Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Photo, Herald Journal, Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010
Photo of Friday night football action from 2010 season.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Herald Journal, Thursday, May 5, 2011
Front page of Herald Journal from Thursday, May 5, 2011. Combined with article looking back at RMD Tri-Meet's history.
Herald Journal 9/11 Special Article, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2011
Up in the air
Local pilot was in the air at time of attacks.
El Paso to Chicago, a trip that Bruce Grove had taken plenty of times before, and his flight on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, wouldn’t be any different. That year would be his 33rd in the air, his 17th flying for American Airlines, and the flight would continue to be routine until the plane entered Kansas on its way north.
A fulltime resident alongside Lake Shafer and recently retired from his piloting career in August of this year, Grove’s position in the crux of that day’s events didn’t prevent him from getting the news the same way that most Americans received it. With communication between air traffic controllers, American Airlines and news radio transmissions, Grove was charged with piloting his plane while trying to glean information from as many sources as he had available. Brief spots of information, from the first notification of an accident involving a New York skyscraper to a fax from the company notifying pilots that one of their fellow planes had possibly been hijacked, Grove’s view of the day’s events would be no clearer until hours later.
“When the second airplane hit, it all kind of came together. Because initially, you kind of thought when they hit the World Trade Center, what kind of idiot pilot is that?” Grove said.
His concern would be much more immediate than what was transpiring on the East Coast. With the plane in the air, Grove and his American Airlines jet would be part of the massive grounding of all flights over the United State, a ban that would not be lifted for three days as international flights were diverted away from U.S. territory.
“At that point, I can’t remember if it was before the second airplane hit the other tower or not … but (the air traffic controller) started kind of randomly, as far as we could tell, picking airplanes and telling them they had to land right away,” Grove said. With the flight originating from the border town of El Paso, Texas, Grove pondered what threats might be coming his flight’s way, or whether the individual planes being directed off their planned courses were facing their own issues.
“Initially we thought that maybe there was some threat in those airplanes, and in the back of my mind I’m thinking, we’re coming from El Paso. It wasn’t an international flight, but we’re close to the Mexican border.”
The next several days would be a microcosm of what air travel has become in the 10 years since 9/11. When the ban on air travel was lifted, Grove and his copilot ferried the aircraft from Wichita, Kansas to Dallas, where then piloted a plane with passengers to Chicago the following morning. The flight to Dallas was a strange one for the pilot, who called it “eerie” to see no other flights in the air that he could monitor (a roughly 40 mile radius) and no one on the radio other than his air traffic controller on the ground.
Theirs was only the fifth flight in the nation that day.
Security procedures changed at a whim, as the massive apparatus that services our ability to travel across the country in hours instead of days faced its most arduous task to date. Grove reflected on that first flight with a full cabin, and while he didn’t know any of the flight crews associated with the attacks personally, it wasn’t hard to put himself in the same situation as he took off for home.
“You think of what they might have gone through, then you get on the airplane and it’s fresh in your mind,” Grove said. “You just kind of wonder what your reaction would be.”
In the years since, security has come under suspicion of going too far, as the public grapples with the decision to secure the air while protecting civil liberties. With programs like Federal Flight Deck Officer (which gives the option to qualified pilots to fly armed anonymously) and the focusing of Federal Air Marshalls around priority targets, Grove feels security will continue to evolve, but so will those who feel security goes too far as it is.
Grove admits to never having been scanned by the controversial body scan imaging machines, instead being directed to the more common X-ray detectors, but crews are still subjected to the same security treatment as passengers.
“People complain about that, but if they were involved personally in a situation like (a terrorist attack), they’d be the first ones jumping up and down because (security) didn’t do enough,” Grove said. “It’ll have to keep evolving and keep improving. I’m not sure where it will all end up going, but I can’t imagine where there will ever be a point where we say, ‘OK, we’ve got it covered now. We don’t have to worry about them anymore, just keep doing what you’re doing and we’ll be fine.’ ”
The foreseeable future for Grove won’t have many more takeoffs and landings, and sits fine for the recently retired Monticello resident. With wife Pam, Grove plans to see more of his daughter and grandchild, and with the winter coming, there will be more worries than security that are off of his mind.
“I look out and see nasty weather, and thinking about winter too, hearing about a snowstorm coming and I have to drive to Chicago,” Grove said. “Now I can just sit back and turn the heat up in the house and say, ‘Well, I don’t care. I don’t have anywhere to go.’ We’re having a good time in our short retirement that we’ve had so far.”
