Dan Maggart
2.8K posts

Dan Maggart
@MaggartDan
Beck’s ATL in WC Illinois Love the Lord, my Wife and Kids, Agriculture, Aviation and the outdoors.
Winchester Illinois Katılım Nisan 2017
3.4K Takip Edilen3.5K Takipçiler

This is a long post but a reflection of life during the first week of the war from my seat on the front row right in the bullseye.
It's 7:30am in Jerusalem. It's Shabbat. Quiet except for the missile alert siren at 5am this morning. Been exactly a week since war with Iran began. @janethuckabee & I & our 2 little dogs have been living in the Command Center, sleeping on cots to be able to deal with the moment by moment situation. Janet and the dogs are adjusting but they don't like the painfully loud sirens warning of incoming missiles, rockets & drones. It's a 24 hr a day schedule. When sirens aren't forcing everyone to shelter to dodge incoming ballistic missiles, the phone rings day and through the night w/ updates on everything from military activities to managing the embassy duties while our team is sheltering in place and working from home. Some in our mission, especially those with small children have evacuated on "authorized departure" which allows gov't staff to return to the US during a war or crisis. We are working around the clock to help evacuate American citizens trying to get back home. In the first days of the war, it was both difficult & dangerous to move people with all airspace closed & overland routes to Egypt or Jordan more risky than "sheltering in place." Totally fake news stories said "nothing was being done" to help Americans. Total lie. In the early hours and first days of war, the safest decision & what we urged our own Embassy personnel to do was stay close to shelter. Slowly, as the "battle rhythm" developed, we started physical evacuation first via buses to Egypt. There has been constant coordination with State Dept in DC to evacuate Americans SAFELY & promptly. 2 days ago, very limited flights started coming IN to Israel to bring Israelis home. We worked with El Al Airlines, the Israeli gov't & w/ State Dept Task Force in DC to get as many people on outbound planes as possible on the limited number of flights. It has been a 24 hr a day operation. Seeing utterly false news stories that US wasn't "doing anything" was a shock to embassy staff who have been busting their backsides, functioning with little or no sleep & themselves having to rush to bomb shelters repeatedly during the day and night & only having 90 seconds to take cover. We have now successfully evacuated thousands of people using every means possible, but focusing on helping people get home SAFELY. I'm proud of our team here. If you are an American citizen & taxpayer, you should be as well. I was amused to read comments online that I had returned to the US. Hardly. The Ambassador is the last one to leave. It's how it works. First duty is to America citizens. They are our real bosses. All of us here at the mission work for them. We know that & we work with that in mind. My other duty is to care for our team here. To insure the well-being of their families & to encourage our staff to take care of their physical and mental health as ballastic missiles the size of 18 wheel trucks come hurling toward us. I tried to get my wife to evacuate, but not surprisingly she would have none of it. She has weathered it with me even though there is no paycheck for her to sleep on a cot & endure days of making meals from PBJ sandwiches & things we had in the freezer at the residence we brought with us. No complaints though. It's a privilege to serve our country and its people & we are proud to serve @POTUS who courageous decision to stop the Iranian Regime's determined 47 year campaign to kill Americans & build a nuclear weapon to attack the US is something that should have happened long before. This war probably seems so far from those of you who live 6000 miles or more away from it, but rest assured the President wants to keep it that far away & end the threat completely. Had the fanatical religious zealots obtained a nuclear warhead and finalized long-range ballistic capability (and they were getting close to both) they would have used it on America. This is not a "war for Israel" as some of the very uninformed media voices and podcasters crow about. They are "often wrong, but never in doubt." I'm amazed at how lacking in facts some of them are but filled with an arrogant confidence that what they say is true. But they are far removed from the eyewitness intel & the front row seat I have. While they enjoy hefty paychecks from the "clicks" by being provocative, just know that halfway around the globe you have dedicated men & women who work for you for paychecks far less than they should be. They are on duty in war conditions & will continue at the task of serving Americans caught in the middle of a war. God Bless America, our courageous men & women in our military, & God Bless the men & women of YOUR Embassy in Israel!
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@BecksHybrids Hey @BecksHybrids @matt_montgo and @MaggartDan can I at least get accredited or an acknowledgment that you are using one of my photos for your marketing materials, Please?

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@RamboAndFrens Not against the butt woopin, but authority needs to be under control and disciplined, never in anger…
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Here is the article on the 77G resto, cool aircraft history. Jim Crawford of New Berlin, IL was the previous owner unfortunately Jim lost his battle with Melanoma before he got to see the finished aircraft. He would have been happy with the transformation! myjournalcourier.com/news/article/a…
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