Military Stuff

I copied this news item from KSWO:
Fort Sill to welcome new unit Lawton (AP) _ Fort Sill will roll out the red carpet Friday for the first Air Defense Artillery unit to relocate to the post. The Sixth Battalion, 52nd Air Defense Artillery will unfurl its colors in a welcome ceremony at Fort Sill's Polo Field. The unit's arrival from Germany is the first part of Fort Sill's implementation of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure decision. The Pentagon ordered air defense artillery training to be merged with Fort Sill's field artillery school. The merger is scheduled to be complete by 2010. Lawton is preparing for an estimated 11,000 new residents, including military, civilian and contract employees and their dependents, over the next several years.

The happenings at Ft. Sill are always interesting. Sometimes we can hear the big guns pounding away on training exercises, although we are about 45 miles from Ft. Sill. It sounds like distant thunder. I cannot imagine what it sounds like up-close and personal. A few years ago, Ft. Sill had some joint exercises with the Air Force, Navy, and Marines. Not only did they use the big artillery, the Air Force dropped some bombs to make everything sound and look like a real battlefield. I would love to have been there. Maybe some day I will drive over to Mt. Scott while the Army does it's thing - it could be interesting. Also the building that is going on on Ft. Sill is impressive. They are building mass housing on one of the old polo fields. Lawton will be booming in more ways than one.

The last few nights we have seen and heard low flying airplanes - not the big C7 from Altus, but large planes - flying very low over our house. I always wonder what kind of training or missions they are doing. It reminded me of living down on the Border in McAllen where old DC3 type planes would take off about sunset and come home about dawn (or not) on smuggling runs. Then there was the time I was standing on the tank dam holding the reins of two horses when training jets from Sheppard flew over. They were so low that I think I saw one of the pilots wink. I was just glad I was not riding the horses at the time.