Part of a special section commemorating the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Herald Journal cover story, Thursday, May 5, 2011
RMD TRI-MEET, Three communities stay united through the decades
Front page story commemorating the 2nd longest running tri-meet between three northwest Indiana high schools.
Those who have participated in an RMD Tri-Meet, the long-time track and field competition between Rensselaer, Twin Lakes and Delphi, are understandably proud of its history.
The 96th incarnation of the tri-meet will be run today at Rensselaer Central. It will mark the
100th year since the triangle meet between the schools began, but not the 100th RMD. It hasn’t run concurrently since its inception in 1911, with the meet at least once being canceled on account of a flu epidemic and that little issue of World War II bringing a pause over several years, but it still stands as one of the longest running tri-meets in the nation.
Several have taken a crack at researching the meet’s history, and while it is generally accepted to be the longest running meet in Indiana, organizers have taken care to not get caught claiming a bit too much history. A triangle meet in Texas was begun in 1899, putting the RMD in the running for second.
“We used to advertise in our program that it was the second oldest track meet in the United
States, and somebody said, ‘Well what’s the oldest?’ ” said Gene Edmonds, who coached track at Rensselaer from 1960 to 1991. “Well we don’t know, but we didn’t want to say that we were the oldest, we weren’t sure. So we called it the second oldest.”
Plenty has changed since the RMD meet was first organized. Now used as an early May jump start meet for conference and sectional meets to come, the RMD used to be a competition far and beyond sprints finished, poles vaulted and shots put. It was a competition stretching the breadth and width of the school, meant to draw entire communities to it. Edmonds believed the intersection of the three communities along the railways made the trio an easy selection, and currently all three reside in the Hoosier Conference with plenty of rivalries in other sports.
The member schools still retain memories of these competitions, which included speech contests along with academic competitions and debates to go along with the athletic displays that have outlasted them. While not as all-engrossing as those early competitions, the modern meet has taken on a certain distinction among the three participating programs.
When other tri-meets or relays may be canceled if the original date is rained out and another cannot be readily found, the member schools are adamant to keep the RMD going, Twin Lakes coach and former RMD participant Mike Wright said.
“We try to impress upon the kids that it’s not another triangle meet,” Wright, who attended Twin Lakes from 1964 to 1968, said. “I like to bring up that this was a big meet when I was in school, and some kids get into it, like ‘Wow, that must be an old meet. How long have you been out of school?’
“I’m like hey; they were doing it many years before I was around.”
Wright had a first-hand look at the time when the “M” in RMD became obsolete. In 1963, the shuffling of consolidated schools, among them Idaville, Burnettsville, Yeoman, Adams Township and Monticello, ended with the formation of Twin Lakes. Monticello High School might no longer exist, and with it the end of the true-to- name RMD Tri-Meet, but the conglomeration of athletes made the continued competition at RMDs a change for all involved.
Monticello was on par with Rensselaer and Delphi in attendance before consolidation,
Wright said, with Twin Lakes’ formation putting the school on a path to a larger attendance class that it continues to hold.
“You’re coming from a small school, where you only had a few athletes who were pretty good, and you’re bringing them all together (to see) who’s the real cream of the crop,” Wright, who originally would have attended Idaville before consolidation, said. “I think it’s all for the good athletically, and academically too and financially.”
Generational ties are the cornerstone of the RMD’s appeal. Besides the rivalries between the schools, the continuation of an competition that could have seen a grandparent and grandchild run in the same event and strive for the same record is a quality not seen in many schools. The aspects of a school prior to consolidation may take form in the hanging of the swallowed schools’ banners in the new gym, but the continued presence of Monticello in RMD allows those same races to be run anew each year.
“It’s kind of fun, and when that week comes up for an RMD or a sectional … I put (records) up on the board and kids will say, ‘That’d be hard to do.’ ” Wright said. “It’s kind of neat for the kids to see that, to see it’d be hard for them to do it now, to accomplish some of those things. And some kids rise to the occasion.”
The RMD doesn’t hold the same place in each community as it once did, but the continued push for the traditions in the forms of old photos or clippings to be pulled down from an attic or out of a dusty garage keeps those accomplishments alive. All so that should the RMD hit its actual 100th running and continue on, the athletes of today can do the same.
“A lot don’t know the tradition of it, and if we don’t tell it kids aren’t going to know. There’s a lot of parents and grandparents that have participated in it, and they need to be recognized a little bit I think, to keep promoting the traditions,” Edmonds said.
