ARNG
Shouldn't someone moving to a new
neighborhood notice that it happens to be next door to an airport? You know,
the place where airplanes and helicopters take off and land.
We have a couple of tempests that brew up around our little municipal airport,
every now and then:1. Someone moves
into the neighborhood and, the first weekend after they’ve unpacked, they
step outdoors and discover that airplanes and helicopters actually fly into and
out of the airport. Duh!2. Someone
moves into the County -- often, say, a half-hour from the airport -- and
they’re one of the types who has trouble cutting the umbilical cord back
to their cash cow in L.A. or Chicago or N.Y.C.. They get this great idea. Why
don’t we have the Feds subsidize a start-up to get sub-hub service into
Santa Fe from one of the mainline air
carriers?Airport officials adore these
proposals. They usually can squeeze some overdue electronica from someone in
the course of the debate. Even though it’s been tried several times and
failed, every time. There just ain’t enough traffic to produce the buck$
for a profitable service.It’s
still only a Municipal Airport. Like a former mayor once said, “We have a
perfectly good International Airport. We keep it in Albuquerque.”
That’s about an hour away. Not exactly a drive that’s gonna wear
you out.3. Lately -- well, starting a
few years back -- we have the Sectarian Left gambit into whine #1. That is --
the Air National Guard unit, stationed at the airport is going to be converted
into a juggernaut of death and destruction, chartered to murder peasants and
protesters throughout the Third
World.If that seemed likely, I might
consider getting involved. But, it ain’t, at least, not yet -- and I
ain’t. If it did, I would.The
ARNG chopper unit, here in Santa Fe, is a medivac and rescue outfit. It’s
true, the poor buggers have been sent off to some of the garden spots of
military conflict. In recent years, that’s included Kosovo and
Afghanistan. Most folks in the Santa Fe area, Left or Right, wished them well
-- regardless of what we think of the political schmucks making the decisions
that affect all of our lives.This
pecadillo has started making the rounds, one more time. Personally, I think an
outfit calling itself Environmental-anything can find more apt and cogent issues
than what might happen to our little ARNG neighbors. It feels good when
I’m getting a little stupid, say, out in the Caja del Rio on my mountain
bike to know that a call for help from my GPS-equipped cell phone could get my
butt airlifted out of trouble. Every year, something like that happens around
here. During fire season -- like, now -- when some imbecile with half a
testicle for a brain leaves a smoldering campfire to spread into a disaster, I
get to watch Forest Service choppers and water bombers coming and going to fight
the fire. The ARNG folks have helped out in whatever capacity requested by
state and local officialdom whenever requested. Which is what we all expect of
them.I happen to live right next to
the airport, by the way. I knew it was here when I married my honey and moved
out from town.I haven’t been up
at their hangar, I guess, in about five years. I was there with a crew from the
contractor I worked for at the time, sorting out a repair we had been hired to
make to part of the structure. Talking to the folks on duty, it became pretty
clear what kind of changes they were going through -- trying to maintain
Blackhawk helicopters in a facility designed and built for Hueys, 40 or 50 years
ago. Today’s military choppers are like 3 or 4 times bigger than the old
critters. It was self-evident they were going to have to expand a good deal --
just to stand still.OK. I’ve
been pretty good about digressing, so far. But, right about now, it’s
time for an important point to make about Campbell [your
blogger].There is hardly anything I
hate more than the sound of a helicopter! Every emotion tied to every memory of
years spent supporting national liberation movements throughout the Third World
-- every instinct inside my heart of hearts tells me to pick up a gun and shoot
that sonofabitch out of the air. Starting with the French paratroops in Algiers
-- on through the hellfire of VietNam and into every stinking Imperial venture
in Latin America led by scum like Oliver North -- helicopters have come to
symbolize murder and destruction to the world just as did the clamoring swords
and shields of Caeser’s
legions.I can step back from the
hatred in my gut -- and reflect, more or less objectively, on the men and women
whose decision to join up may be a little bit different from the ignorant fools
who lined up to go to Nam. Or maybe not. But, today, I can still offer a
flower or two to welcome back these brave souls when they manage to return home
in one piece. I hate the greedy, misbegotten bastards who send them off to make
the world safe for Exxon and BP. I have nothing but contempt for the old fools,
as old as me, perhaps, who never learned a damned thing from whichever was their
last war.I have no beef with the
members of the 717th Medical Company.
Posted: Tue - June 28, 2005 at 02:02 PM
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