My earliest memory is of an airplane ride.I remember flying to Florida with my family aboard a TWA Lockheed Constellation at the age of two-and-a-half. A few years later, I made the first of many trips to the observation deck at Akron-Canton Airport, where I spent hours watching planes take off and land and learning to love the smell of jet exhaust. I used to beg a local farmer to take me up in the Cessna he kept in his barn. I pored over books about air combat and collected pictures of aircraft of all kinds.
I never did fulfill my dream of becoming a pilot. I don't even travel by air that much anymore. But I still love flying machines -- so when our county airport hosts its modest air show every August, I'm there.Under this morning's brilliant sky, my wife and I made the short drive to the air field. We spent the first couple of hours strolling the flight line, ogling and photographing mostly vintage aircraft.
Big-band music played over the public-address system. Silver-haired men in crisp uniforms patiently answered questions about their planes. Older men leaned on canes, staring silently at this plane or that, lost in their memories.
After the presentation of colors and a tribute to our nation's fallen warriors, the show took to the skies. A pair of barnstormers thrilled the crowd with their aerobatics, followed by a wing-walker and, of all things, an evil-looking Mig-17. A KC-135 tanker from the nearby Air National Guard base pinned our ears back with a 300-knot pass low over the field, followed by a stunning demo by an F-16.
Then, as a P-51 roared skyward to join the F-16, my wife and I looked at each other and smiled. We knew what was next: the USAF Heritage Flight.It wasn't the first time we'd watched this moving aerial tribute -- the Mustang and the Falcon, a pair of warbirds separated by two generations, flying wingtip-to-wingtip. As they passed low over our heads, goosebumps became tears of pride. It happens every time.
I'm a patriot with a pulse -- no apologies. If you don't understand, I won't be able to explain it to you.
Today's show came to a close with a "V for Victory" pass by a B-25 and six T-6s. Spectacular.
A lot of years have gone by since my first ride on that Constellation, but deep-down, I'm still just a kid who loves airplanes.
