A common sight over Rio Linda, as the mighty USCG HC-130 make's it's downwind leg toward landing at McClellan Field.
A common sight over Rio Linda, as the mighty USCG HC-130 make’s it’s downwind leg toward landing at McClellan Field. McClellan is the home of USGC Air Station Sacramento, where they fly the HC-130 aircraft on Search and Rescue(SAR), Law Enforcement, and Logistics missions, from south to the equator, west to Hawaii, and north to Alaska.
Just over a year ago, USCG Air Station Sacramento lost an HC-130 in a midair collision with a U.S. Marine Corps Bell AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter near San Clemente island. There were two crewmen aboard the Marine training flight. The helicopter crew was looking for a missing boater 50 miles off the Southern California coast. All nine members of the military perished.
- High Flight
- Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
- And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
- Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
- of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
- You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
- High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
- I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
- My eager craft thro’ footless halls of air….
- Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
- I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
- Where never lark nor even eagle flew—
- And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
- The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
- Photo by Tom McGarry
- Poem by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
The sacrifice the men and women of the US Armed Forces make each and every day is amazing and almost always overlooked, except by family or friends.
Some see the armed forces as a bad thing; I feel otherwise.
As such, all I can say is ‘Thanks’ to all the men and women of the US Armed Forces – it may not be much, but it is heartfelt.
And what a spectacular picture to honor our men and women who serve. Thanks so much for stopping by, Tom. I hope to see you stop by often.