Sitting at the airport watching ground crews prep 737's for flight as I was hearing the news of (more) air strikes in Iraq being carried out by F/A 18 Super Hornets off the USS Washington. Brought back the intensity and feeling of launching aircraft with live ordnance on it, readied for targets on the beach somewhere.

We'd do walk arounds prepping the ordnance and aircraft. Systems checks, maintenance and planning all for moments like today that when called on to act, ordnance was on target. The last thing we'd do is pull chocks and pins much like this handler here is doing and launch em after arming them up.

I had not read, watched or really cared about news for the past 8 days and totally oblivious to goings on. Why am I not surprised to see that in my days being gone, nothing has dramatically changed in the world at large. As I sat there in the airport hearing talking heads on the TV's above me in the waiting area speculating on more airstrikes I kept going back to my days on ships when "remove before flight" had a more serious meaning than a flight home from Disney. Specifically thinking if we are here doing this, lets go all in and GO HOME!

Thats another commentary and another picture someday.