Mt. Comfort/Indy Air Show!

After living here in Indy for nearly four years, we finally made the effort to attend the Mt. Comfort/Indy Air Show! This airshow "ain't" your small town, county air show. "Really huge" about sums it up. I've never seen so many interesting aircraft in one place. The children were in awe.

Now, the heat of the day was oppressive. The noise was thrilling. The crowd was plentiful. But there was more...

An experience that not everyone gets: to meet not one, but ten WWII veterans; survivors of the USS Indianapolis (sitting the length of the table behind my son in the picture to the left) which was torpedoed and sunk toward the end of the war. Nine hundred men lost their lives aboard that ship that day, yet these survivors, all in their 80's cheerily told us how glad they were to be at the airshow! They spoke of their wives and children; of lying about their age to join up, and about a book that they had collectively written about their experience--a harrowing tale indeed.

We excitedly filled our children in on what their presence meant. We told our oldest son about this chance he was getting that would probably never come again. A chance that is a rare bit of history in the making. The opportunity to shake the hands of men who should have died, but lived a lifetime as heroes of a long ago war. What a thrill...for all of us.

But there was more! We saw all the usual acrobatics of various aircraft, as well as all kinds of displays of weapons (son was thrilled!) and uniforms. There was possibly too much. My favorite plane though? The Raptor!

Now, my husband's head is full of all the boy junk you can possibly imagine. He can recognize the make and model of every car, airplane and motorcycle ever made (even from the sound of their engine!). But even he was taken back by the presence of the F22 Raptor. Now, this jet was big and loud and maneuvered like nobody's business. This being a "show", we all cheered and exclaimed how "totally cool" this jet was, but the grown up in me also was quite humbled by a machine of war. A weapon. Plain and simple. Husband and I could not help but speak of the pro-military effects of a show like this. Lest we forget...

I highly recommend attending this air show if you ever get the chance! We hope to go back every year.