Impressive arrivals for SRQ onlookers

One of life's small pleasures is watching jets come and go at SRQ.

The best spot is the gravel lay by just down from 15th Street on the east side of the airport, a stop I usually make after Sunday morning Mass.

If you're lucky, you get a couple of commercial flights out, maybe a couple of executive jets landing.

Monday we got a real thrill, thanks to the White House military support team.

Two huge C-17 Galaxy transports, the largest planes in America's arsenal, landed at SRQ with such a roar it gave you goosebumps.

They were like winged sentinels, alerting the citizenry President Barack Obama would be arriving Tuesday.

A gathering was on hand and one of the numerous onlookers were Jake Kyser and his grandfather, Robert Kyser.

A flying enthusiast, the teen-ager had heard the support team's Marine CH-53 Sea Stallions fly over his neighborhood last weekend.

School was out Monday.

"So we figured we'd take a ride down and see what was going on," the lad said.

"Then all this took place." said his grandfather, a World War II corpsman.

It was quite a show.