Air Show
It was a great weekend. My wife and I took my 2 year old son to Andrews Air Force base for an air show Joint Forces Open House, a major recruiting effort if we want to be honest. However, it was a blast and I wasn’;t being recruited. Been there, done that.
Here’s a picture of me underneath my favorite bird of all time, the F-14 Tomcat (Bad Kitty, purrrr!) I never thought I’d have the opportunity totouch this kitty, but after 30 years the day finally came. Click the Picture for more photos.
Pick up your copy of the WordPress Bible, a wildly popular resource for beginners and experts alike.
Written by Aaron Brazell on May 21, 2006
Popularity: 1% [?]
Aaron Brazell
Steven Fisher
Ray Capece
Carlos Granier-Phelps
Andrew Feinberg
Mike Dougherty
Chris Bachmann
Leslie Poston
Jerald Sheets
Scott Goldblatt
Mykel Nahorniak
Peter Corbett
Jonathan Dingman
Geoff Livingston
Jeremy Toeman
Rachel James
Chris Parandian
Warren Sukernek
Joseph Hauckes
Shana Glickfield
Vinnie Garcia
David Nick
Duncan Riley
Carol Ott
Darren McLaughlin
Mike Oliver
Rico Masterson
Lou P. Nuts
I went to last year’s show with my son and got in touch with my inner 12-year-old as we watched a delightful display of all sorts of aircraft. Imagine the disappointment Saturday when I took him and a few of his Little League team mates on the long Metrorail ride to the end of the Green line only to find that they were no longer running busses from Metro to the show — at 2:00pm The Blue Angels were not scheduled until 3:30! Who would think that an hour and a half was not early enough to arrive for a show? How was anyone to know that your trip would be wasted if you were not there before 2:00pm? Could you find it on the front of their web site? Nope. How about on the “schedule” page? Nope. Transportation page? Nope. Buried in a disused backalley of the web site on the security page was a small notice about the premature cutoff of bus service.
This weekend Metro and the Air Force turned away HUNDREDS of folks just like myself who had early and mid-day activities, but wanted to see something of the show. A recruiting event indeed! It revealed an excellent object lesson to the boys about military service, respect for your audience, and clear public communication. As we stood in a crowd full of people who were holding printouts of the air show web site, I realized how easy it would have been for the cognizant webmaster to have put a red notice on the home page of the site, or on the schedule page, or on a “transportation” page. Instead, in inimtable military fashion, there was a “gotcha” waiting at the end of the (green) line.
Perhaps the military response is that I “should have known” (especially since I went last year) or “we can’t tell you everything” or something similar. I don’t really care what it is. What it SHOULD BE is a mental note for next year – that the Air Force will post its hours clearly, including its transportation hours, in a way that makes sense to people who use the WWW to get information. Which, after all, is just about everybody nowadays.
I went to last year’s show with my son and got in touch with my inner 12-year-old as we watched a delightful display of all sorts of aircraft. Imagine the disappointment Saturday when I took him and a few of his Little League team mates on the long Metrorail ride to the end of the Green line only to find that they were no longer running busses from Metro to the show — at 2:00pm The Blue Angels were not scheduled until 3:30! Who would think that an hour and a half was not early enough to arrive for a show? How was anyone to know that your trip would be wasted if you were not there before 2:00pm? Could you find it on the front of their web site? Nope. How about on the “schedule” page? Nope. Transportation page? Nope. Buried in a disused backalley of the web site on the security page was a small notice about the premature cutoff of bus service.
This weekend Metro and the Air Force turned away HUNDREDS of folks just like myself who had early and mid-day activities, but wanted to see something of the show. A recruiting event indeed! It revealed an excellent object lesson to the boys about military service, respect for your audience, and clear public communication. As we stood in a crowd full of people who were holding printouts of the air show web site, I realized how easy it would have been for the cognizant webmaster to have put a red notice on the home page of the site, or on the schedule page, or on a “transportation” page. Instead, in inimtable military fashion, there was a “gotcha” waiting at the end of the (green) line.
Perhaps the military response is that I “should have known” (especially since I went last year) or “we can’t tell you everything” or something similar. I don’t really care what it is. What it SHOULD BE is a mental note for next year – that the Air Force will post its hours clearly, including its transportation hours, in a way that makes sense to people who use the WWW to get information. Which, after all, is just about everybody nowadays.
It actually does say that shuttles ended by 2 on the website. While I agree that shuttles should have been through the entire day, they do actually explain the routine in detail
Is that Corby to the right in the pic of you w/ the Tomcat?(nah- not enough shine up top)
Good to see you representin’ the great paycheck signers with the customer!!
You’d think in Colorado Springs, with 5 military installations, most of them Air Force, that I would have taken the kids to a show by now. Seeing your pics, it looks like fun – maybe I will get them to the next one.
Jeez!! It is only on your site that I mistype my own name! :-)
It actually does say that shuttles ended by 2 on the website. While I agree that shuttles should have been through the entire day, they do actually explain the routine in detail
Is that Corby to the right in the pic of you w/ the Tomcat?(nah- not enough shine up top)
Good to see you representin’ the great paycheck signers with the customer!!
You’d think in Colorado Springs, with 5 military installations, most of them Air Force, that I would have taken the kids to a show by now. Seeing your pics, it looks like fun – maybe I will get them to the next one.
Jeez!! It is only on your site that I mistype my own name! :-)