By Alex Hollings 06.04.2017#Featured Email Share Tweet

The first time I ever saw a C-130 in person was as it came crashing down on a small air strip near Palm Springs, California in what was, at the time, the most brutal landing I had ever seen. I had been in the Fleet Marine Force for only a few weeks, and my wife and I had only just arrived in Twentynine Palms when I got scooped up as part of a security detail for the funeral of President Gerald Ford. It was a trip I wasnt able to warn her I was being taken on, and that would leave my new wife alone throughout New Years in a state she had never even visited before.

Despite the concerns I had about my wife not knowing where I was (I didnt have a cell phone at the time because I was poor and it was a long time ago), all of my trepidation vanished as I watched the biggest airplane I thought Id ever seen belly flop onto the tarmac. Id find out later that it was full of military personnel from various branches coming in for the funeral, and what I thought was a crash was actually Marine pilots making sure their passengers knew how tough Marines and their birds can be but even that early revelation into our relationship with other services was drowned out in my mind by the sheer scale of the aircraft. With its 133-foot wingspan, the C-130 is a big, bad plane, deserving of every bit of my awe, and its because of my memories of that flight line detail all those years ago that Im able to grasp the scale of a new aircraft that was unveiled on Wednesday, the Stratolaunch.

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Filed Under: Featured, North America News, World News Tagged With: aircraft, C-130, Headline, Launch, orbit, Paul Allen, space, SpaceX, Stratolaunch

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Alex Hollings Alex Hollings served as an active duty Marine for six and a half years before being medically retired. A college rugby player, Marine Corps football player, and avid shooter, he has competed in multiple mixed martial arts tournaments, raced exotic cars across the country and wrestled alligators in pursuit of a story to tell. His novel, "A Secondhand Hero" is currently seeking publication.

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