Proud to Be an American

Going to the base on my day off and checking out all kinds of military apparatus was not exactly my top priority on Sunday. After dragging my boyfriend to the beach for a couple of hours in the morning, he gave me a well-thought-out guilt trip about how we should now spend the rest of the day doing something he wanted to do. So off to the Cape Cod Air Show we went.

The parking situation on the base was horrendous, and it was noisy, crowded, hot, and entirely too full of testosterone. But as the afternoon wore on and the clouds burnt off, I suddenly became interested in all of the fancy planes and things; I even climbed up and sat inside of some of them.

We peeked inside of a Coast Guard helicopter, one very similar to what you can see in the film about the Coast Guard Rescue Divers, The Guardian. (I highly recommend it to anyone by the way). Then we strapped ourselves into a UH-60 Blackhawk. Mike and I saw a B-52 Bomber and walked right through the almost 250-foot long C-5 Galaxy. We stood outside the fenced off area where the stealthy F-117A Night Hawk sat guarded by several military personnel. Then I immediately felt goose bumps all over after seeing an F-15 Eagle with a sign that read “First on scene on September 11, 2001.”

After a few hours of walking around at Mike’s high speed pace in a pair of crappy worn out $3 flip flops, my feet were really killing me. I sat down on the concrete and planned to remain there until Mike wanted to venture over to the fried dough stand. But as soon as those Thunderbirds took off for the sky, I was right back up on my feet, staring up at them in awe. “This is the sound of freedom,” said the announcer as they took off.

And he was right. It was nothing short of amazing watching the pilots perform unbelievable stunts and fly in flawless formations all afternoon. The show ended with a huge applause from the crowd and the song “Proud to Be an American” blaring from the speakers on the runway. It was a great feeling to be there and see all of that. It really did make me feel proud to be an American.

We never did get that fried dough, and we ended up sitting in traffic for almost 2 hours although the Falmouth gate is mere minutes from my house, but the Air Show was definitely something I’m glad I didn’t miss. I didn’t even really mind all of the traffic on the way out because it was a good indicator of just how many people came out to support our country’s military this weekend. And I’m proud I was able to one of them.