F-15 fighter planes honor local health care providers

windfind · Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1902

Hi Gang,

With over 70,000 Americans dead from COVID-19 the Air National Guard did an F-15 fighter flyby of Gorge hospitals and clinics today at 8:58 AM.

The flyby was to honor Oregon nurses, doctors who have been working brutal hours and risking their lives dealing with our COVID-19 patients and those MA’s and nurses giving the COVID tests as well as local dentists who have volunteered to administer virus tests.

Below is a photo I shot of the flyby from above the Hatchery. And I have included some photos of ICU personal in action in a hospital as well as those ICU nurses who took a rare day off on National Nurses Day to silently confront those protesting against Social Distancing and the partial economic shutdown.

Mike Godsey

donmcd · Joined: 26 Jul 1999 Posts: 30

Impressed with the health care nurses. Could not care less about displays of fighter jets making noise at my farm this morning. Just tired of politics and having clowns in office more concerned with polls and campaigning than anything else. Spare me the fan fare.

U2U2U2 · Posted: Fri May 08, 2020 6:10 pm Post subject:

Flights are available to Haiti, from Miami, one way is cheaper
The F15s flying over your farm are :
1. An acknowledgement to the heath care workers of American and Oregon.
2. They protect you , even when you don’t know them, nor support them.
3. Because they are here, over your farm, means they are not in harms way in some foreign land.
4. The reason you can call the Elected officials, names, it’s called Freedom, same that you have .
The following, I will only think and not write

U2U2U2 · Posted: Fri May 08, 2020 6:22 pm Post subject:

We had similar flybys yesterday in the Denver and Colorado Springs area, F16s from Buckley AFB.

One was a flight of 4, normal interval kinda 2x2, another flight had the missing wingman, only 3 of 4 ,often done to honor a fallen mate.
By far the most memorable flight, I have seen, ever. There is a US Cemetery, in Cambridge , England, where WWII troops are buried. In England they celebrate , Poppy Day, a poppy is worn on the lapel to honor soldiers.
I was USAF nearby. A ceremony was conducted , and a flight of Spitfires and Hurricanes , bombed one poppy per grave

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

Jet noise ... the sound of freedom.

I'd like to see -- from a great distance -- anyone else fly in formation at separations as low as 18 inches.

vientomas · Joined: 25 Apr 2000 Posts: 2343

washy · Joined: 25 Apr 2002 Posts: 8

Thank you for the shout out and pictures. Im an anesthesiologist and have worked in our hospitals COVID unit, and I was working while we got our flyby so didn't get to see it. I was a little uncomfortable seeing how much it costs to keep the 15's in the air to do this, but I know that they need to do training flights anyway and this can be double purpose mission.
Hoping to see more of you on the water soon, Oregon is doing really well with all this.

windfind · Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1902

merriam2 · Joined: 25 Oct 2013 Posts: 33

Thanks Mike G for all your insightful and thoughtful posts on this subject, (and previously your interesting posts on meteorological subjects, hope we can focus on that again some day.) Your first picture was beautiful, the others depressing. I think donmck, U2 and washy all make valid points, even if somewhat conflicting. Hard to imagine being a poor pheasant in a third world country and having those things fly over and drop bombs on you, but awesome in their power to protect us in other ways. I join many others in being conflicted by the situation, wanting to return to "normal" but also have a 26 year old RN daughter in NYC fighting this scourge. No simple answers. Let's all hang together!
Tom

DelCarpenter · Joined: 06 Nov 2008 Posts: 499 Location: Cedar Falls, IA

Hadn't looked at this forum for a while. I am please to see U2 & Iso on the same page agreeing about something dear to both of their hearts. Windsurfers getting along together is dear to my heart.

In the last 6 months I've spent more time as an emergency room & hospital patient than I had in the previous 70 years. Not covid, not really life threatening...but no one knew that for sure. I recognize the people & professions honored in this thread are going to become more & more important for me personally in the coming years. The timing of my likely need is probably closer for me than for 90% of the readers of this forum. And still, we really are all in this together.

I used to think John Donne's poem, "Send Not To Know For Whom The Bell Tolls" was mostly about recognizing anyone's death diminishes all of us. That was about the listener. As we are not just listeners, the poem is also about the toller of the bell. As the tolling expresses honoring the fallen, the poem is also saying the toller is expressing that honoring as though by us, as though we each were creating the ringing; as we are in this thread acknowledging we are thinking of and honoring medical personnel.