I have done my patriotic duty
Today was so so so long.
As you probably know, President Bush was speaking in Reno today at the convention center. Ordinarily, people would be inconvenienced by traffic mostly - but that's it right??
Well, it's a whole different story if you work at the airport authority...and even more a different story if you have been asked to help man the Emergency Operations Center in order to maintain ramp control during the landing of Air Force One.
I will say this - the Air Force One plane that he brought in today was, hands down, the most beautiful plane that I have ever seen (it was the VC-25...for any of you who know about planes). It actually sparkled in the sun as it landed. And, it was absolutely silent. I would have ventured to guess that it was going to be loud as hell seeing as it's a huge plane (to put it in perspective, planes flown by Southwest average 164,000-198,000 lbs. - AF1 is 833,000 lbs!...not quite as big as a C-5, but close) but, honestly, it hardly made a sound. It was so quiet and so smooth coming in that you couldn't help but stare in awe.
We then sat on alert in the center as the scuttled the president into the motorcade and took him to the Convention center, ending the operations freeze...and waited for the signal to put it back on. His speech was actually pretty funny - and I LOVE the fact that he made a crack to Cashill about the fixing the potholes (so glad they took him down Neil Rd.). But, as soon as he put his hand up in the air to wave goodbye to the Convention Center crowd, the whole airport went into lock down again and we were all on alert.
The plane was so huge and so heavy, the it didn't even look like it was going to have enough momentum to take off on our 11,000 ft runway - but it made it flawlessly and the alerts were cancelled. And there went 4 hours of my day.
It was cool in a way. I have officially been a part of the operations team during the arrival of Air Force One under the supervision of the Secret Service. That's something to tell the grandkids about, right? Watching the swarms of Secret Service agents, the CIA and the Air National Guard protecting Air Force One while the president was somewhere else giving his speech....or watching the Secret Service race their vans along side the plane as it was speeding up for takeoff....or watching them sweep the runway with the bomb dogs... And the coolest part is that each person who worked in the Emergency Operations Center is being presented with a gift from Air Force One. I don't know what it is going to be yet - but I'm so stoked!! :) Not because it's from Bush, but because it's a piece of history that is totally irreplaceable....that's what makes it so neat.
Who knew that working in Reno could be so exciting???
As you probably know, President Bush was speaking in Reno today at the convention center. Ordinarily, people would be inconvenienced by traffic mostly - but that's it right??
Well, it's a whole different story if you work at the airport authority...and even more a different story if you have been asked to help man the Emergency Operations Center in order to maintain ramp control during the landing of Air Force One.
I will say this - the Air Force One plane that he brought in today was, hands down, the most beautiful plane that I have ever seen (it was the VC-25...for any of you who know about planes). It actually sparkled in the sun as it landed. And, it was absolutely silent. I would have ventured to guess that it was going to be loud as hell seeing as it's a huge plane (to put it in perspective, planes flown by Southwest average 164,000-198,000 lbs. - AF1 is 833,000 lbs!...not quite as big as a C-5, but close) but, honestly, it hardly made a sound. It was so quiet and so smooth coming in that you couldn't help but stare in awe.
We then sat on alert in the center as the scuttled the president into the motorcade and took him to the Convention center, ending the operations freeze...and waited for the signal to put it back on. His speech was actually pretty funny - and I LOVE the fact that he made a crack to Cashill about the fixing the potholes (so glad they took him down Neil Rd.). But, as soon as he put his hand up in the air to wave goodbye to the Convention Center crowd, the whole airport went into lock down again and we were all on alert.
The plane was so huge and so heavy, the it didn't even look like it was going to have enough momentum to take off on our 11,000 ft runway - but it made it flawlessly and the alerts were cancelled. And there went 4 hours of my day.
It was cool in a way. I have officially been a part of the operations team during the arrival of Air Force One under the supervision of the Secret Service. That's something to tell the grandkids about, right? Watching the swarms of Secret Service agents, the CIA and the Air National Guard protecting Air Force One while the president was somewhere else giving his speech....or watching the Secret Service race their vans along side the plane as it was speeding up for takeoff....or watching them sweep the runway with the bomb dogs... And the coolest part is that each person who worked in the Emergency Operations Center is being presented with a gift from Air Force One. I don't know what it is going to be yet - but I'm so stoked!! :) Not because it's from Bush, but because it's a piece of history that is totally irreplaceable....that's what makes it so neat.
Who knew that working in Reno could be so exciting???
direct from mrs. hamacek's brain at
4:30 PM
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