Mohawk Valley

DSC_3398, originally uploaded by frank.mara.

Mohawk Valley. A decommissioned B52G Stratofortress on display at the Griffiss Air Force Base Industrial Park in Rome, NY. It entered service in 1960 and was decommissioned in May, 1991. Mohawk Valley's missions spanned Vietnam to the first Persian Gulf War. The aircraft now sits on a concrete pad outside of the former Strategic Air Command base. The base itself was deactivated in the mid-1990's as part of the United States's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission's efforts to restructure the US Military infrastructure in the aftermath of the Cold War. In one of History's ironies, Griffiss was the site of the second effort to revive the Woodstock Music Festival in 1999.

I am intensely interested in twentieth century history. Scenes like this are iconic of the enormous changes that have impacted our lives since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

This is a 15 second exposure. I shot this image with a tripod-mounted Nikon D90 and a Nikon 80-200mm f2.8D ED lens during a raging snow storm. A local cop stopped to see if I was alright. I suspect that he thought I was nuts when I explained that I was shooting pictures of the bomber in those conditions.