By Charles McMahon
October 29, 2010
PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire — The smiles on their faces said it all Thursday. One by one, all 91 members of the 16th Airlift Squadron of the U.S. Air Force made their way down the Heroes Walk at the Portsmouth International Airport at Pease into a room filled with cheering spectators waiting with coffee, doughnuts, camouflage bibles and warm smiles and handshakes.The event marked the 400th time since 2005 that the Pease Greeters, volunteers who attend landings and takeoffs of all military flights, have shown up to support the men and women of the nation's armed forces. Considered to be a milestone, Thursday's event featured hundreds of Seacoast veterans, residents, school children and even a few animals who gathered at the airport to say farewell to the troops before they headed overseas.The squadron, made up of mostly pilots, is headed to southwest Asia to conduct cargo flight missions in C-17 aircraft.
5 comments:
It was an unbelievable show of support. Completely unexpected, and it blew all of us away.
We're the 16th Airlift Squadron, by the way, not the 16th Air Tanker Squadron (I know Dad just copied the article...it's not his bad).
Very cool! I'm pretty sure Charlie's flights stopped there (I couldn't remember if it was NH or Maine)on the way to Iraq. They came up and handed out cell phones for everyone to call their families. We were certainly shocked to get the call but so grateful to those veterans. I've never forgotten them!
Also, MOST importantly - good luck to Justin and God Bless
you can catch a glimpse of Justin at 1:46 seconds in.
What a difference a generation can make. That's super!
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