Fighter jets are loud

T'other day, a friend told me she was awakened at 4 in the morning by fighter jets flying over her house. Being in St. Louis, this is a fairly common occurrence since 9-11. There's an air force base just across the river. We can always tell when something is going to happen, because I'll hear jets leaving Scott AFB, and Chasmyn will hear a different group overfly her house.
Today's Alienation News has this: "Since Saturday, people in the Highlands of Scotland have been witnessing large movements of US warplanes overhead. Experienced observers say the large numbers are reminiscent of those that preceded the bombing of Iraq in 1998 and military strikes on Libya in the 1980's as well as the first Gulf War." and more.

I remember going the the VP Fair and watching the airshows. I remember oohing and ahhing along with the rest of the crowd as the deafening Harrier hovered just feet above the Mississippi River. I remember the thrill of seeing F-15's blaze overhead. I remember actually touching an Apache helicopter.

Then I remember sitting in history class, watching old footage of military parades in countries were were told not to like. I realized there was no difference between our airshows and their parades. Both were displaying military power to thrill and subdue the masses.
I'm a machine junkie. I love the beauty of a well designed craft. I can pinpoint the moment I became interested in warplanes. I was at camp, and something black, with funny backward wings brushed the treetops over my head and crashed. We could all see the smoke. The adults insisted there was no airplane. They said the smoke was from a little forest fire, that was quickly controlled... nothing to worry about. When I left camp a few days later, the adults pretended not to see the caravan of military vehicles on the side of the highway. I went to the library and looked up war planes. None of the silhouettes looked like the thing that crashed. It piqued my interest. Some small part of me is still looking for the name of that plane. It was probably an experimental craft, so I'll never know. But it was enough to open another avenue of learning for me. I really got into the engineering behind experimental aircraft. I just had to research how rockets, jets and the sound barrier work. I love the whole cone of resistance thing.

So, knowing what I know, I used to get a thrill seeing afterburners glowing in the sky. Now I just see it as an intrusion of sound, and a reminder that soon there will be more deaths. I've seen enough stealth fighters to last me a lifetime.