2009 Dayton Air Show

My son, Dan, invited me to attend the 2009 Dayton Air Show this past weekend, so I went and enjoyed the day.   It didn’t require a lot of walking as we had purchased seating, so I sat and took several hundred photos on my digital camera.   I posted about one-third of these on my Flickr page and invite you to look at them if you want.  They are broken into five sets of photographs and you can watch any of the slide shows on Flickr.

I will mention two of the sets of photos as my favorites.  I will say  however that I enjoyed the entire show, and I am not an engineer, not into aviation, not a military buff, and not much interested in displays of power or machismo.  You can check out all five of the sets of photo, but the two sets I will mention are “Tora, Tora, Tora” and the USAF Thunderbirds.

  “Tora, Tora, Tora” was a re-enactment of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1942 which drew America into the Second World War.   There were plenty of pyrotechnics and restored Japanese war plans which simulated the attack.  Lest we be too enamored with the explosives, the announcer did say the point of the re-enactment was not to glorify or glamorize war or to justify going to war.  As I sat and watched I was wondering for those not directly on the ships under attack but at a distance and attracted to the noise and pyrotechnics they could observe at the naval base, how long did it take to realize that this was not an exercise or an accident, but an act of war?   If one didn’t have war on one’s mind, how long would it take to realize that one was under a military siege?   And how does your mind change when the initial amazement as to what is happening wears off and you suddenly realize that something terrible is happening?     At the Air Show when the bombing stopped and the smoked cleared everyone applauded in appreciation.  What happens when you realize that the pyrotechnics ending marks the beginning of something horrible  for which you are not prepared?

The second slide show I mention is the United States Air Force Thunderbirds whose formational flying skills were truly phenomenal.    I had many different thoughts during their show.  One was just being totally impressed by the technology and power of the United States.  What a country that can have just for show such a team as the Thunderbirds.   While I was marveling at the skills of the pilots and ground crew, I also thought about the terror that these jets as weapons delivery systems represent.  What it must be like in battle to have them swooping down on your position.  Even without the lethal armaments, the ear shattering noise of the jets itself must also be terrifying to those fighting on the ground realizing they could do little to challenge the air power.  It seemed to me that when the jets do their high speed fly bys that they are louder than the thunder in a summer storm (or perhaps conversely, thunder is not as loud as I often think it is).  

Did I consider the show wasteful in any sense?  It did occur to me that the amount of fuel that gets used up in one Air Show (including that used for all of the precise training) must be pretty staggering.  It is amazing that “we the people” can afford to burn up so much fuel.  On the other hand, the event is very good public relations for the military.  I think  the audience is very impressed with the skills, manners and hard work of the service men and women who are present for the show.  The announcers present a very polished message – patriotic and inspiring, as well as a chance to continually praise all of those who have served the country in the armed forces.  It seems to me to be  an impressive recruiting tool as well as it portrays military service as being honorable and exciting.  One also realizes the tremendous resources needed to for a world power to participate in a global economy.   There is little doubt that the U.S. military has very often served well and honorably protecting the interests of the nation.