Tuesday, June 10, 2008

"As Good As Gone"

I don’t know what there is left to say. I’ve blogged about this more than anyone over the years and now the day has come.
A federal judge on Monday denied Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s last-ditch attempt to block the removal of the 183rd Fighter Wing’s planes from Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport.

The first of the 15 jets is slated to leave Springfield today, with half scheduled for removal by the end of June. All of them are supposed to be moved by the end of September.
Although the Chicago-centric governor’s actions in trying to prevent the move should certainly be appreciated by the city that he allegedly hates and that definitely hates him, I’ve always thought it was kind of a waste of time. And probably a waste of money, although I don’t think it could have been much.

Just this weekend I was in my back yard and looked up to see a couple of the 183rd F-16s taking off. I thought to myself that might be one of the last times I see that. Man, I can remember being a young kid in the 1960s playing in a neighbor’s sandbox and being able to hear the roar of the jets from the 183rd. I’m not even sure what jets they were flying then. They’ve always been here. Just not anymore.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think the only final thing he could have done is activate the unit. He could order them to protect Moline from threatening eagles or something. But that would only be a temporary fix and probably caused a storm of legal issues.