[responsive_youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqgGCUt9txo]
If you were around the North End / Waterfront or anywhere in downtown Boston between 9pm-11pm on Wednesday night, you undoubtedly heard the low flying helicopters flying overhead. This was part of the previously announced military training exercises involving Navy Seals who were also repelling off 75 State Street earlier in the day. These helicopters were flying dark and certainly not your news/traffic variety. One observer identified them as Blackhawks and Little Birds used for special operations.
The dark copters repeated a route where they hovered for a bit over the Financial District and then flew toward the North End, eventually veering off toward the harbor. As the video shows, some fly-bys would drop down right on top of the North End / Waterfront rooftops.
There could be more training action this week as the military exercises continue through August 5, 2011 (see the related post below).
(Ed: After a while, it was pretty annoying. But, at least I got to try out the infrared night vision setting on my video camera!)
Related post:
Military Training Exercises in Boston Until August 5th.
Way cool video !!
Probably one of the most annoying nights I have had living in the north end…even worse than walking past Mike's on a Saturday in the summer.
Great video Matt. Another addition to your film making portfolio!
we had the great view: a balcony on the 34th floor of Harbor Towers, facing downtown.
the helicopters roared around our building, about 30 feet from our balcony.
we were scared. i mean really scared,
for two hours. once we got over it, we really enjoyed the awesome excitement.
SCOOP: We saw something fall from one of the copters. It landed on the Greenway near High St. We sped downstairs and rushed to the spot. Several people had gathered around what appeared to be a glow-stick when a person pulled out an identification from the Department of Defense and told everyone, "Sorry, this wasn't supposed to happen." Then he picked up the item and quickly left.
Spooky!
I called the Boston Police Dept. and the Coast Guard and they said they had no idea what was happening. Were they l;ying to me? I was pretty frightened for awhile.
So that's what those little 'copters are called.
@ North End Resident: suck it up and stop complaining or move. The Waterfront is the most fabulous place to live in the City of Boston.
@ Matt: Ditto Joyce & NEGuy.
Thank you for clearing this up.
🙂
way to dangerous—imagine if one of them fell from the sky and injured our innocent civilian population
i support our military, our country but this was a needless risk these choppers have fallen from the sky before
if this was to ward off an imminent attack then fair enough
otherwise—-
One out of every five tax dollars goes to support the biggest, most wasteful military in the world. Hasn't decisively won a real war since WW2 and from the looks of the ongoing wars probably won't ever again.
Glad they enjoyed their hot shot noisy training over Boston.
Worth every penny.
Hard to believe the complete disrespect some people show for the men and women that protect their freedom. Try posting that on a blog in China.
NE Guy, what I wrote were facts. The US military is by far the largest military organization in the world. The waste of money and lives is enormous. You don't like facts so you tried a personal attack. Doesn't work.
We support a huge military so European nations don't have to. That's why they have better schools and health care, more vacation time, etc. The US is way down on the list for quality of life, more than 20 countries usually come out ahead of us.
And nobody in Iraq or Afghanistan is protecting my freedom. People cross our borders every day that we don't know about. Someone wants to do another attack here they will be able to do it. Keeping troops overseas won't prevent that. America needs nation building at home now with the massive unemployment and aging infrastructure. The vast unfunded military expenditures over the past decade are partly what brought the US down. Without the money wasted on the mistaken Iraq invasion looking for WMDS that didn't exist, and the following long occupation, we could have turned much of our economy around.
As for China, Americans must love China, they invest in China and they buy so much of their stuff from that Communist nation. That's why China is getting richer and the US is getting poorer. If you think Americans really care about human rights in China, most haven't for many years. It's all about business now.