Most frustrating to me is the aerospace industry.    For example, Boeing and Lockheed Martin are both located in New Jersey, and corporations usually want to support organizations where they are located. Many corporations also allocate funds to programs which fund national programs which focus on education.  Yet neither of these billion dollar companies are interested in supporting The Foundation.  Both of these companies design and build aircraft; LeRoy flew aircraft built by both companies.  Northrop Grumman is another American aerospace and defense technology company with a net worth of over 33 billion dollars.   We have approached Northrop Grumman for funding.  Instead they have chosen to name an aircraft carrier, “the USS Somerset” naming an aircraft carrier to memorialize the flight crew and passengers of Flight #93.  In the words of Secretary of the Navy, Gordon England, “The courage and heroism of the people aboard the flight will never be forgotten.  Which is great of course, but I have become cynical in that many of the gestures over the years seem to be good PR for these companies.

All told, if these three companies alone, with total revenue of over 138 billion dollars had each donated $5000.00 to our organization, an organization recognized by the IRS as a non profit organization, they would have received tax benefits, and we would have been able to award another scholarship.

So although I get frustrated, I try to focus on the positive.  We have done more in 8 years with less money than many other organizations.  (Where did that $4 million dollars from the Todd Beamer Foundation end up anyway?)  I believe in what we do, and will continue to do it as long as I can.

Melodie Homer

President

I found this recently on the internet and thought it would be fun to share:

Bob Norris is a former naval aviator who also did a three year exchange tour flying the F-15 Eagle. He is now an accomplished author of entertaining books about US Naval Aviation including “Check Six” and “Fly-Off”. In response to a letter from an aspiring fighter pilot on which military academy to attend, Bob replied with the following:

Young Man,

Congratulations on your selection to both the Naval and Air Force Academies. Your goal of becoming a fighter pilot is impressive and a fine way to serve your country. As you requested, I’d be happy to share some insight into which service would be the best choice. Each service has a distinctly different culture. You need to ask yourself “Which one am I more likely to thrive in?”

USAF Snapshot: The USAF is exceptionally well organized and well run. Their training programs are terrific. All pilots are groomed to meet high standards for knowledge and professionalism. Their aircraft are top-notch and extremely well maintained. Their facilities are excellent. Their enlisted personnel are the brightest and the best trained. The USAF is homogenous and macro. No matter where you go, you’ll know what to expect, what is expected of you, and you’ll be given the training & tools you need to meet those expectations. You will never be put in a situation over your head. Over a 20-year career, you will be home for most important family events. Your Mom would want you to be an Air Force pilot…so would your wife. Your Dad would want your sister to marry one.

Navy Snapshot: Aviators are part of the Navy, but so are Black shoes (surface warfare) and bubble heads (submariners). Furthermore, the Navy is split into two distinctly different Fleets (West and East Coast). The Navy is heterogeneous and micro. Your squadron is your home; it may be great, average, or awful. A squadron can go from one extreme to the other before you know it. You will spend months preparing for cruise and months on cruise. The quality of the aircraft varies directly with the availability of parts. Senior Navy enlisted are salt of the earth; you’ll be proud if you earn their respect. Junior enlisted vary from terrific to the troubled kid the judge made join the service. You will be given the opportunity to lead these people during your career; you will be humbled and get your hands dirty. The quality of your training will vary and sometimes you will be over your head. You will miss many important family events. There will be long stretches of tedious duty aboard ship. You will fly in very bad weather and/or at night and you will be scared many times. You will fly with legends in the Navy and they will kick your ass until you become a lethal force. And some days – when the scheduling Gods have smiled upon you – your jet will catapult into a glorious morning over a far-away sea and you will be drop-jawed that someone would pay you to do it. The hottest girl in the bar wants to meet the Naval Aviator. That bar is in Singapore.

Bottom line, son, if you gotta ask…pack warm & good luck in Colorado.

PS Air Force pilots wear scarves and iron their flight suits.

Well Bob, I’m going to have to disagree – my Air Force Academy graduate husband converted me.  And for the record, he NEVER ironed his flight suit.

I just took my CPR recertification course a few weeks ago. I am a registered nurse and have been taking CPR courses for more than twenty years. Every time I go to recertify, especially recently, there are changes to the way we are supposed to perform. The American Heart Association makes changes as new techniques are discovered which improve the percentage of individuals that recover after cardiac arrest. Makes sense. However, since I first took the course, over twenty years ago, I realize it has become harder, in a sense, because I learned CPR a certain way many years ago, and it’s hard to override that initial training.

