6 JUN 08: STUMP THE STARS (AND STRIPES)
The people of Columbus were invited to Front Avenue Thursday - and the main reason was a bit unusual. The Army tested new technology in a city environment. But it was a bit disappointing - because it wasn't Sync technology with a soldier saying, "Fire cannon."
Fort Benning personnel sent a Bradley Fighting Vehicle downtown, equipped with cameras that soldiers could watch. The Army wanted to see if cameras can replace people in the turret. And of course, we don't want any more soldiers wounded by turret's syndrome....
Fort Benning wanted as many people along Front Avenue as possible, to test the cameras' effectiveness. So a bit before noon, I walked toward the river to see what would happen. Only now as I'm writing do I realize how strange this was. Normally the people who want soldiers to stare intently at them are single women.
Officers explained downtown Columbus had the traffic and tall buildings for this test, while Fort Benning does not. And there's another reason why this made sense -- Bradley Fighting Vehicles rolled past the W.C. Bradley headquarters.
The test zone for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle was supposed to be from Ninth to 13th Street, on Front Avenue. But there was no sign of soldiers when I arrived at Ninth Street. In fact, there were no throngs of people at all -- not even a group from God Bless Fort Benning waving flags.
"Bradley Fighting Vehicle zone?!?" I asked two Columbus police officers I encountered on the sidewalk.
"Somewhere down there," one said. Either the officers were part of the Army experiment, or they were guarding the RiverCenter parking garage from all those "Go Diego Go" fans -- and I thought Diego Maradona retired from soccer years ago.
A suspicious vehicle was parked in the middle of Front Avenue at Tenth Street. But no, this was NOT a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. It was a delivery truck from Courier Express. I don't know if police checked the truck, before allowing it to park there. Maybe the Army quietly had experimental shells inside the vehicle as well.
I kept walking north on Front Avenue, looking for this promised Army vehicle. Instead I found....
+ A pile of sand on the sidewalk, outside a parking garage. How nice to provide a small reminder of Iraq.
+ A yellow construction vehicle. Nope, that wasn't it - but maybe it was sniffing out IED's.
+ A television live truck, with its microwave dish extending several stories high. Now THIS is what the Army needs - for firing laser beams from miles away.
I was well past 11th Street before I found the right item. The Bradley Fighting Vehicle was preceded up Front Avenue by a pickup with soldiers aboard and a "Wide Load" banner across the drill. The soldiers could have been arrested for sitting in the bed of that truck without a seatbelt - unless Columbus Police decided it qualified as a parade.
The Army vehicle apparently cruised up and down Front Avenue several times. But it was surrounded by regular weekday traffic, and honored all traffic lights. My top concern apparently did NOT happen - as on a hot June day, the vehicle didn't leave imprinted tracks on the asphalt.
But what surprised me most about this experiment was what was missing. The number of people standing along Front Avenue may have totaled 20 - even during the lunch hour. So much for any "welcome-home parade" for the Third Brigade....
Was it the lack of advance notice? Was it the heat wave? Whatever the reason, very few people helped the Army by standing along Front Avenue for this experiment. For Columbus, this seemed appalling. It was almost as if the veterans organizations were on a big gambling junket to Biloxi.
Only a couple of days before, WWCG-TV 11 showed old 1950-era newsreels. When the President of France visited Washington, 250,000 people lined the streets to greet him. When General Douglas MacArthur returned home from the Far East, big crowds welcomed him like a hero. But in Columbus in 2008, there might have been a longer line at Minnie's Restaurant for lunch.
E-MAIL UPDATE: Since today is the anniversary of Dee-Day (did I spell that right?)....
I talked to Dee last night and she said she had 30 more days at the station.
She did not give a hint as to her replacement.
Terrillyn in Columbus
So Dee Armstrong will be on the air a few more weeks - giving WRBL's Teresa Whitaker more time to prepare that audition tape.
Now let's see what else people talked about Thursday, besides the heat....
+ Muscogee County School Board member Joseph Roberson told WRBL he will NOT run for re-election. He's the second opponent of the Educational Services Center to decide to leave the board. To some people, they seem so progressive - but to the Columbus establishment, they come across as sore losers.
+ Lee County's school superintendent announced he'll join the move to a four-day work week for staff members. It will save energy through mid-July. But once the new school year starts, that approach won't work - because having Thursday afternoon pep rallies for Friday night football games wouldn't seem quite right.
+ WLTZ showed Muscogee County inmates working on another governmental renovation project. They're improving parts of Recorder's Court. Mayor Jim Wetherington needs to pay attention to this - and if the one-percent sales tax passes, he'll save a lot of money on those new fire stations.
+ The Phenix City Council decided to increase monthly garbage collection fees. They'll go up from 13 dollars this fall - suddenly making 13 seem like a nice lucky number.
+ Mary Nell Rollings died in Florence, Alabama at age 81. She was one of the first female police officers in the state, and rode a Harley-Davidson motorcycle on patrol duty in the 1950s. Talk about ground-breaking! I don't think Erik Estrada ever rode with a female on "ChiPs" two decades later.
+ Reports from Atlanta indicated the suburban mansion of boxing champion Evander Holyfield is in foreclosure. I frankly don't understand this. Why doesn't Holyfield open it to the public, as a resort and day spa?
+ Atlanta flattened Florida 7-5 in major league baseball, as Chipper Jones hit his 400th career home run. The people at Keep Columbus Beautiful were unimpressed - because they get more than 400 trees "for the Chipper" every January.
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