their country - for you and me. And all those beautiful airplanes seem to pale in comparison to the actual men and women who fly them. May God bless them.