Message posted by RickB on July 02, 2010 at 12:50:34 PST:
A story I thought I'd share.... I apologize if this a bit long-winded and possibly not the right forum for a story such as this....
In the summer of 1996 when my daughter was two years old I took her on a visit to the Milwaukee Zoo. On our drive back down to Illinois where we live, I swung by Milwaukee's Mitchell Field to see if there was anything going on at the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Base located on the south side of the airport. Kind of a sleepy base with a few C-130's and KC-135's as the tenant aircraft, and normally not much going on. I usually liked to stop by for a few minutes just to see the cool 1960's/1970's fighter jets that are on display as gate guards. As I pulled up to the fence I noticed that there were two F-15's on hold near the runway about midway down (a rare sight for this base). Then two NASA F-16's suddenly came in and also taxied to a hold posiion. Now extremely rare indeed for this base! I thought this is pretty cool (and good timing too). As I looked in the sky down the runway, I could see something else on approach in the far distance. This aircraft was trailing smoke and it appeared that there were two other smaller aircraft just above. Ok I thought, what is this now? As the aircraft got closer I thought surely this is very hard to believe, but what I am now seeing I have seen before, but only in pictures or in video: clearly the shape of the larger aircraft that was coming in trailing the smoke was an SR-71 Blackbird(!!), and the two smaller aircraft above were flying chase. I thought oh my god, I couldn't get much luckier than this to have stopped here of all places at just this particular moment to see my first SR-71 coming in to land on a runway right in front of me! And me and my daughter were the only ones who just happened to be there watching this! I noticed that several fire trucks and other emergency equipment had moved into position near the runway alongside the F-15's and F-16's. The SR-71 was obviously having some trouble and continued its landing approach still trailing heavy smoke. As it landed in, the two jets flying chase (both T-38's) continued down the runway flying above the SR-71. With the SR-71 rolling down the runway, all the emergency vehicles followed in from behind, and the fighter jets then doing same. The SR-71 appeared to land safely and without further incident, settling into position on the tarmac with the emergency vehicles parking close by. The SR-71 and everything else was now just a couple hundred feet from where I was standing. As this all played out, it was quite the sight to see! I learned later from my friends who live in my hometown nearby the old Glenview Naval Air Station that the SR-71 had problems after takeoff from the annual experimental aircraft and airshow event in Oshgosh, WI and diverted for an emergency landing to Milwaukee. Unfortunately, I was not able to get back up there again to see that beautiful bird when she departed.
Replies: