Black Hawk

Today I had the privilege of riding in a Black Hawk helicopter. My builder, Jeremy who is in the Reserves, is being prepared to go to Afghanistan in about six months and is one of the main officers in his squad. He will be promoted to Major soon. This is a trying time for our country and having the opportunity to fly was an honor. We started off the day meeting at the training base in Los Alomitos. The base is old with the paint falling off most of the buildings. Yet, there is a sense of charm about the place because it has a purpose. That purpose is to ready our soldiers for the fight to protect us and our country from harms way. We had to listen to the Lieutenant tell us about what they did there and then got some safety instructions from the SO. That is the safety officer. I guess his job is to go around and tell everyone to be safe. That's kind of an oxymoron telling a soldier to be safe when in fact there is nothing safe about war. After our briefing we were assigned our squadron and loaded up on the Black Hawk. It taxed out and then like a feather lifted upward and floated away toward the ocean. In the distance to the right you could see Long Beach State University and to the left the ocean. We flew over downtown Long Beach and right over the Queen Mary. Up over the ridge we flew along Palos Verdes Peninsula. The ocean was to the left and homes built on cliffs were to the right. We circled around and headed back over San Pedro where the ships are unloaded. I was told we were going about 100 miles per hour and could reach around 200 if needed. The flight was rather smooth as we landed back at the base. The Black Hawk is a transport vehicle designed to get troops in and out quickly. It is a very powerful Helicopter with four rotor blades. It was an honor to have this opportunity to see how Jeremy's job is and to meet some of the soldiers.