I saw a veteran’s grave today at Rosehill Cemetery in Eaton Rapids, Michigan and it said that he was assigned to the 38th Balloon Company, Air Svc during World War I. This was an interesting find for me and I looked up the company and found some history at:

http://www.militarymuseum.org/BalloonSch.html

And on the Signal Corps: http://omahahistory.org/fort_omaha.htm


It seems that the U.S. as been playing with balloons since the Civil War and still does.

I look out my office window and can see a tethered ballon really high in the sky, one that is in all probability tethered to the ground 50 miles from here. They use it to observe all light aircraft coming in from Mexico, and they dispatch Border Patrol when one of them drops down and drops off loads of drugs on the numerous dirt roads.

I LOVE weather balloons!!


Helium sniffer from way back!...(hydrogen is cheaper...but not as much fun)

We get blimps flying over the house a few times a year (I live near Michigan International Speedway) and the dogs always bark at them.