Marine week

V-22 Osprey

Marine Week Boston is/was May 3-9 2010 and I checked out the displays on Boston Common May 5th. Mainly wanted to get a good look at the V-22 Osprey. It was sweet. Too bad I didn’t have time to stand in line to walk-thru, but I was on a lunch break. Anyway, those things are boring until you get up to the cockpit anyway. I imagine it had the usual s-load of switches and a lot of multi-function LCD panels. Anyway, maybe next time my friend.

So, if you ever wanted to hold a grenade launcher, man a tank turret or climb into the cockpit of a Cobra gunship, this was the place for you. Sorry you missed it. I didn’t do any of that either. The little kid in me screamed to hold an M4 or that sick grenade launcher, you know, with the rotary magazine. (Sick!) Or, lay down with a Barrett M82 sniper rifle.

CH-53 Sea StallionBut, no, I did not give in to my inner child. My more pragmatic adult side won out by making me weirded out about doing so, although I am not quite sure why. I guess I can just stick to having my virtual character in a video game like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 handle that.

Anyway, I took it easy on the snapping of photos and definitely on the posting of them. So, if you like, check out the set in the slide show below or over in my Flickr photostream. There are only 23 or so.

Lastly, thank you to the Marines for coming out and putting up some great displays and talking with the public about what they do. We should all appreciate the men and women in our armed forces who put their lives on the line for our freedom. (Look no further than what it says on that CH-53 front wheel door.)

Also, there is something sweet about seeing children treat machines of war like a playground. At least for a few days.

(View the slide show in full-screen by clicking that button in the bottom right of the player after clicking play. Your Esc key exits full-screen.)

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