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2012 Airshows This was show was the classic case of US Military Hurry Up and Wait, SNAFU, lack of coordination of between different commands and junior enlisted persons not be being backed up by and helped out by their officers. But in another way it is good to know that forty years after my service and thirty years after the termination of the draft and the initiation of an all volunteer military, some things remain constant. I had been looking to visit Whiteman for quite some time just due to the fact it is out in the middle of nowhere and is the home base for all of the world's B-2 bombers. However, my enthusiasm was somewhat cooled by several issues that arose with the how the show was managed. First, after arriving over at the base around a half hour before the gates opened there was no signage directing those of wanting to visit the show which gate to go to. So I tried the front gate along with everyone else and then had to be sent about a mile away to the south gate. The base would have saved itself a lot of wasted effort by its security forces redirecting all of the air show attendees that were clogging up the front gate with some signs on where to go. Basics!! For some reason the police at the south gate decided to let all of the cars in coming from the other direction in first, even though most of us in our line had been there longer and were actually blocking a state road for about a half a mile. In most cases, whether one gets in ahead of another at a show by a few minutes is trivial and doesn't matter. Not in this case!! Whiteman had the strictest security at any military base I have ever been to, and I have been to quite a few recently, as I really enjoy visiting the military bases to see what they have to offer. The level of security is of course is the prerogative of the base commander and his/her security persons to decide what should and shouldn't be checked and how thoroughly. However, when the base does a show every other year and is not prepared for the early morning surge of spectators, then something is wrong. Getting to the parking lot and then to the security gate a few minutes behind someone else at Whiteman made the difference in whether you got right in right away or waited an hour like we did, or two hours like many others. As usual the junior enlisted persons assigned to inspect our belongs and check us through the metal detectors were doing the best they could and were very professional. However, there were not enough of them and possibly metal detectors to handle the early morning surge. What I noticed was that there were no officers around to observe the fiasco and work on making changes and improvements. I truly don't think the senior command realizes that for all the work it did to put the show it was all for any good will it was trying to build up with the spectators was destroyed before any of us even got in the gate. Actually the line was so long that the shuttle buses were only able to travel about 200 feet before dropping persons off at the end of line. Even worse, persons that were in line at were getting back on the buses and going home rather than put up with the unwarranted long waits. As an air show enthusiast I consider it sad that many people who could have seen what the base had to offer left soon after arriving, no doubt disgusted they had even wasted their time coming out. Due to the fact many did not get in at my entrance until 11:30 while arriving at a reasonable time in the morning they missed up to the first hour of flying as they were still standing in line. So while the Operations Staff spent a lot of time putting the air show together for all to see the Base Security had many of them outside waiting to be inspected resulting in the first hour of flight being a somewhat of a wasted effort by the Operations Section. It is not my intention to slam air shows on this website and this is the first time, and hopefully the last I ever have to do it, as I want persons to see the shows and to go out and attend them. But this was so bad I could not let it pass, even in writing this three months after it happened. Again the enlisted E-1s to E-5s were busting their butts with limited help and equipment trying to get us in as quickly as possible, while their officers and senior non-coms who should have been assessing the situation, making changes and providing assistance were no where to be found or seen. It would appear that nothing has changed in the military over the past 40 years. When you need an officer to help get the job done they are never to be found. The whole reason that the Air Force holds open houses and air shows to showcase its capabilities. Maybe in this case it wanted to show it could make all of us wait in line, which it was very successful at. The real unfortunate thing is that if base management does not know there is a problem, which seems to be the case, and does not fix this, word is going to get around and less and less persons will come out to see the show. But I guess in retrospect for the few that do show up they will not have to wait very long in the security line. The only thing missing in this whole fiasco was Kilroy.
On to the show!!
Titusville (Tico), FL
Urbana, OH B-25 Gathering
B-25 Fly-Over at
Doolittle Reunion, Dayton, OH
MCAS Cherry Point, NC
Shaw AFB, Sumter, SC
Whiteman AFB, Knob Noster,
MO
Boeing Field, Seattle, WA
Kokomo Air Show, Kokomo, IN
CWH Airshow, Hamilton ON
Indianapolis Air Show, Greenfield, IN
Indianapolis Executive B-17
Texas Raiders
Thunder over Michigan,
Belleville, MI
Gratiot Community Airshow, Alma,
MI
Marion Fly-In/Drive-In, Marion, IN
Fort Wayne Air Show, Fort
Wayne, IN
Waukegan, IL
Glendale Airport, Kokomo, IN
Indianapolis
Regional Airport, IN
Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport, IN |
