New York, New York

First off, I apologize for not writing for so long. It has from lack of anything interesting going on, in fact probably because of too much.
I will not attempt to catch up, perhaps we could do that in person, but will pick up with one of the more recent events. We were continuing our Noble Eagle mission a couple weeks ago when the U.N. met for their annual General Assembly in New York City. So for several days my squadron was manning the Combat Air Patrols (CAP) overhead. On one particular flight, we took off at 5 AM (yes it was a very early brief) and screamed up the coast arriving over NYC in just under 30 minutes (not bad huh). After hitting the tanker in the dark (never fun), we took over the CAP and started flying in our circles.
NYC from the air at night is a very cool sight. Both islands are completely covered with a squirming grid of yellow lights punctuated by red and white as lonely vehicles crawl across unseen roads. Manhattan is more like a garish mix of color and moving shadows as you continually change your perspective at a few hundred miles an hour. Times Square in particular stands out with the large jumbotrons that seem almost readable from several miles up. After a bit the scene began to change as the sun peeked over the horizon. A sunrise from a single seat fighter is an unparalleled thing. There is absolutely nothing to block your view and you are actually part of the atmosphere that is creating the scene. On this flight there was (thankfully) nothing to do but enjoy the moment, and I did.
The rest of the 5 hour flight I got to spend sightseeing over the city with my binoculars (and reading a magazine). Not a bad morning; and easy to forget that I was flying the world's most capable fighter loaded up with live missiles…