Friday afternoon I picked up Barb in our new (to us) pick-up and headed to Colorado Springs to see Joe, Stephanie, Ellie and Frisco. Joe is the Inspector General at Fort Carson, and we left with plans to enjoy the weekend football game between Army and Air Force. The Air Force Academy is located in Colorado Springs, and is one of the most beautiful campuses in the world.
After thinking about it, we decided that, with two kids under five, we would head to the stadium, enjoy the beautiful scenery and pre-game pageantry, and then head back home to watch the game on TV.
Steph. & Joe have our old custom tandem bike, and we dropped them off part way towards the stadium, so they could bike a few miles of this beautiful Colorado day. On the way in we ran into the cheerleading team for the West Point Cadets. Ellie was particularly impressed with one of the young women, and they immediately became best friends. It was a wonderful and difficult day for me. Joe will probably be deployed to Iraq in a few months, and there is every reason to suspect that these wonderful young cheer leaders are destined for the misery and danger of Afghanistan. How I hate the costs of war.
Joe and Steph rode off on the tandem, pulling our two grand kids in a “Burley” trailer attached to the bike. The young squad of cheerleaders piled in a van, all of them headed for the stadium. Thinking of the risk we would eventually be sending them to left a knot in my stomach and a lump in my throat. I wandered off for a couple of minutes to pull myself together. Those days are ahead of us, and nobody wants to pull them into the present.
We had a great time outside the stadium. As often happens at football games, the Air Force had a fly over scheduled just before the game started. We had arrived a couple of hours before the game started. As game time neared, the service academies showed the talent of there members. You can see pictures of cadets parachuting into the stadium. It was incredible.
But the grand finale was the fly-over. As game time was approaching I could get an occasional glimpse of a small group of F15 fighters and a B1 bomber in the distant horizon. I have never been in the service or seen combat. I mentioned to Joe, who has twice been deployed to Iraq twice already, that it must be thrilling, incredible and horrible to see such things in action. Joe estimated the planes-barely visible-to be about eight miles away. From that distance they could reliably fire a missile into something as small as the back of a pick-up truck.
Suddenly they were headed towards the stadium. The speed and sound were overwhelming. As the sound “cleared”, it became apparent that the shock wave from the planes had set off hundreds of car alarms. As I drove away I wondered-are the alarms ever loud enough?
Here is a link to several photos of the cheerleaders, parachutists and planes:
http://jemezphoto.smugmug.com/Other...Airforce/10241437_KnXyC#706203739_osKQa-XL-LB
After thinking about it, we decided that, with two kids under five, we would head to the stadium, enjoy the beautiful scenery and pre-game pageantry, and then head back home to watch the game on TV.
Steph. & Joe have our old custom tandem bike, and we dropped them off part way towards the stadium, so they could bike a few miles of this beautiful Colorado day. On the way in we ran into the cheerleading team for the West Point Cadets. Ellie was particularly impressed with one of the young women, and they immediately became best friends. It was a wonderful and difficult day for me. Joe will probably be deployed to Iraq in a few months, and there is every reason to suspect that these wonderful young cheer leaders are destined for the misery and danger of Afghanistan. How I hate the costs of war.
Joe and Steph rode off on the tandem, pulling our two grand kids in a “Burley” trailer attached to the bike. The young squad of cheerleaders piled in a van, all of them headed for the stadium. Thinking of the risk we would eventually be sending them to left a knot in my stomach and a lump in my throat. I wandered off for a couple of minutes to pull myself together. Those days are ahead of us, and nobody wants to pull them into the present.
We had a great time outside the stadium. As often happens at football games, the Air Force had a fly over scheduled just before the game started. We had arrived a couple of hours before the game started. As game time neared, the service academies showed the talent of there members. You can see pictures of cadets parachuting into the stadium. It was incredible.
But the grand finale was the fly-over. As game time was approaching I could get an occasional glimpse of a small group of F15 fighters and a B1 bomber in the distant horizon. I have never been in the service or seen combat. I mentioned to Joe, who has twice been deployed to Iraq twice already, that it must be thrilling, incredible and horrible to see such things in action. Joe estimated the planes-barely visible-to be about eight miles away. From that distance they could reliably fire a missile into something as small as the back of a pick-up truck.
Suddenly they were headed towards the stadium. The speed and sound were overwhelming. As the sound “cleared”, it became apparent that the shock wave from the planes had set off hundreds of car alarms. As I drove away I wondered-are the alarms ever loud enough?
Here is a link to several photos of the cheerleaders, parachutists and planes:
http://jemezphoto.smugmug.com/Other...Airforce/10241437_KnXyC#706203739_osKQa-XL-LB
