Within the first few days after we moved to Colorado Springs there was a welcome home parade for the 4th Infantry Division, including my husband's unit, the Brigade Reconnaissance Team - later the 2nd Brigade of the 9th Calvary. It was an emotional time for us, our little family of three had just reunited after being apart for a year. We were adjusting to being together in a new place where it was just us for the first time, we knew no one.
This was not a parade of marching bands and little league teams. It was a parade of proud and exhausted soldiers marching in their newly issued boots. Rows and rows of uniforms interspersed with equipment - up-armored Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles. No music, no candy, just a steady stomp and cheering crowd.
Colorado Springs is home to the Army base Fort Carson, and also home to the Air Force Academy, Peterson and Schreiver Air Force bases. When there is a welcome home parade, they bring out every piece of aircraft that was used during that tour of duty for a flyover. Imagine the giant C130, Chinook helicoptors, etc. flying low and fast overhead. There are few tall buildings in Colorado Springs, no one wants to impede the view of Pikes Peak, and so the aircraft fly in low, shaking the ground. The soldiers are stoic and unnerved by the flyover.
I'm sitting on the curb with our three year old daughter standing between my knees, taking it all in, looking for Daddy. She sits down when the aircraft start to come through, unsure of the noise. The C130 soars overhead, seemingly 100 feet above our heads. I can feel the rumble in my feet, pride for my husband, pride for the soldiers he walks with, pride and camaraderie for the families surrounding me. We all made it through this rough year-long tour together. I bury my tear-filled eyes in my daughter's soft, straight hair. To this day a good flyover gives me chills and my eyes well up with tears.
Our hometown July 4th parade this year had a flyover by a two jets from the local Air National Guard unit. Instantly filled with the old feeling of pride in the few seconds it takes for them to fly over I feel like something needs to be said - all I can muster is "I love a good flyover".
