Last week while on a trip to visit some old college friends at Purdue I managed to grab some aviation shots. All images taken with a Nikon D70s, soon to be retired.
It was pouring when I came upon this helo riding a flatbed on I-70W. Can anyone ID it? Looks like a Blackhawk, Army.
Made a stop at Purdue University airport and saw they rid themselves of the -100 series 727 they had when I was there and have acquired a -200 for the A&P program:
Also caught this Cessna, fenced in for all eternity:
I had told myself for several years that the next time I was driving back home from IN, I would stop at Flight 93, out of respect for what those folks did.
A half hour off the interstate, it's in the middle of nowhere. As in, I had to swerve to avoid a turtle crossing the road. Signs guide you to a parking area and a shed displaying posters and artifacts. As you can see, the left wall contains photos of passengers and crew:
You then follow the US park rangers' directions to the edge of a low hill that overlooks the crash site. In the distance can be seen a group of windmills, spinning silently away.
On the fence is this sign
Then you look out across the landscape. The quiet of such an immense vista takes your breath away. They were constructing the permanent memorial but there were a few moments of complete silence.
The sign directs your attention to the flag in the middle of the field where the plane hit. I'm no macho man or anything, but I don't cry easily either. Knowing this was where the battle that took place on that plane we all heard about 10 years ago finally ended, I had to walk away after a minute or so.
What was interesting was that the emotions I thought had largely evaporated in the decade since the defining moment of the current era came flooding back as I remembered where I was, what I was doing that day, especially how insane it all felt. I can only hope that somehow, in the chaos of it all seconds before impacting this serene Pennsylvania countryside, the passengers of Flight 93 were allowed some vision of the future they would never see in this life- a future in which their actions would forever serve as reminders that our freedom is never free, and that they took the necessary steps to protect our most cherished values. And how grateful we are for what they did.
They are the very embodiment of true American heroes.
-William
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Originally Posted by gonzalu
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