Marines/Navy Demo at Eisenhower Park 5/28
Another beautiful day here on L.I. and I'm up early and over to Eisenhower Park in East Meadow. Demo set for 10AM and around 10 minutes before I see a UH60 loitering south of us. At 10AM they come inbound and it was a Navy MH-60S Knighthawk. They came in over the field/LZ settled into a hover then Navy SEALS rappeled down onto the field. No Bin Laden in sight. The copter then descended to the field and shutdown. Mmmm I'm thinking where are the Marine ships. The PA announcer said other copters are coming in but then they opened the fences and let the crowd in. So I'm figured this sucks but who knows, I'll wait around. Took a nice walk around the area checking out the Veterans and 9/11 Memorials. When I came back I heard the PA announcer say that 4 Marine copters will be arriving at Noon. Thats better!!!
The Knighthawk departed and we waited. Around Noon I hear that unmistakable sounds of approaching copters. It was 2 Marine Cobras who roared in low and fast and did some low turns before on station a little higher. That was because 2 V-22 came out of nowhere overflying low in airplane mode then switching to copter mode and landing in tandem. They offloaded combat equipped Marines while the Cobras kept watched overhead. After a few minutes the Cobras also landed, everyone shutdown and the Meet and Greet was on. What a great bunch of guys, posing for numerous pictures and talking with everyone politely and answering questions (no matter how inane, LOL).
I even walked into the Osprey from the ramp after the crowd got smaller. I was surprised with the headroom. I am 6'2" and had no problem standing straight up. Sat down also and that wasnt so bad though I was in T-shirt and shorts, not combat equipped!!
At 2PM they cleared the LZ, loaded up the troops and cranked up the aircraft. The Ospreys left first. They flew out to the south then swooped around and did a nice flyby once again in fixed wing mode. The Cobras followed next and did the same.
Just another great afternoon. And if you get a chance they will be doing this again the next 3 days around the area. I believe at Westbury HS on Tuesday.
