Operation: National Guard base tour

Yesterday was the best day ever! My Starbucks manager Amy and I got to take a tour of the National Guard base where all our Ait Force buddies work. The day started out with Buzz coming and picking us up at Starbucks and taking us to watch the jets take off. He and Mike drove us down to the end of the runway to watch. After that they took us over to there shop, I believe they are called the Life Support guys. They put together all the survival kits and stuff. While we were there we got to get in the pretend F-15 training jet, where we took a bunch of pictures. I got to hang in the pretend parachute, we ran out of time so Amy didn't get to do that part. We were then escorted to a presentation by Chris and Neil, explaining what the flight gear was used for. We learned all about the fancy $140,000 helmets, poopy suits, night vision googles. Neil even took our picture through the nigh vision goggles! No one else thought it was as cool as we did.
Mike stayed with us almost the whole time, They kept telling us we were VIP! We got a tour of the hush house, I didn't really get what it was for, but it was cool to watch the engine start up. I think it was for trouble shooting engine problems...but once again not too sure.
After Lunch was when we got to go up in the fuel tanker to refuel jets in the air. Only the coolest thing ever! We all loaded into the giant plane and Amy and I volunteered to sit in the cockpit for take off. The chair I was sitting in was basically a folding chair that was half bolted to the ground. The seat belt was hard to explain but I would have felt just as safe if they had told me to just hold onto the seat. I have a picture of the seat belt....it was sketchy! The pilots were super cool, they chatted with us and answered all our questions. Once we were in the air we were allowed to walk around the plane. One guy somehow cracked his head open, it wasn't as bad as it sounds. When you went into the back of the plane there was a area where you could lay down and look our a window and watch the jets fly up. You could actually see the pilot in the jet! All that was between you was some plexi glass! After we landed the pilots let us take their pictures and sit in the pilot seats. Pat and Mike came back to get us and took us to another area of their shop and we were able to put on flight gear! It was super cool! Right before we left they took us to there bar where we all had a beer and then we went home! It was by far one of the coolest things ever! If you know me even a little bit you probably know how much I love beening VIP, I just love being more important then someone else and that is how we were treated the whole time. It was so much fun to walk around with an escort and then we had this creepy photographer around. Amy and I said he was like paparazzi. At first I thought I was imagining it, but Amy said later that it felt like he was taking pictures of only us. Seriously We had so much fun!

Here is the link to my pictures from the tour!

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