The 96th RMD Tri-Meet begins at 6 p.m. EST today at Rensselaer.
Front page story commemorating the 2nd longest running tri-meet between three northwest Indiana high schools.
Those who have participated in an RMD Tri-Meet, the long-time track and field competition between Rensselaer, Twin Lakes and Delphi, are understandably proud of its history.
The 96th incarnation of the tri-meet will be run today at Rensselaer Central. It will mark the
100th year since the triangle meet between the schools began, but not the 100th RMD. It hasn’t run concurrently since its inception in 1911, with the meet at least once being canceled on account of a flu epidemic and that little issue of World War II bringing a pause over several years, but it still stands as one of the longest running tri-meets in the nation.
Several have taken a crack at researching the meet’s history, and while it is generally accepted to be the longest running meet in Indiana, organizers have taken care to not get caught claiming a bit too much history. A triangle meet in Texas was begun in 1899, putting the RMD in the running for second.
“We used to advertise in our program that it was the second oldest track meet in the United
States, and somebody said, ‘Well what’s the oldest?’ ” said Gene Edmonds, who coached track at Rensselaer from 1960 to 1991. “Well we don’t know, but we didn’t want to say that we were the oldest, we weren’t sure. So we called it the second oldest.”
Plenty has changed since the RMD meet was first organized. Now used as an early May jump start meet for conference and sectional meets to come, the RMD used to be a competition far and beyond sprints finished, poles vaulted and shots put. It was a competition stretching the breadth and width of the school, meant to draw entire communities to it. Edmonds believed the intersection of the three communities along the railways made the trio an easy selection, and currently all three reside in the Hoosier Conference with plenty of rivalries in other sports.
The member schools still retain memories of these competitions, which included speech contests along with academic competitions and debates to go along with the athletic displays that have outlasted them. While not as all-engrossing as those early competitions, the modern meet has taken on a certain distinction among the three participating programs.
When other tri-meets or relays may be canceled if the original date is rained out and another cannot be readily found, the member schools are adamant to keep the RMD going, Twin Lakes coach and former RMD participant Mike Wright said.
“We try to impress upon the kids that it’s not another triangle meet,” Wright, who attended Twin Lakes from 1964 to 1968, said. “I like to bring up that this was a big meet when I was in school, and some kids get into it, like ‘Wow, that must be an old meet. How long have you been out of school?’
“I’m like hey; they were doing it many years before I was around.”
Wright had a first-hand look at the time when the “M” in RMD became obsolete. In 1963, the shuffling of consolidated schools, among them Idaville, Burnettsville, Yeoman, Adams Township and Monticello, ended with the formation of Twin Lakes. Monticello High School might no longer exist, and with it the end of the true-to- name RMD Tri-Meet, but the conglomeration of athletes made the continued competition at RMDs a change for all involved.
Monticello was on par with Rensselaer and Delphi in attendance before consolidation,
Wright said, with Twin Lakes’ formation putting the school on a path to a larger attendance class that it continues to hold.
“You’re coming from a small school, where you only had a few athletes who were pretty good, and you’re bringing them all together (to see) who’s the real cream of the crop,” Wright, who originally would have attended Idaville before consolidation, said. “I think it’s all for the good athletically, and academically too and financially.”
Generational ties are the cornerstone of the RMD’s appeal. Besides the rivalries between the schools, the continuation of an competition that could have seen a grandparent and grandchild run in the same event and strive for the same record is a quality not seen in many schools. The aspects of a school prior to consolidation may take form in the hanging of the swallowed schools’ banners in the new gym, but the continued presence of Monticello in RMD allows those same races to be run anew each year.
“It’s kind of fun, and when that week comes up for an RMD or a sectional … I put (records) up on the board and kids will say, ‘That’d be hard to do.’ ” Wright said. “It’s kind of neat for the kids to see that, to see it’d be hard for them to do it now, to accomplish some of those things. And some kids rise to the occasion.”
The RMD doesn’t hold the same place in each community as it once did, but the continued push for the traditions in the forms of old photos or clippings to be pulled down from an attic or out of a dusty garage keeps those accomplishments alive. All so that should the RMD hit its actual 100th running and continue on, the athletes of today can do the same.
“A lot don’t know the tradition of it, and if we don’t tell it kids aren’t going to know. There’s a lot of parents and grandparents that have participated in it, and they need to be recognized a little bit I think, to keep promoting the traditions,” Edmonds said.
The 96th RMD Tri-Meet begins at 6 p.m. EST today at Rensselaer.
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