You still go on high alert.

G

GP44

Member
It has been so many years now since I was trained as a spotter to man that little lookout shack on a point above the Missouri River.
When I heard the sound today I quickly realized that it was a fighter jet and the slight glimpse that I got confirmed it as it ripped across the sky.
For a minute you wonder if things have gotten so bad that fighter jets have been scrambled.
Then I saw on the tv news that the Blue Angels were practicing today for the air and water show this weekend.
How do you explain that initial fear to other generations who didn’t live through the worst parts of the Cold War?
 

GP44 said:
How do you explain that initial fear to other generations who didn’t live through the worst parts of the Cold War?
Click to expand...
I don't think it can be explained fully because they didn't experience it. I do think you can keep telling the stories to them, though... they'll remember. My own fear isn't one of war when I hear those fighters... it's an instinctive fear of one of them crashing nearby... it happened to me years ago, so it's a valid fear.

Fears and scars leftover from the Cold War will never leave us, I suspect. It's instinct when we hear or see certain things.
 
Last edited:
@GP44
So sorry that your Cold War experiences have left you with these emotional echoes. From our antipodean location we were spared those kind of drills. Duck and cover, for example, was never a thing for Australian children.

Recently I was in Queensland taking a constitutional walk and I heard the roar of a military jet somewhere overhead. It was hard to do, but eventually I managed to glimpse the plane. Later I was informed that an airshow was going to take place soon and that the jets were just practising.

My only reaction that day was curiosity. I cannot begin to imagine what you must have felt.
 

I live in a remote area in a valley between mountains. I have been here 12 years and in that time there have been three instances of multiple fighter jets coming through at very low altitude. It gets my heart going every time. I assume they are just training.
 
I live just outside an Army Air Training Post and military helicopters are flying all over the city, county and this corner of the state all the time and something we get used to and take for granted. Haven't seen any fighter jets though. Last I saw of those was while stationed aboard the USS John F Kennedy CV-67 aircraft carrier.

Sadly, accidents happen from time to time. Just two days ago, an instructor pilot (retired CWO3 Army Warrant Officer) was killed and student pilot slightly injured when a helicopter crashed. Sometimes I wonder if the Army student pilot will get back in the saddle after something like that happens. Although slightly physically injured, the unseen mental injuries will likely last a lifetime.
 
I live in a very unpopulated area with hills and mountains, not Rocky Mountain western style mountains, but very subdued Appalachian. I'm about 200 miles from the sea, and the Navy uses my area to practice low flying chase games, or maybe they are just practicing mission runs. I'm alert but just because it's exciting to have three or four of them fly over me when I'm in the woods. They fly low and I don't hear anything until they are right on top of me, and then they are gone, I usually catch a glimpse. Sometimes by the time I hear the roar, they are already gone over the next hill and I don't see them at all. Impressive machinery for sure.
 
I live very close to a Duxford airfield and air museum... There are almost constant air displays and show on there..

IWM Duxford

About IWM Duxford


I;m very used to War planes and jets coming over my house as part of their practice between the Airfield and London.. they fly very low.. so they'er very noisy, sometimes so low you think you can almost see the pilot..and very often in groups of 3 or 6...

Equally the Red arrows practice between there and London, and again often fly over my house altho' at a little bit of a higher altitude
 
Last edited:
Jules said:
The sounds of planes and helicopters, especially in the early morning, taking off to fight nearby fires makes me shudder.
Click to expand...
My house is on the flight path for the Air ambulance, and very often when Prince William was the Air ambulance pilot we'd see him fly over.. very low...Huge Helicopter...

At night we have helicopters flying over when they're off to search somewhere for criminals...
 
This reminds me of the couple of days after 9/11. Of course all commercials flights were grounded at the time but once awhile at night I would see aircraft lights in the sky. Luke Air Force base is close by and Davis-Monthan Air Force base is south near Tucson so I assumed that the aircraft military patrolling the skies. Still, it was an eerie feeling when I did see the lights in the night sky.
 
Last edited:
JustDave said:
I live in a very unpopulated area with hills and mountains, very subdued Appalachian. I'm about 200 miles from the sea, and the Navy uses my area to practice low flying chase games, or maybe they are just practicing mission runs
Click to expand...
They use to do that around here at a local lake.... practice runs to take out the Dam. Now a days they can just shoot a missile from the coast 200 miles away.
 
I was at a camp in southern Missouri when two Air Force jets roared over, then years later we were driving across a lake dam when I heard a rumble that kept getting louder I thought that something horrible was happening with the car, as it got louder I stopped on the dam and was getting out to see what was going on two A10's from a nearby base flew over, I was so relieved. We have an Air Guard base where c130's are based we see them all the time.
 
Maybe we don't have "Civil Defense" bunkers located in every town, anymore. But instead of the 1950s "duck & cover" posters in schools, we now have posters telling what you should do when there's an "Active Shooter".
 
MarkinPhx said:
This reminds me of the couple of days after 9/11. Of course all commercials flights were grounded at the time but once awhile at night I would see aircraft lights in the sky. Luke Air Force base is close by and Davis-Monthan Air Force base is south near Tucson so I assumed that the aircraft military patrolling the skies. Still, it was an eerie feeling when I did see the lights in the night sky.
Click to expand...
It was very eerie. Normally there are quite a few aircraft around here; airliners, helicopters, and private planes. Suddenly, there were none. But, occasionally I would hear a loud roar overhead, but it was so high I couldn't see it. Kind of spooky.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top