Why were they all here? When a hurricane is heading for the coast, if there are any military bases in the targeted area, the airplanes that don’t fit into the hangars are evacuated or as they say “hurr-evac.”
Hurricane Irene’s landfalls near North Carolina and Virginia hit a number of Navy and Marine Corps Air Stations. Because there is never enough room in the hangars for all of the planes, the flyable ones head to the safety of inland bases like Wright-Patterson.
And so last week instead of the Air Force airplanes that we see every day flying overhead, we were treated to a mini-air show with the arrivals of carrier airplanes, Navy transport planes and my favorite, the anti-submarine patrol planes, the P-3 Orions. That is what my husband flew for years.
At the end of the Wright-Patterson runway, a group of Navy plane lovers always gathers to watch the arrival of the hurricane evacuees. George Rogers Clark Park is also on the approach to the base and there I spoke with Navy veteran Tom Rumpke, who was standing with his face to the sky with a big grin, watching Navy planes fly overhead.
“I love seeing all the Navy planes and the Marine Corps planes, too,” said Rumpke, who was once stationed on an aircraft carrier. Rumpke told me that he is a plank-owner, which means he was a member of the first crew to take the U.S.S. Eisenhower to sea.
Talking to Rumpke and watching the planes reminded me of all those years when we lived on naval air stations. These are the planes we knew by sound as much as by sight.
And I could not help but remember what it was like being on the other end of this hurricane evacuation thing.
While we see hurricane evacuations as lots of fun and an unexpected air show, there are scores of Navy wives back on the East Coast wondering why their husband has left just when the hurricane shutters need to be put on the house.
The planes always leave, we noticed, before the electricity goes out. The Navy wives weather the storm.
I guess this is one just of the reasons they say “Navy Wife” is the toughest job in the Navy.
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