All Quiet on the Eastern Front!

I flew four revenue airline legs full of passengers on 9-11-10, one of them into New York (actually it was White Plains-Westchester county about 20 miles northwest of the city, but it is New York!).  Yes, the mighty Nine-Eleven did not even slow down business in the aviation trade. In fact it was quite brisk.

What does this tell us? That Americans are resilient, hard to scare and dare I actually say.....going on with their lives without these terrorist cretans in the front of our minds?  Yeah, pretty much. America has done a fair job of putting the islamo-fascists on their heels.  It is a might harder to export terror when you are afraid to come out of your cave for fear of a Predator drone 'lighting you up'. It also helps that any moron who jumps up with a box opener or tries to breach the cockpit door is likely to get his head handed to him (I am not being metaphorical here).

All in all, it was a quiet day on the east coast of America.  Good weather prevailed and I even had a cordial chat with the Cuban air traffic controllers on the Cancun round trip out of Ft. Lauderdale (it takes us through Cuban airspace over the Gulf of Mexico).  In fact three of my four flights were international.  Nassau - Ft. Lauderdale - Cancun - Ft. Lauderdale - White Plains, NY or in airline parlance:

NAS-FLL, FLL-CUN, CUN-FLL, FLL-HPN.

The next morning we had the Oh-dark-thirty departure. The sun was just cresting the horizon as we taxied out and I was able to get a beautiful shot of the sunrise over Jamaica Bay and JFK as we climbed out towards Orlando. 

New York City was still alseep this early on a Sunday morning. Sleeping safe and sound under the blanket of security provided by countless people both in and out of uniform.  Sharp, dedicated people who stay alert and stand ready to what deeds may be required of them in the name of a common cause. Freedom.  Thanks to them, and all who support them, it was all quiet on the eastern front.