This made me think of how my husband LeRoy would describe leaving one airplane to fly on another. For example, the Boeing and Airbus planes are completely different. You cannot take something you’ve learned on one plane and transfer it to another. The results could be catastrophic. A pilot is expected to “dump” everything he has learned on one airplane when he switches to another. It may seem fairly easy. But as I renewed my CPR license in a four hour course, I was really struggling with all the information I had been given before, that was no longer valid. Pilots go away for flight simulator training to learn how to fly newly assigned aircraft for weeks at a time. My frustrations made me think yet again how little credit pilots get.

There will always be people who think since they’ve played a Microsoft flight simulator, they could land an airplane in an emergency. Or the people that assume the co-pilot is only there in case the captain gets food poisoning. Newsflash – the movie Airplane is not entirely accurate, and whether there are two or three pilots in the cockpit, they all know and do fly the aircraft. I know only a small amount of what my husband’s job entailed. Chris Cooke, a domestic pilot who writes for Executive Travel magazine says it best “compartmentalization (the ability to focus on the task at hand) is a skill that pilots work hard to maintain. Operating in an unforgiving three-dimensional environment demands nothing else. We constantly evaluate ourselves and our fellow aviators, and we work hard to enhance your flying experience with a safe, smooth and punctual performance.” He goes on to say that a good pilot will be very critical of his own performance. When I flew as a United Airlines passenger when my husband was flying, he would ask me, “how was my landing?”

So instead of thinking about the negatives, flight delays or having to wait your turn on the runway, think about the skill and knowledge it takes for those pilots to get you from point A to point B, while you sit in a seat, eating, watching a movie or working on your laptop. Just because they make it look easy, doesn’t mean it is.

But then I am invited to the US Capitol to a dedication of a plaque wearing all the crew members and passengers names.  Speaker Nancy Pelosi is in attendance as our senators and members of the house of representatives who we weren’t expecting, but came to support the dedication,  who wanted to be a part of the ceremony.  The plaque will remain in perpetuity as long as the US Capitol stands.  Several individuals – congressmen, aides took me aside to thank me for my husband’s sacrifice for the United States.  Many shared stories of being in the Capitol that day.  Their lives were likely saved by LeRoy Homer and the other individuals of the crew as well as the passengers..

I live with the loss of LeRoy every day.  I appreciate the world thinking about Flight #93 and the many other lives lost that day on this day eight years later.  Gone, But Not Forgotten.

This was written by a few months ago by a friend who works for the US Secret Service and was in New York on September 11th.

I was in New York on September 11, 2001. I witnessed the terrorist attacks, was part of the response and witnessed bravery on a scale only comparable to the acts our military members are performing everyday in Iraq and Afghanistan. When I think of that day, the memories come back like it was yesterday, sights, sounds, smells and horror. Unfortunately it seems that many other people don’t and what’s worse, don’t want to remember the meaning of that historic day.

This past September 11^th, I had the privilege of being at the Pentagon during the dedication ceremony of the Pentagon September 11^th memorial. At the ceremony, in a fashion only the military can do, I saw the families and survivors honor the sacrifices of those that perished. The survivors of the attacks were also honored for their response and service. It was moving and emotional for both we attendees and particularly the families.

The Pentagon memorial is a series of benches with the names of each of the 184 individuals that perished inscribed on them. The benches are arranged in age order from the youngest victim to the oldest. I stopped for awhile at the bench of Dana Falkenberg, she was 3 years old. My daughter is almost three. From Maryland, Dana was traveling with her father Charles. My thoughts drifted to the brutal cruelty of what happened to her and that she was robbed of her entire life by a group of mass murders. A horror inflicted upon her entire family and upon our nation.

When I got home, I looked at the Washington DC papers and was appalled. Not one paper had any reference to September 11, 2001 on the front page. I looked on the internet and checked the New York, Washington DC and Philadelphia papers and found the same lack of attention paid to the anniversary of the worst attack in our nations history. On the seventh anniversary of September 11^th, their front pages were dominated with hurricane, Presidential politics and other news. While important, I would argue that on that particular day those news articles lacked the significance of the Terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

I watched TV that night, some news channels covered the memorial services and some discussed the fact that it was the seventh anniversary but none seemed to be dedicated to truly memorializing the historic events of that day. One channel replayed the film United 93, which always makes my blood boil but most news channels had other programming. What a shame.

Despite the current political climate you would think our nations’ media and people would demand that September 11^th be treated with more importance than as an afterthought.

