You might have seen on the news that President Obama is visiting Iowa today. You might also remember that Jim's youngest brother, Captain Nicholas Turner, is now a member of our President's HMX1 flight company. Well, with that honor goes some pretty prestigious honors for his family as well! Jim and I got a special tour of the Presidential helicopters on Monday morning!
As luck would have it, Nick's folks are visiting him in Virgina this weekend, so he was not on this flight to Des Moines. That, and he has so many flight hours built up from his many missions during the war, that he's being "benched", so to speak, while others work to catch up with him! So one of Nick's co-workers that will be flying the President this trip, Marine Captain Jim Beaulieu, was gracious enough to meet us early on his day off to give us the tour..
As you might expect, much planning and security goes into a Presidential visit, so Jim and I had to have special clearance and be escorted to the Iowa Air National Guard area of the Des Moines airport. All aircraft are under armed guard 24-7, as were we, as we walked around.
Part of the armed guard detail are six German Shepards.
It was a blustery rainy day, but no matter, most of the important birds were in the hanger. We got to sit in the cockpit... and see inside where the President and his family sit while flying. VERY NICE! (Sorry, we weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside for security purposes.) BUT, I WAS able to sit in the President's Chair!!
Outside were a couple more helicopters that fly with the President. They carry the press, more security and others that fly with the President. These are really HUGE! (#s removed per security)
Not as plush an interior as the President's... but it sure gets a lot of people where they need to go!
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