Brains!

So today I went to the MCAS Miramar Air Show.

Yes you might be thinking, what in the name of all that is hippie, did I go for? Well see it's occurred to me that I'm very open minded to experiencing things I wouldn't normally be found doing. Mostly it is because I believe passing judgement about things one doesn't really know about first hand, is wrong. My boys brother's father in law is a radio personality on am600 in San Diego, so we got free passes to watch from the corporate chalets right on the runway. Free food, beer and shade all day, and an amazing view of the Blue Angels planes parked neatly right in front of us.

As I watched jets and copters soaring overhead, always in the back of my mind I thought about how the cost of making one of these engineering masterpieces could put so many people through university, restore wetlands, and pay for a collection of families health care for their whole lives.

Mostly what bothers me the most about the military, is the mentality. In some ways how they operate is marvelous and in some ways completely inhuman. But also just walking around the base looking inside planes and at bombs and things meant to kill and destroy, just doesn't sit well with me. I knew I was probably one of a small few people there who thought so. Who fell on the liberal side of the spectrum. I did however attend with two of Jordan's older brothers one very liberal, smart, well read and there for the same reason I was, and his other brother an NRA member, wears army boots, and probably would shit his pants if he went to Iraq. Was an interesting experience to see two people completely the opposite of each other getting along, laughing and enjoying the show together without bringing it to the liberal vs conservative depths of hell. I was happy of that, hopeful even.

Also over the loud speakers, it was often said "salute our soldiers who are defending freedom across the world", I'm not sure how invading other countries and forcing our views upon them is "defending", but what the average military person has to sacrifice at the hands of a stupid government is really the thing we should be saluting. But what about the engineers designers? There was scarce mention of them.

And there are things that I do believe could not be solved without military action. Which brings me to my rather libertarian and draconian views that life generally sucks, and we all suffer, and humans are a lot less angelic then we think we are. We murder, chimps do it too, we're just organized animals.

On the other hand, the things that these machines and pilots can do, and put themselves through in regards to G-force and precision and efficiency (even if one of the planes could fuel a car for 300 fill ups) is unbelievable. It was amazing to see a plane rush by and then a second or two later tremendous roaring and burning sounds rush over you. Welcome to going faster then the speed of sound, but these guys weren't even breaking the sound barrier, and it was enough to make me put ear plugs in.

Summary of things I saw, and remember, which I'm proud of myself for remembering:
We saw F 18 Falcons, which are smaller and surprisingly less manoeuvrable then the bigger and more stealthy looking F 22 (which registers like a bumble bee on radar). Both were quite intimidating.
We saw p-51 mustang, which was shiny and small and made a lovely ripple noise, old school.
We saw an AV-8B Harrier take off vertically and spin midair, and land, very hard to do, needs lots of air and fuel.
Golden Knights Parachute team, some of these guys had done over 3500 drops.
Sean Tucker doing psycho flips and spins in the Oracle, a bi-plane.
Since its a marine base we got to watch a Marine Air-Ground Task Force Demo, (saw how they blow people up and invade in other countries, like Iraq and Afghanistan) which included a wall of fire, close enough to make my face burn.
And finally the US Navy Blue Angels do crazy ass formations only 18inches from each other.

In the end, I felt out of my element, but impressed. However in no way did it make me gun-ho army. I would rather see diplomacy before war. I would rather see my tax dollars going to education, so that people are more educated to vote, to design and build ways of getting around actually killing people, unmaned weapons if it has to come to that, and able to create foreign relations with a better more global intent. The army works the way it does because of the way it is run, even if I hate the dehumanization of it all, I'm not sure how else it could exist.

I feel more educated, more knowledgeable about what goes on in the military, I feel sunburned, and supportive of these troops who are needlessly being forced into situations that they are in for all the wrong selfish reasons and with terrible planning. Lets bring them home.