that soda cost $2.50

The Air Show
The sweet smell of jet fuel

Sorry I haven't written awhile. As you can tell, things here have been rather busy and I know there's a handful of people who love to peek into the mind of this junior aspiring businessman as I make my way (hopefully) to the top. I've been working a lot lately, while trying to get back into shape. Hey, no one told me that when I turned 26 my metabolism would go in complete reverse. I actually have to diet, swim...and lift. What the hell?

We'll anyway, onto my story. This weekend I had the great opportunity to meet a handful of real life heroes, to hang out with my parents, and to see some savvy aerial acrobatics by the thunderbirds. That's right, I was at an air show..and MAN...they had all kind of cool stuff I was almost tempted to quit my job and sign up.

So what exactly did they have?

Everything from the B-52 bomber, to the F-117 Stealth Fighter, to snipers, to civilian airplanes. Yeah, the airplanes were pretty cool. I have to admit, standing in front of a multi-million dollar machine built completely to kill throws your mind into overdrive. You start thinking, what if I had this aircraft? Could I hunt down Osama? But the aircraft were not as exciting as the stories that these young men and women had to share. And I tell you, man, the stories they had gripped you.

Almost all of the planes featured at the Air Show served a substantial amount of time in Afghanistan and Iraq. Lets start the slide show:

This is a B-52 bomber. To the far left is the pilot of this beast, next to him, a WII vet, and next to them, the only non-hero of them all...me. Thirty odd missiles were shot at this beast during Afghan and Iraq war, and this pilot made them miss...every single time. Amazing! Given the fact, that it's really not the most maneuvered out of all the planes.

So here's me with Hero#2. This is his airplane in the back of me. Yes, he pilots the once super secret aircraft...F-117 Stealth Fighter. He told me that he was one of the first squadrons into Baghdad when Bush gave the orders to attack Every single one of these fighters returned, unscratched...in both Iraq wars.

There's a real life sniper under all of this junk. I'm not kidding. I actually had my hand on his shoulder and didn't even know it. Talk about lethal, they can shoot someone up to 800m away and can hold their positions for days upon days, just waiting for the command to take someone out. They were in Iraq, but they couldn't tell me what their duties were..

This is a superimposed picture. The thunderbirds showed up and gave a remarkable show. I actually went there twice and had a blast.

This is the pilot of the B1 bomber. He flew in both Iraq wars and Afghanistan. He managed to delivery his bombs and return home safely to his family. What a great story. Pretty cool job as well.

Again, the greatest part about this air show was that I got to thank these hereos in person. It's one thing to cheer on heroes on the silver screen, but to meet the actual top guns, the actual war heroes, it's something I'll never forget.

Till next time. Keep on living....