July was a beautiful Saturday that started out a bit overcast and just got more beautiful as the day went on.  It was a great day to hold the 42nd annual Cracker Fly-in at Lee Gilmer airport in Gainesville, GA.  I was a little lazy that morning, so I didn’t get up and out as early as I had planned.  Bad move… when I got to the airport (after I went to the wrong entrance), I followed the signs to the parking area…. WOW!  Was it ever full.  Friendly attendants (Civil Air Patrol cadets) pointed the way up and down rows and rows of cars and I finally found one.  I grabbed my gear and headed out for the entrance, several hundred yards away.  It only cost a dollar to enter, and, boy, did I get my money’s worth!  You can look at the slideshow to see a few of the planes I looked at and photographed.  

People were all over the place, but the organizers did a great job of setting this one up (across the field  from the last one I attended a few years back).  There were all sorts of booths for eating and buying teeshirts and raffle tickets.  There was a Blackhawk helicopter in the middle of the taxiway with tons of folks looking it over.  On one end of the field, a crew was selling rides on a couple of Huey helicopters and there was a long line for that.  There was everything from homebuilt ultralights to experimental aircraft of all kinds, and even one like Amelia Earhardt was flying when she disappeared.  Planes were coming and going all morning and it was all a lot of fun to watch and talk with some of the pilots.  Oh, and it was fun taking pictures, too!

I’ve got to give extra credit to the staff of organizers there.  They did a great job!  Besides just doing a spectacular job on setting up the event, they were great people willing to help out a poor photographer like me. I had lost my monopod somewhere along the field and never could find it, so I gave out my card to a few staffers in the hopes someone would turn it in.  I really didn’t expect to ever see it again, but, lo and behold… I got a call from the event staff that some honest person turned it in about an hour after I had left, so I drove back and picked it up before they left for the day.  To whomever found it and turned it in, a big THANK YOU!

I hope you enjoy the slideshow I’ve put together to show some of what I saw that day!
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I had the opportunity last week to cover the Homecoming event for Charlie Company, Gainesville’s Army National Guard unit, on their return from their latest deployment to Afganistan.  They actually had a staggered deployment as well as a staggered return over the last couple of months, but they are all home now and a Welcome Home ceremony was planned by Patriot’s Call and other local veterans service organizations from the north Georgia area.  Local scout troops, firemen, motorcyclists and veteran groups arrived early to prepare for Charlie Company’s arrival.

Parts of John Morrow and Pearl Nix Parkways were blocked off by police and deputies so that the unit could march from their Armory on Alta Vista Road to the main entrance of Lakeshore Mall.  They were greeted by hundreds of flag waving friends, family, and veterans all along the way under a big American flag held aloft by two of Gainesville’s ladder trucks, past an honor guard of veterans on motorcycles, and into the main entrance to the mall where local politicians, veterans from other wars, and their commanders spoke about their service and gave out awards for their service in Afganistan.  The veterans and their families were seated while honor guards from the service organizations flanked the group during the ceremony.  When the ceremony concluded, each soldier was given a special arrowhead coin to commemorate their service in Operation Enduring Freedom.

Afterwards, the soldiers marched back to their Armory for food, fellowship, family and a job fair hosted by the Vietnam Veterans Chapter 772 members and associates.  It was a hot day in the summertime, but these soldiers didn’t seem to mind a bit now that they were safely back home with their families.  It was a real privilege to be able to photograph this event and put together a little slideshow to show some of the activities last Saturday.

Here’s a little slideshow I put together with about 300 of the images taken at the Charlie Company event.  Enjoy!

(If you want to see this in High Quality,  click on the HQ in the bar below the show and you should be able to see the show in High Quality instead of low resolution).