Touch and Go! ( Hawkeye Style!)

Touch and Go! Hawkeye Style!
Current mood:Fired Up!
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers
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Touch and Go!

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There are so many aspects of my life that I just absolutely dig, and today I got to have one of those moments where I had the opportunity to stop and savor the moment. I work right outside of Oceana Air Base in ....Virginia Beach.., ..Virginia.... and got to see some of our Nation’s finest pilots practice their “touch and go!” approaches.

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Now, if you know anything about this area you would think that I was watching the Super Hornet pilots…but not on this fine day…it was all about the E-2C Hawkeyes today. As I was working inside of our office, less than a mile from the end of the runway, I could hear the props and knew right away that I would have to find a moment to step outside and admire the handy work of these cowboys…Cowboys?

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Yeah, you heard me right, these guys are the unsung heroes, but they are tough as nails and crazy as hell! They whip their Hawkeyes around like rag dolls and get every ounce of performance out of them and then some. You really have to know your stuff and spend a lot of time watching aircraft of all types before you can truly appreciate these special pilots and their birds.

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I have looking skyward since I was a kid growing up in ....Yuma.. ..Arizona..... Back then I was watching F-4 Phantoms and A-4 Skyhawks…Fast birds to be sure, but they just flew really fast in straight lines…While fast is cool, so is throwing your prop aircraft up on its side in a ridiculous bank. These guys are cowboys! They rock….and they do this just a couple of hundred feet off the ground on a regular basis…We should all be as good at our jobs as they are at their job…furthermore, we should all have as much fun as they are having up there. Fun? Hell yeah, they are having fun! You can tell the way that they fly the wings off their Hawkeyes…we should all have that much conviction, tenacity and brass in our own lives regardless of what we do for a living.

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They are what Suck it up, Buttercup! is all about. It’s about taking what you get and making it Rock and Roll! It’s about pushing to the limits! It’s about pride in your workmanship! It’s about being the best at what you do and loving every second of it.

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As I watch the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, I can’t help but compare the Hawkeye Pilots to Olympians, and as I do, Olympians fall woefully short of accomplishing what these pilots have accomplished. There isn’t even a category for what they do…they are such an elite class of athlete scholar that the percentage of them is in the .0000000% of the world population. How’s that for elite?

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You know what is the most amazing thing? You would never know these guys and gals when you are out during the regular course of your day. At least where I live, these guys are mowing their lawns, watching a game, fixing their cars or even more impressive, hanging out with their kids. Where do these guys come from? I don’t know, but when I say “God Bless ....America....” what I am really saying is “Thank you God for Hawkeye Pilots!”

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Maybe it’s just me, but I think there is something terribly freakin’ cool about a high speed pass, 100 feet off the ground with the landing gear up, 200 feet in front of me…they just slip through the air with that unmistakable prop noise.

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By the way, if you know of a Hawkeye Pilot…go ahead and thank them for me from the bottom of my heart. We appreciate what you do (even if you do love it) it means a lot to me and my family.

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Rock on!

check out the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8o3F0ORR7Q