Originally posted by Virgil Cain
On saturday afternoon, I saw 3 Chinooks escorting 2 Marine Ones over downtown Baltimore in the direction of DC. Listening to the Orioles game later, they mentioned that the helicopter escort came over the stadium to drop off President Obama at the White House (they were playing the Nationals down in DC).

I gathered that he had taken Marine One all the way to West Point, otherwise, I do not know why the helicopters would be coming in over Bmore.

As an aside, I saw one the huge transport aircraft come over not long after the Helicopters, also going towards DC from the northeast ( towards Andrew's I assumed). My assumption was that it may have been carrying auxillary equipment back from West Point, although it could've been unrelated.

Just thought I'd add my own observations to the discussion. I wondered whether he would take AFO to West Point or Marine One all that way, and based on my observations, it seemed he took Marine One.

[edit on 26-5-2010 by Virgil Cain]

I dont know if he would of flown Marine One all the way to west point from DC. It would make more sense to fly AF1 into stewart AFB then marine one to west point. Stewart to west point would only be about a 15 min helicopter ride. Idk just humble opinion.

Yeah.... A helicopter flight ALL the way from the DC Area to New York state? It's possible, I guess. Kind of a weird situation. It is certainly within range for a helicopter of that type. The SH-3 can go 600 miles, and the UH-60 about the same, if not a bit longer.... but why would you want to? On the other hand, the VC-25 (747) is just a bit overkill from DC to West Point. About the time you pulled up the gear, you would be setting up the approach, not to mention royally screwing up traffic into/out of NYC (Not that the prez would worry too much about that) If he was he was coming from elsewhere, by all means AF1 is the best bet, but from DC... either take a slow, (relatively) low-flying chopper all the way, or AF1, and risk getting bitched at by those folks who latch onto every opportunity to criticize him. (There are far better reasons to criticize Pres Obama IMHO, but I will opine thus, as it is not the subject of this thread...) I can't say which I would pick, but may lean toward the chopper, as I am quite fond of them myself.....

FLY ARMY!!!!!

One other thought.... it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the flight from DC to West Point was made by helicopter, and a VC-25 was on the ground locally on stand-by, in case of a need to move on something for one reason or another. I won't even begin to speculate further as I really don't follow the movements of the President, and can't say where he was immediately before this appearance at USMA.