Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Oct 21, 2007, at 10:38 AM, Lisa K.V. Perry wrote:

> So you can actually get them to change their path and share the heart
> palpitations with other families?

In our case, the squeaky wheel got the grease. We persisted with  
phone calls, found the right person to talk to, he sent out a captain  
and a Department of the Army civilian with two GPS units. They set  
them on the ground next to the house and waited half an hour for them  
to settle down. The two units had very slightly different readings,  
they averaged them, we chatted; they went over to my friends' place  
about a half mile northwest, did the same thing. They gave those  
readings to the dispatch officer down in NW Arkansas who actually set  
flight plans with the big SAC base up by Kansas City, Whiteman AFB, I  
think, where the B -2 flew out of.

Within a couple days, we had no more fly-overs.

Yeah, heart palpitations is right on. I remember the first time one  
came over me. I was out in the garden; I heard this roar way down  
hollow; it got louder and louder; suddenly this monster craft  
thundered in just over the trees and right above me. I thought I was  
dead for sure. I damn near fell to the ground. No chance to run. I  
figured either the Russians were coming in under the radar or this  
plane was gliding down to its crash site. Waited for the crash sounds  
to come back to me but the engine sounds just waned. Glad those  
instruments did their job. The windshield was covered with metal  
shutters. I later called them the Darth Vader planes. Scary as hell.  
The training flights are, in fact, to train pilots to fly under  
radar. Barely above the trees, swooping up and down over hill and  
holler.