Free Republic

<p>Matt Brandon, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union Local 73, which represents the aviation police officers, said he doesn’t understand why the officers are prohibited from carrying guns.</p> <p>He said the union has been unable to get the aviation department to change the no gun policy, which dates to the early 1990s.</p>

Behind the scenes work is already underway to rename Chicago’s Midway Airport after Obama — becoming the Barack H. Obama International Airport. Apparently, there are those in the city, especially on the Olympics Committee, that want this done before October 2009, to give the IOC a little more incentive to award Chicago the 2016 games (despite the fact that here in Chicago it’s already considered a done-deal we’ll get the Olympics, and has been since November 4th). The Obamafication of Chicago begins with renaming Midway…and is partially designed to remind the IOC, in as loud a voice possible, that Chicago’s...

A late night incident involving presidential candidate Barack Obama's plane has set off a National Transportation Safety Board investigation. The senator's aircraft clipped the wing of another plane at Midway Airport. No one was injured in the incident. Obama and his entourage were on their way back from campaigning in Nevada. The National Transportation Safety Board will look into this, but it is a relatively minor incident as far as airplane accidents go. The plane is parked now. Not going anywhere anytime soon. On board at 2:30 Saturday morning: Senator Barack Obama, three staffers, secret service and flight crew. The...

ABC News' Lisa Stark and Sunlen Miller report: The plane carrying Sen. Barack Obama struck another plane while taxiing at Midway Airport in Chicago early Saturday morning. At 2:45 a.m. Central Time, the Gulfstream 2 plane that carried Obama, nine other passengers and two crew members struck a parked Cessna 208 general aviation plane, which can carry 10 to 12 passengers. There was minor damage to the wings of both aircraft, although no one on either of the planes was injured. Inside Obama's plane, the hit was so small that no one realized they had clipped the other plane's wing...

Expert says Midway plane crash was avoidable By Jon Hilkevitch Originally published December 15, 2005 CHIAGO // The city of Chicago and Southwest Airlines have "carelessly ignored" for years the risks of short runways and insufficient over-run areas at Midway Airport, an expert on transportation disasters said yesterday in a report on last week's fatal accident. The crash was avoidable, and the outcome would have been much worse if fuel tanks on the plane ruptured and caught fire, said Gunnar Kuepper, chief of operations at Emergency & Disaster Management Inc., a Los Angeles-based company that advises government agencies and private...

Washington December 15, 2005 - The National Transportation Safety Board today released the following update on its investigation into the accident involving Southwest Airlines flight 1248, a Boeing 737-700 on December 8, 2005, at Midway Airport in Chicago, Illinois. The airplane overran runway 31C during the landing rollout. The accident occurred about 7:14 pm central standard time. The airplane departed the end of the runway, rolled through a blast fence, a perimeter fence, and onto a roadway. The airplane came to a stop after impacting two automobiles. One automobile occupant was fatally injured and another seriously injured. The flight was...

CHICAGO - A jetliner that skidded off a landing strip and into a city street needed about 800 more feet of runway to come to a safe stop, federal investigators said Thursday. The Southwest Airlines jet crushed a car, killing a 6-year-old boy, after it skidded off a 6,500-foot runway and crashed through a fence at Midway International Airport earlier this month. A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board shows the airplane touched down with about 4,500 feet of runway remaining, but snowy conditions and other factors meant the plane ideally needed about 5,300 feet of runway, according...

Southwest pilot violated braking policy December 14, 2005 BY MARK J. KONKOL Transportation Reporter The Southwest Airlines pilot at the helm during Thursday's snowy crash at Midway Airport told federal investigators he used the Boeing 737's "autobrakes," a device airline officials say their pilots are told not to activate. National Transportation Safety Board investigators said they found the autobrake switch in the "maximum" position on the flight panel. The system is designed to activate when the landing gear hits the runway.

Was just listening to the news about them planning on using cranes to move the crashed airplane on the road in Chicago..and the question struck me...*do* these large passenger planes have "hitching points" around it's outer fuselage that are hooked into the main frame, that the plane can be lifted by without causing structural damage in and of the act of moving the plane?

Last night, a Southwest Airlines plane skidded off a runway at Chicago's Midway Airport, killing a six year-old boy who was a passenger in a car on Central Avenue. On a another snowy December 8 thirty-three years ago, a United Airlines plane crashed into some homes near Midway, killing 45 people. Among the passengers on the flight was West Side Chicago Congressman George Collins and Mrs. Dorothy Hunt, wife of Watergate scandal figure Howard Hunt. In Dorothy's luggage was over $10,000 in cash, widely believed to be "hush money" for her husband's "silence."

<p>There were no immediate reports of injuries on the plane, which had flown from Baltimore. One person was initially reported as injured in a car that collided with the plane. The plane's nose was resting on the ground.</p> <p>Ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene, in the northwest corner of the airport, which is surrounded by roads and a residential area.</p>

A plane has apparently crashed through a fence at Midway airport in Chicago. Southwest airline 737 plane now sitting in intersection of 55th and Central. Channel 7 has confirmed, fire and ambulances on way. Details still sketchy.

Maj. Gen. Galan B. Jackman, commanding general of the Military District of Washington, welcomes Spc. Eric M. McKeeby as the Bravo Company Soldier and photojournalist arrives with his unit from a seven-month Horn of Africa deployment.photo by Spc. Jeremy Kern The weather was cold in December when The Old Guard's Bravo Company -- Team Battlehard -- left Fort Myer for duty in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. The Soldiers returned to a hero's welcome on a gorgeous summer's day. Djibouti is a small, impoverished country in the horn of Africa, formerly known as the Territory of the Afars...

The Army’s oldest active infantry unit prepared to depart here this week, marking the beginning of the end for the unit’s first deployment since the Vietnam War. By week’s end, a large group of soldiers from Bravo Company, 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, “The Old Guard,” will exit the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa Wednesday for Fort Myer, Va. The unit has spent more than seven months involved in tactical missions in the region. The Old Guard arrived at CJTF-HOA in December, the first time part of the Old Guard had deployed in three decades. Arrival in Djibouti came after...

  HomeNotices +Press Releases +Factsheets +Photo Gallery Ronald Reagan   A Look Back   Reagan Library   Reagan Resources Funeral Overview   Military Involvement   MDW as Executive Agent   Family Escort   Military Honors +   Public Access +   Funeral Day-By-Day Questions    FAQ's   Morning in America June 12 -- The passing of former U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan left the world mourning and meant the Military District of Washington would have the solemn honor of rendering a state funeral for the former commander-and-chief. The week-long ceremony featured numerous service members from every branch of the military working tirelessly to ensure the proper honors and...

Commanding General Maj. Gen. Galen B. Jackman's Biography Major General Galen B. Jackman was commissioned from the University of Nebraska ROTC Program in 1973. His first duty assignment was with the 1st battalion (ABN) 508th Infantry, 82d Airborne Division, where he served as a rifle platoon leader, anti-tank platoon leader, company executive officer, and battalion adjutant. He next served with the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, as a battalion S4, rifle company commander, and battalion S3. Following assignment as a Procurement Officer with the United States Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, he served as Procurement Officer, Squadron Executive...

June 6, 2004 -- By law, former presidents are afforded a state funeral upon demise. While the general sequence of a state funeral is shaped by regulation and tradition, each event is also uniquely shaped by the family’s desires. Once the president officially announces the demise of a former commander-in-chief, he then joins the nation in offering condolences. The Secretary of Defense is then directed to conduct the funeral on behalf of the nation. In turn, he designates the Secretary of the Army, who oversees the nation's senior military service, to be his representative. The Secretary of the Army further...