Let’s face it, despite the terrorist propaganda, 2974 of our citizens were murdered and thousands were injured for doing nothing more than showing up for work or traveling on a plane. Whether you were in New York, Washington DC, Shanksville, PA or elsewhere those events redefined our nations history and changed the way we do business as individuals and as a nation. It deserves better treatment than a sound bite or passing commentary.

The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an editorial entitled “Still Not Safe” leading off with a description of the movie Traitor about an extremist Muslim operator in the US trying to blow up 50 buses. The editorial went on to extol about how we are still not safe and much work needs to be done in the area of terrorism and national security. In due course, the editorial also took a shot at the Iraq war and the belief that “the war was never about fighting terrorists”.

Maybe the paper should go back to 2002-2003 time frame and think about where we were and what we were all thinking. As a reminder, we were in a state of constant threats and vigilance with a terrorist propaganda machine capitalizing on the havoc they just wrought. Unfortunately most people don’t remember that time, it’s easier to forget or dismiss that time frame as a bad dream. Arguably mistakes were made in fighting the War in Iraq and work always needs to be done with regard to our national security. The fact is we will never be completely safe as long as bad guys and madman are on this earth. We will also never be truly safe with a mindset that chooses to forget instead of remember and learn.

The editorial finishes with “It’s been seven years. Many improvements have been made. But there are still gaps in intelligence, emergency response, funding, and cooperation among government agencies that have not been properly addressed since 9/11. That’s a poor memorial to the terrorists’ victims”.

While you can argue the merits of those statements, was it the best forum to write such an editorial on that day? Perhaps an editorial about the bravery showed on September 11^th, 2001 or the affect that day has had on the victims was a better topic. Either way, all should take note that not a single terrorist incident has occurred on US soil since September 11, 2001 and many have been disrupted by good police, intelligence work and by the brave efforts of the US military.

Whether we like it or not, September 11^th happened and we were forever changed as individuals and a nation. We can not and should not allow it to be dismissed from our thoughts and memories as a scary dream that we have awoke from. On that day, like no other, our neighbors, friends and citizens were murdered by people that still walk this Earth and continue to dream about destroying the “Great Satan”. Those that suffered the worse live with those thoughts everyday. They rise and sleep dreaming about a loved one or a time when they had peace knowing that tomorrow they would see their families or friend.

There was another time when the United States was attacked, not by a group of crazy murders but by a nation. The result was a full mobilization of our nation and everyone contributing to the effort. News coverage of the attack and the ensuing war were heard every night on the radio and watched in every theatre as news reels before the movie. That attack also occurred on a day when people were going about their lives not expecting a tragedy to occur. On December 7, 1941 as planes attacked our naval base at Pearl Harbor, the country was also surprised and we lost over 2402 brave military service members and another 1282 were injured. If you go to Peal Harbor today, you can visit the Tomb of several hundred of those lost souls, buried in the USS Arizona under the sea. To this day, survivors of that ship request and are granted the privilege of being buried with their shipmates. After 67 years, oil from the ship still leaks to the top of the water and you can see the outline of their watery grave.

At Ground Zero, while construction continues, you can still see the giant gapping hole that is the burial ground for thousands of victims never recovered. If you go to Shanksville, you can see the hole United 93 created upon impact and a makeshift memorial still stands as it did in the days after the attack. When you visit the Pentagon, you can see the new stone that was used to fix the entire side of the Pentagon that had collapsed and below that stone is a burned piece that was left to highlight the damage that attack wrought. These symbols are fresh and only a mere seven years old.

Dana Falkenberg would have been 10 years old on this last anniversary. She would have been in grammar school, making friends and enjoying her life as a child. How can we forget her?

The only fitting memorial we can give Dana and the other 2973 victims is to always remember. That would be the fitting memorial they deserve.

]]> http://www.leroywhomerjr.org/september-11-2001-forgotten-history/feed/ 1 http://www.leroywhomerjr.org/bring-aviation-to-elementary-schools/ http://www.leroywhomerjr.org/bring-aviation-to-elementary-schools/#comments Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:35:00 +0000 Melodie Homer http://www.leroywhomerjr.org/?p=159

As part of The Foundation’s commitment to promote aviation careers, we’ve decided to work with disadvantaged schools in the New Jersey area initially, to educate kids about what it takes to become a pilot. We are planning to take this message to the schools beginning in September 2009. As we tried to come up with creative ideas and the best way to present the information, we discovered a New Jersey base company that creates educational materials for kids. CATAVIA KIDS was created by Teresa Villareal, an aeronautical engineer, who attended MIT, and has an impressive resume, working with Boeing for many years, she became aviation consultant before deciding she wanted to start her own company to educate kids about aviation. After we contacted Teresa, she was enthusiastic about we were doing and offered to donate copies of her Black Box CD ROM. Her award winning Black Box CD ROM teaches kids how airplanes fly, how air traffic control works, as well as the basics of flying, and recognizing different aircraft. No CD ROM would be fun for kids if it didn’t have games and prizes for completing various tasks. We are so grateful for CATAVIA KIDS sharing this technology with us.

