It’s okay to love America. pic.twitter.com/s4PhtQb56q
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 16, 2026
From the late 60s into the early 70s the Air Guard operated out of the local ariport. They were flying the Delta Dart at the time.
The airport was not too far out of town, maybe 2 miles and sat on a bluff with one of the runways routing over the town. Directly over our house.
Once or twice a week one of these aircraft would come screaming off the airport directly over the house, on its way to supersonic. if I was lucky enough to be in the back yard at the time the aircraft would be low enough at that point you could see the pilot if they were banking slightly to a new heading.
The sound was deafening and with the afterburners running you could feel that sound in your chest.
So there would be this flat out screech as it passed over and just a few seconds later (presumably after it had cleared the town) there would be a split second of dead silence and then…… BOOM as it went supersonic.
Windows would rattle and some people would bitch but the majority of us, particularly us kids, were deeply impressed.
Likewise, when there was a parade downtown, there might be a pair or small formation just a few hundred feet above our tallest building flying down main street.
And if you looked at the crowd instead of the planes you would see Pride. And Patriotism. And sometimes a tear or two in the eyes of the old men.