As part of Marine Week Boston, I (along with a few other boston social media community members) were lucky enough to be invited for a ride on the V-22 Osprey vehicle on Tuesday, May 4. First, big thanks to our host, Eric Schwartzman, for the invitation. Here’s the bird we flew out of Hanscom AFB:
Of course, I brought out the Flip camera for some glimpses of the experience.
Marine Week Boston; MV-22 Osprey Flight from Hanscom AFB from Doug Haslam on Vimeo.
And here is the group; from left: Eric Schwartzman, David Meerman Scott, Todd Van Hoosear, Marine Sgt Sean McNevin (corrected– thank you, Todd)), Steve Garfield (stevegarfield.com), CC Chapman, and YT.
After our ride, the Marines introduced us to several native New Englander marines. I had a nice chat with Lt Col (I believe, trying to remember the insignia) Desgroselliers from Auburn Maine, who finally set me straight on the pronunciation, despite my having a childhood friend with the same name (we called him “Gus”). I also chatted briefly with Lt Francona, who moved to Brookline, Mass. back in 2004. It was only later I realized (thanks to Todd V) that he was the son of Red Sox manager Terry Francona. Talk about unassuming.
Finally– I couldn’t resist getting this glimpse of CC, by the way– to be fair, we all looked this ridiculous in the gear (helmet = “cranial” – great lingo). Even though I took this photo with the Droid phone, I got lucky with the lighting.
For a slicker video of the ride, please see Eric Schwartzman’s blog here.
And for the record- I enjoyed making friends, neighbors, and members of my sons Little League team extremely jealous yesterday.
Twitter Comment
RT @DougH: New Post: Marine Week Boston: Hitching a Ride in the Osprey [link to post] #in @cc_chapman @vanhoosear @dmscott
– Posted using Chat Catcher
It was Sgt. Sean McNevin — @smcnevin on Twitter. Great crowd all around! I just uploaded my 10-minute longer-form video of the trip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4YvAyverUc
Oops, sorry, that’s supposed to be @seanmcnevin on Twitter.
Thanks– fixed it! (Sorry, Sgt McNevin). I can spell Sesgrosseliers but not McNevin. That’s what I get for growing up near Lowell, Mass.
Twitter Comment
RT @DougH: New Post: Marine Week Boston: Hitching a Ride in the Osprey [link to post] #in @cc_chapman @vanhoosear @dmscott #MarineWeek
– Posted using Chat Catcher
It was great to run into you guys. I had a different “in” – through the public affairs group (I did some pro-bono work for them). It was a great surprise to see all you guys!
Twitter Comment
RT @DougH: New Post: Marine Week Boston: Hitching a Ride in the Osprey [link to post] #in cc: @ericschwartzman @stevegarfield
– Posted using Chat Catcher
[…] Doug Haslam var a2a_config = a2a_config || {}; a2a_config.linkname="What I Learned From the Marines"; a2a_config.linkurl="http://itsfreshground.com/2010/05/marines/"; a2a_config.onclick=1; May 13th, 2010 | Tags: 2010, Hanscom, marines, marineweek, Osprey, USMC | Category: Events […]
FYI, I finally got around to putting my thoughts down from the trip. My post on the 4 lessons I learned from our experience is now live at http://itsfreshground.com/2010/05/marines/