We also discovered a great book for the really little kids called “Amelia and Emily Go for a Ride’. This children’s book is based on a flight Amelia Earhart took with Eleanor Roosevelt, a great book for inspiring young girls. There will probably always be fewer minorities and women in aviation. But what we’ve noticed in the seven years we have operated The Foundation is that we need to inspire young kids, so they realize if they are interested in becoming a pilot, they can achieve their goal, no matter what neighborhood they are from. Most pilots I have met, including my husband, knew they wanted to fly when they were really young. We want to try to make an impact as soon as we can. I want to see more minorities and women in aviation. And we need you – If you are a pilot who would like to make a difference in a child’s life – to give us a call, to help us out with our awareness program. One school visit every couple of months is all we ask. Try to remember when you were a kid how much it would have meant to have a “real pilot” come and talk to your school. It’s time to pay it forward.

This past October, the Major LeRoy W. Homer Jr. Operations Building was dedicated at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH. I’m thinking they’ll have to shorten that name when they refer to it – maybe Homer Ops or some kind of acronym. The military seems to like acronyms.

LeRoy was with the Reserves here from 1995 until 2000. It felt strange to be in a place where LeRoy had spent so much time, a place that was part of our lives, but I had never seen, until now.

The dedication ceremony, like every other time I have been to an event honoring LeRoy, was bittersweet. I’m proud of him, but I’m heartbroken that he’s not here. During the ceremony there was an F-16 missing man flyover formation. I had seen this once before when LeRoy and I were at his ten year Air Force Academy reunion. Even then, not knowing the pilots the flyover was honoring, I remember how powerful it was. So when I found out they were planning a missing man formation at the ceremony, I was dreading it. And when it happened, it was pretty intense.

That afternoon we were given a tour of the Air Force Museum. It is really an amazing place. There’s aircraft from every conflict in history, rockets, space capsules and a presidential aircraft exhibit. Even the gift shop was cool. I bought some astronaut ice cream. Big hit with my kids, and my parents!

LeRoy flew the C-141 throughout his entire military career. The final C-141 retired in May 2006, is on display at the Museum .This aircraft, named the Hanoi Taxi, flew the first mission of Operation Homecoming in 1973 to return American prisoners of War from North Vietnam to the US. They told us LeRoy had flown that actual C-141.

If you are interested in aviation, even a little bit, the museum is definitely worth a visit to Dayton. And if you happen to be driving past the base, you can see the Major LeRoy W. Homer Jr. Operations building from the highway.

Melodie Homer

And most of all, we want you to hear our opinions, and sometimes our frustrations on running a successful organization.  For example, up to this point we have had little support from corporate aviation.  There are 3768 aerospace companies in the United States.  If every company donated $10.00, we would easily be able to award the three scholarships a year we had planned to when we began this endeavor six years ago.  And as we all know, corporations benefit when they donate.  And although the pilot shortage has been temporarily fixed due to the retirement age being extended from 60 to 65 years of age, this is only a short-term solution.

If I didn’t believe in what The Foundation is doing, I would have quit a long time ago.  The Foundation takes up A LOT of time, and I recently went back to work part-time, plus I’m a single mom to a four year old and an eight year old.  But I think aviation is exciting.  And so did LeRoy.  He just really enjoyed his job.  And even with all the cutbacks the airlines have made that have affected the pilot’s income and benefits, he would have still loved to fly.  I’m sure he would have shared his colleagues’ frustration, but he wouldn’t have let that ruin the pleasure he had in doing his job.

The Foundation has not had great support from other pilots, which is an irony I have difficulty understanding.  I always think that if someone can afford to go to Starbucks a few times a week, a $20.00 donation once a year to a Foundation that supports young adults who want to have the pleasure of doing what you do for a living, is not a lot to ask.

But I will end on a positive note and say that I do appreciate everyone who has and continues to carry on LeRoy’s legacy through this Foundation.  This year has been exciting for us as our first two scholarship recipients (2003) have started their professional aviation careers, Mike as a navy pilot, and Sarah as a flight officer with Mesa Airlines.  Very cool!