50 Years later, a return to a tower

This weekend we took a little getaway for our 44th anniversary. We started one beautiful morning at Bluff Point State Park in Groton, CT.

As we enjoyed the park, we noticed a steady stream of small aircraft landing and taking off from the airport across the water.

 George was determined to drive over to the airport and it was pretty easy.

It was a cute little airport.

George decided to take a shot and ask them if he could go up in the control tower. He was an air traffic controller in the air force and his life regret was that he never became one. He loved that job and always wanted to get back in a tower. I had tried a couple of places to surprise him, but I aimed too big and of course, had no luck. We were told when the second air traffic controller came to work in about half an hour, that he may let us up there with the two controllers. We waited and we were so gratefully surprised Chet, the head air traffic controller, gave us permission to go up with him.

Chet and Eric were very hospitable and let us stay up there for an hour. Chet said he's been around and this tower has the best view of any. A long time, controller at this airport, he told us so many personal stories about the celebrities that he has met at that airport (many to go to Foxwoods). He dropped so many names, that after a while it just seemed too unbelievable--Frank Sinatra, Taylor Swift, Prince, Frank Perdue, America, a ton of famous basketball players and baseball players, other entertainers, the Bushes, the Clintons and Obama and the list just went on and on. He was able to get many to sign his vinyls, sports equipment and many gave him personal entrance to either rehearsal shows or front row to real shows. He must be quite the charmer with the celebrities. No wonder he said he loves his job. I told him he should write a book and it sounds like it's in the works. I read up a little on the airport and learned that Amelia Earhart even flew into there. The two runways are 4,000 and 5,000 feet long and can accommodate some pretty large aircraft too. We were so thankful to these guys sharing their awesome workspace with us and talking to George about the way things have changed in air traffic control over the years. I was so glad they made this opportunity happen for George. They don't know how much they made our day.