5/1/11 A Date to Remember

Ten years ago this September, I was sitting in my high school mass media class. I was a senior at the time. I already knew I was on my way to becoming a reporter. A little after class started my principal at Hinsdale South High School took to the intercom and announced to the school that a plane had hit the one of the Twin Towers in NYC.  About 30 minutes later, we got the announcement that another plane had hit the other tower and both had collapsed. We were not allowed to turn on the televisions in the classroom and were instructed to go about our day. No one knew at the time it was terrorism or that Osama Bin Laden was behind it.

I can remember almost every detail of that day.  I was wearing a black skirt and blue sweater.   I remember gathering around the television when I got home with my parents and watching the airplanes slam into the towers.  I remember thinking how it looked like a video game and that it couldn’t be real.

I went for a drive that night to the local Walgreens and I remember hearing fighter jets fly overhead. For the first time, I was scared. I kept thinking, you hear fighter jets fly over in war torn countries, NOT in suburban Burr Ridge, Illinois.  Falling asleep that night was impossible.

It has been nearly a decade since that horrific day.  I first learned of Osama’s death on Facebook. My email was literally pinging, alerting me to comment after comment. Ironically, I was sitting in the live truck wearing a black skirt and blue sweater.  I know that just like 9/11, I will remember exactly where I was when this news broke.  I hustled back to the station from Elgin where there was a brush fire and hit 6th street for reaction. There was a man who had an American flag draped around his shoulders….he told me he just couldn’t stay home.

Osama bin Laden

Marching down MLK Blvd, I met a former Naval Officer.  He was carrying a flag and in partial uniform.  He nearly broke down when I interviewed him.  At the same time, a car full of fraternity guys rolled up in a pickup truck and were honking and screaming, “America!”

All that I kept thinking in my own head was that Americans persevered.  We never forgot 9/11 and we never gave up on finding Osama. He may have run and hid for a decade, but in the end, we got him. I think there is a huge message coming out of America tonight and that is if you commit such a heinous act and terrorize and kill innocent people, we will hunt you down and never ever give up.   The events that unfolded after 9/11 have cost American lives and left behind heartache. I commend all of our military men and women who have sacrificed for our country, spent time away from loved ones while deployed and those who gave their lives so that this day of justice could come for our country.

I know I will always remember where I was on 5/1/11.

Where were you when you heard and will you remember?

If there is one thing that gets me excited, it is Air Force Jets and helicopters. It has nothing to do with the movie Top Gun, but more that I have a personal connection to an AF pilot and previously covered Moody Air Force base while working at my previous station.  So, when I got word months ago that the Bluebonnet Air Show was coming to town, I immediately decided that I must cover it!

A lot of people would think an air show in Burnet wouldn’t bring in big planes, but it was AWESOME!  Look at the shot of the engines on the back of the A-10s.  I can remember trying to fall asleep in Valdosta, Georgia, and hearing these Warthogs go rumbling through the air.  The screeching noise is something you cannot forget.

I traded the Ford Escape news truck for this baby!

The DC-3 Bluebonnet Belle also made a cameo.  This airplane has a great deal of history.  Do you know that the DC-3 was the only aircraft to serve with all major WWII combatants?  Paratroopers would pack inside and jump into enemy territory.  The Highland Lakes Squadron purchased her in 2002.  She was in shabby shape and needed work before she hit the runway.  Now, she rolls down the runway in Burnet like she owns the place.

Bluebonnet Belle

For the queasy folks who couldn’t stomach the twists and turns stunt pilots were doing mid-air, there were restored military vehicles at the show too.  I couldn’t resist sitting in this old Jeep!  Inside, there were  old school helmets, gloves and even a push-button clutch.  Isn’t it amazing that Jeeps, although they have been around for decades, still retain their shape and same round headlights?  The Jeep’s style has evolved, but, not by much.

I feel like I am on the set of MASH

No, the Blue Angels weren’t there and no, I didn’t get special reporter perks and get to fly in a plane. I did, however, get to jump into a standard issue flight suit and sat in the cockpit of a fighter jet.  The most surprising part to me was how small it was. I am not complaining about leg room on a commercial flight ever again.  And, because I am a total child, I had to touch all of the buttons, especially the red ones.  No worries, the cockpit was actually just that…a cockpit that had been cut out of a fighter jet.  There was no danger by touching the buttons.

National Day of the Deployed

Over the past month, I have twice covered the story of a Iraq war veteran walking across the United States to raise awareness and money for struggling military families.  I am not here to talk more about that angle, but about Troy Yocum’s goal to have a free day of shipping on care packages to deployed troops.  He is asking government officials to sign a baseball bat in support that will be presented to Congress.  He has even nabbed celebrities like Jay Leno and Diane Sawyer to pen their names.

Would you sign your name to the bat?

Having a loved one deployed twice (once to Iraq, then to Afghanistan) over the past year, I have become a care package guru. I know firsthand how care packages are not only a soldier’s lifeline to home, but they keep military wives, fiances, girlfriends, siblings, parents, etc, connected to their loved one. I know that for $12.95, the post office offers flat rate shipping on boxes. Anything you can fit inside, despite weight, ships to APO addresses for just $12.95.   The boxes are also free. The issue comes in when you are at the post office once a week for four straight months.  That adds up to roughly $200 and does not include the price you paid for what is in the box.

What Troy is asking Congress to do, is to take one day out of the year and make shipping on care packages to deployed soldiers free.

Troy Yocum

Again, I cannot reiterate how important and meaningful these packages are to both the giver and receiver.  During the deployments I went through, I received one call a week that was about five minutes long from my loved one. It was hard. When days went by without hearing this person’s voice or knowing if they were dead or alive, it was painstaking. I would google their name and pray it didn’t pop up in a news feed.  To take my mind off of the uncertainty, I turned to care packages.

I love to cook and making my loved one breakfast was my favorite thing to do. But, with an ocean separating us, that was not possible and eggs and bacon don’t ship like homemade cookies. So, I got creative and sent Breakfast Floss. It was three flavored boxes of floss (one waffle, one bacon and one coffee) on a cardboard plate. Weird? Yes, but thoughtful, and they loved it.  It got the point across that I was thinking of making breakfast for them and reminded them of home.

Breakfast Anyone?

As for Thanksgiving, they received a pseudo feast in a box. Think: just add water Stove Top Stuffing cups, Hormel Turkey dinners and a greeting card shaped like a piece of pumpkin pie. It may seem simple and you may ask why send it? Just ask the man who received it. To him, it was one day less he wasn’t stuck eating whatever was sent over from the kitchen out to the pilots in the dusty desert. Instead of wondering if his loved ones saved a place for him at the dinner table, he knew time was taken to include him and and that we were thinking about him when he was away. To him, it was home in a box.

One of these lucky pilots got many care packages!

~This blog is dedicated to the brave men and women also known as the Jolly Green Giants~