History In the Making

The arrival of the new C130 J model. This is the first to be stationed at Ramstein. How cool that we got to be a part of it!

The plane's first bath. They also do this when it brings troops home from war. The mist felt soooo good. It gets so flippin hot out on the flight line!

"Who the hell?!" "P.O.L.!!" The plane so kindly tells Taft what nozzle to use, where to put it, and what kind of fuel to use. Go POL! Now if only my computer would be so helpful and let me flip the dang picture the right direction.

Yes. We are sitting in the pilot's chairs. And yes, highlight of my life so far. The pilots were laughing at how excited I was. This is the C130 E, the old model. This plane is 45 years old and got in a really really bad crash and has been retired ever since. There's so many stinkin gauges and switches on those things!

C130 E. The J model has 6 props instead of 4, and is a little bit longer. I just thought it was cool to be able to go in them and take pictures! Now when we're old and wrinkly, we'll be able to tell our kids we were there when the first one came to Ramstein and they dedicated the 2.2 million dollar hangar. We even have sweet coins and posters to prove it.