Strategic Air Command Museum

First Stay at Home Vacation

I have just completed my first "stay at home vacation."  My family was in town this last weeks to visit with my wife, daughter and I, (more likely just my daughter).  I took about a week off to spend some quality time with them as we only get to see them about twice a year.  It is always good to see them.

I've never taken more than one day off in a row in order to just stay at home and in the area.  Most times, we leave the state as soon as I can string together more than a few days off in a row and visit family.  Granted, this was essentially the same thing, but we got to see some of the sights and sounds around the area.  I have a pretty stressful job at times, so when I'm off work, I don't feel like doing anything other than vegging out with my beautiful wife and daughter.  I know it can be a disappointment for them sometimes as I feel I don't have any energy to participate in the "fun stuff."  But this week was a totally different story.

One of the high points for me was we finally made a trip out to the Strategic Air Command Museum between Lincoln and Omaha.  Being the airplane nut that I am, it was great to be able to walk around (and in some) of these aircraft that I had learned so much about when I was younger.  I have always had an affinity for airplanes.  My grandfather was a combat pilot in WWII and did tours in the Pacific.  I have always heard that flying is in the genes and I think I agree.  I wish I had more money to pursue the art myself.  Unfortunately I get to resort to sitting in front of my computer, pretending to do the thing that I would really love.

Upon entering the grounds you are welcomed to the site of several ICBMs.  They are truly impressive sight.  These monoliths tower above you as you begin to walk into the main building.  Seeing them in person really humbled me as I thought about how much potential destruction they possess and how close we were to using them not that long ago.  My daughter liked them because they were "rocket ships."  Oh the ignorance that a 4 year possesses when they only thing they have ever seen close to this was a outer space episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

We started walking up closer to the main building and the structure is impressive to say the lease.  Through the glass siding they have as you are walking up the ramp to enter the building you can see a silhouette of an SR-71A.  I could feel my heart rate increasing from purse, unadulterated excitement.  The SR-71 was my favorite aircraft as a child.  My dad and I were talking later in the day about a time that I had gone to an airshow with him and one of his friends.  He said I was only about 3 years old when we had gone.  My only memory of the airshow was the SR-71.  I can still describe it to this day.  We were sitting in the crowd when you could see it bearing down, head on, towards us.  (This is obviously before they had the regulations about flying over the crowd.)  As the plane neared us, it pitches up to a 90 degree climb, engines pointing straight down towards us.  I remember looking up into the sky and seeing the bright orange haunting eyes of the engines receding into the sky accompanied by the roar of absolute power.  It was love at first sight.

I could not help but walk right up to it as soon as I walked in.  I stood there in awe examining her, much like I did when I saw my wife for the first time.  There is a plaque positioned near the nose of this flat black bullet commemorating all service men and their sacrifices.  Being a former Marine myself, I felt welcomed, and at home here.  I even mentioned to my wife how it is nice knowing that this is a place where "we" can go and be surrounded by others like me.

I couldn't help but feel a bit sad however.  While looking around, I begin to notice that I, at 32 years old, am one of the youngest people there (excluding my present company).  There are several gentlemen walking around in small groups, all of which seemed to have been alive during the Korean and Viet Nam wars.  When I mentioned this to my dad, we both agreed that my generation is part of a dying breed that has appreciation for aircraft.  Louis CK made a great joke about this several years ago about how people are so annoyed by wait times in airports but yet we are "sitting in a chair, in the sky."  Then to further think that these machines were used in the defense of our country and way of life.

There were several other aircraft in the 2 hangers there.  (B-52, B-39, B-17, B-25, F-4, U-2 and the list goes on...)  I can definitely see myself going there again.  I only have one complaint, granted, they are restoring aircraft there as well, some of the showing times they have were quite short.  Essentially 2 one half hour blocks of time where you can see some of the other aircraft.  I am greedy and would have liked more time to see them on my schedule.  But this was my only complaint.  I also noticed they had areas for volunteer workers there.  I'm not sure what kind of backgrounds they would want to help there, but it is really tempting for me to investigate the possibility, you know, with all of the free time I have.

If you live anywhere in the area I would highly recommend visiting the grounds.  The beauty in these old war machines are not easily described and must be seen for yourself to have any appreciation for them.

Check them out.  Strategic Air Command Web Page