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For Spring Break my family took a trip to Letra - a recreational facility on Elmer Thomas Lake in Ft. Sill, Ok. With a twist of humor this could be seen as the story of how we thought we were going to die for about an hour because we disconnected from the Internet.
We were at the beach walking in the frigid water and having a blast when an explosion happened. Looking up - an airplane was flying overhead so our initial conclusion was that it broke the sound barrier. That was until our daughter saw smoke... and it was obvious that it wasn't a plane breaking the sound barrier - but a plane crash not too far off. At least, the explosion was so intense it felt like it was *just* over the next hill. So my husband snapped a picture:
And as we were leaving the beach minutes later another happened. At this point we were wondering if someone made an egregious error while shooing artillery (Ft. Sill is always hot with artillery practice - day and night - which can rattle the windows).
And later, a third event and only after this third event did I make a call to the park office to find out 'if this type of activity so close to Letra is normal, or a concern.' (Trust me - it was absolutely terrifying). Only then did we learn that everyone knew about it ahead of time and it was a unique event that hadn't occurred there in years - but still bone-rattling. B-52 Bombing Training Mission at Fort Sill - Story ... We just happened to be the last to know about it and found it in the most shocking way possible.
Hours earlier we had gone for a hike up a nearby hill - and later went to Mt. Scott before coming back to Letra to go to the beach for the afternoon.
After looking over pictures taken from Mt. Scott earlier in the day of routine Artillery firing that they do often, and finding where we were on the map, we figured that the B-52 dropped its load 1 - 2 miles from our location. Trust me... that's plenty close. I can't imagine what it's like to be in a place that gets such a payload more direct than that.
[in fact, part of me believes it was closer than the 2 mile artillery range, likely on this side of the creek. In the following photo you see the smoke and dust from the artillery? Never once have we had any of that blow toward the lake where we stay - or drift over the roadway. Yet all the smoke and dust from the explosions settled over the lake thus logically placing the drop zone quite a bit closer than the artillery range.]
Artillery from Mt. Scott:
Ospreys - thread bonus 'just cause I managed to actually catch them in a photo while they were flying overhead.
We were at the beach walking in the frigid water and having a blast when an explosion happened. Looking up - an airplane was flying overhead so our initial conclusion was that it broke the sound barrier. That was until our daughter saw smoke... and it was obvious that it wasn't a plane breaking the sound barrier - but a plane crash not too far off. At least, the explosion was so intense it felt like it was *just* over the next hill. So my husband snapped a picture:
And as we were leaving the beach minutes later another happened. At this point we were wondering if someone made an egregious error while shooing artillery (Ft. Sill is always hot with artillery practice - day and night - which can rattle the windows).
And later, a third event and only after this third event did I make a call to the park office to find out 'if this type of activity so close to Letra is normal, or a concern.' (Trust me - it was absolutely terrifying). Only then did we learn that everyone knew about it ahead of time and it was a unique event that hadn't occurred there in years - but still bone-rattling. B-52 Bombing Training Mission at Fort Sill - Story ... We just happened to be the last to know about it and found it in the most shocking way possible.
Hours earlier we had gone for a hike up a nearby hill - and later went to Mt. Scott before coming back to Letra to go to the beach for the afternoon.
After looking over pictures taken from Mt. Scott earlier in the day of routine Artillery firing that they do often, and finding where we were on the map, we figured that the B-52 dropped its load 1 - 2 miles from our location. Trust me... that's plenty close. I can't imagine what it's like to be in a place that gets such a payload more direct than that.
[in fact, part of me believes it was closer than the 2 mile artillery range, likely on this side of the creek. In the following photo you see the smoke and dust from the artillery? Never once have we had any of that blow toward the lake where we stay - or drift over the roadway. Yet all the smoke and dust from the explosions settled over the lake thus logically placing the drop zone quite a bit closer than the artillery range.]
Artillery from Mt. Scott:
Ospreys - thread bonus 'just cause I managed to actually catch them in a photo while they were flying overhead.
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