Of Life and Other Matters: Little Redhawk's Day

Friday, August 14th was Little Redhawk's day (Also, my sister's birthday. Happy Birthday, Jerusha!). Little Redhawk's day is when Adam's squadron (VT-21 Redhawks) have all the children of students and instructors come in and tour the base.

Side Note: There is also a Lady Redhawk's day which (as I'm sure you've guessed) is for the wives. More on that in a couple weeks.

Little Redhawk's day started at 9:00 in the morning (which was a little earlier than we were used to). I had to wake Caleb up and its not very often that I have to do that. We rushed to get ready and ate breakfast on the way. We met Adam there (he had volunteered to help lead a group and had to arrive a little earlier) and the day began with an introduction from the CO (or Skipper) of the base.

The first place we explored was the flight gear room and hangar. A few of the T-45 trainer jets were parked inside waiting for repairs or inspections.

(Due to an absent camera, I scavenged the Internet for a picture of a T-45 in a hangar. I think this might actually be NAS Kingsville... although its much cleaner in this photo.)

All the children got to climb up a ladder and look in the cockpit of the T-45. We also got to watch Adam try on all of the flight gear. Here's Caleb in Adam's helmet. Caleb feels like he needs to hold very still when we put a hat or glasses on him. He is also sporting some graham cracker crumbs on his bottom lip.

We also got to climb up into the control tour. And what a climb it was. At one point I was thoroughly convinced the stairs had no end.

Following that, Caleb joyfully got to punch away on an inactive computer in the radar room and then it was on to the simulators.

If I had known how amazing the simulators were, I would have harassed Adam to let me visit them long before Little Redhawk's day. The simulator is a giant theatre-esque screen wrapped halfway around an elevated cockpit. Its like the coolest video game ever. Needless to say, I asked for a turn after the children had finished.

In my simulation I flew down to the specified runway and gently touched the asphalt perfectly. Then flipped and crashed in a fiery, red ball. I suggest a computer malfunction.

Next, we explored the base fire station. Caleb was just happy to be able to run around rather than being held. I tried on the fire jacket, Co2 tank (which is absent in this photo) and helmet. Adam got to fire the water hose at full power (I think it was full power). And we both realized that Little Redhawk's day was turning into Mommy and Daddy Redhawk's day.

Nonetheless, Caleb was the one that walked away with a certificate and Little Redhawk's T-shirt.