7:56AM
Sky Harbor Intl. Airport

Air Force One lands and I watch the President and several agents emerge from the craft.

Governor Jane Hull is standing near the runway amid a group of press representatives and her handlers. I am sitting in our albino white Suburban, Its limo-tinted windows concealing the heavily modified interior of this vehicle. This vehicle is a stealth urban version of the JSLNBCRS. (Joint Service Light Nuclear Biological and Chemical Reconaissance System)

As one would guess this vehicle has been produced post-9-11 and is an urban reconaissance unit for detecting traces of CBN weapons deployment in a terror attack.

It has an equipment suite subsystem comprised of many tech-features, some of which are our own designs.

Tech5 has been in contact with AF1 via the SMAR-T (now dubbed SMAR-T-PANTS for its comm-flexibility) However this is a PR mission for Bush to visit the fire and give an ear and shoulder to the residents and a bit of moral support for the hard working fire crews, who do a thankless job in heat which will reach 112 in the shade today - and much hotter anywhere within a mile or two of the fire.

A small plane from the forestry service has been loaded and will take the President, the Governor and the Press on a tour of the devastation.

We are not officially present, but merely to add anti-terror-security to this public field landing of AF1. Sky Harbor International is a large airport and hard to secure. The local police and airport security have the place pretty well locked down, but everyone starts to look suspicious when you're looking for trouble.

We have two Blackhawks in the air and a couple of 4BN modified H-1's. The Secret Service are out in force and their black Suburbans will get hot fast in the intense scorching rays of the desert sun.

"Bravo-Tango to Chameleon XLE over."

"Chameleon XLE here Bravo-Tango. over."

"We had a perimeter breech by two protestors. The local police have arrested them and we are flying cover. There are a group of fifteen or so twenty-nothings, wanna-be Hanoi Janes and Tom-Hayden's down there causing a ruckus. The police are making several arrests - mainly the more destructive ones who are tearing out paperstands. Over."

"Repeat again Tango-Bravo. Tearing out paper stands? Over.

"Yes, it seems the paper stands really p---ed them off and a couple of the punks started pulling on them and tore two of them out of the ground before the police intervened. Over."

"Thanks for the update. Over."

"That'll show Bush!" Tech5 says. "How much do you want to bet it was the Arizona Republic's paperstands getting trashed. I bet you the USA Today stand is sitting pretty without a scratch!"

I nod in agreement and look at Bush's agenda. A flyover with Jane and a stop at Round Valley High School. He will be out of here by 12:30 - enroute to Canada for a small summit meeting.

After several photo-ops and grim faced meeting shots the two are boarding the forestry service plane. The helicopter's will fly escort half of the way and then be replaced with some more F-16's out of Luke AFB.

We listen in on the live band kept open by the SS to field agents so they know what is happening. It's as good, perhaps better than being there - live and unedited, from the comfort of a vehicle with 10,000 BTU cooling capabilities.

The press gets a full scope of the horror of the devastation and audible and genuine gasps can be heard by even normally numb reporters.

Bush does the expected and declares it a Federal Disaster Area. Yet this declaration does not sum up the situation best.

Forty five minutes have passed. Bush utters a line that appropriately sums up the past two weeks in the southwest:

"It's Hell on earth down there."

SDAI-Tech1