Per the occasionally informative “Alert DC” messaging system:
Falcon’s “Virgo” exercise is scheduled for late tonight 5/21/08 beginning at 2345 hours into tomorrow morning 5/22/08 ending at 0600 hours. This exercise comprises a series of training flights held in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Capital Region Command Center, the Joint Air Defense Operations Center, Civil Air Patrol, and NORAD. Residents in the area can expect flights to occur throughout the night.
I’m not sure how any of us were supposed to know what “Falcon’s ‘Virgo’ exercise” referred to, but it’s apparently a regular test of the air defenses around DC (and other areas).
MB
To be clear, I find the sound of overhead military jets fundamentally soothing. I was born in the sonic shadow of the F-15s of the Tactical Air Command at Luke Air Force Base, and suspect that I’ll always find the sound of afterburners a comforting thing.
But that doesn’t stop me from feeling the incongruity of low-level passes by fighter jets over the nation’s capitol.