I am the one who looks skyward when the rushing roar of the F-16s are heard as they zip on take-off from Truax and then arc over the city on their landings. I am not the biggest fan of the defense department but readily admit I love these jets. Some in this area get all bent over the noise or the dollars spent and I get some of that but the raw power and also the fine professionals who maneuver these jets greatly impress me. Yesterday at a stoplight on the East Side I lowered my window and stuck my head out as F-16s took off while the lights changed. What a rush!
Now it might get even better.
The Air National Guard’s Truax Field was named a finalist Wednesday for deployment of new fighter jets that would make their home base less vulnerable when the Pentagon looks for military installations to close during cost-cutting exercises.
The Air Force announced in June that Truax was one of 18 Air National Guard locations being considered as one of two bases for the growing fleet of F-35 jets.
The announcement Wednesday narrowed the list to five, and sparked the unveiling of a local campaign to win the high-tech aircraft as a way of securing the economic benefits the area receives from the base on Madison’s North Side.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 
My recently-departed Dad was a USAF fighter-bomber jock. He was going to UW-Madison when WWII broke out, after which he enlisted immediately. He came to Madison (after living in New Jersey since 1970) to see me graduate from his old school. At one point we were going to lunch when the F16’s flew overhead. “When did they start flying jet fighters out of Truax?” he exclaimed. And then a long, low, wistful “Damn!”