The Air Won’t Settle

Words and photographs by Rashad Houston.

There is something unsettling about looking up lately. A machine crosses the sky and the headlines arrive with it. Another threat. Another deployment. Another official talking about what we can destroy. The air feels occupied before I can name what is occupying it.

An aircraft crossing a cloudy sky above trees. — A machine above the trees.

I can’t tell from these photographs why any aircraft is flying. What I can tell you is how the world beneath them feels. War has worked its way into the ordinary view. Trees, clouds, engines, and the thought of somebody far away being told to get ready again.

On October 1, the Associated Press reported plans to send another carrier and thousands of troops to the Middle East while President Trump raised the possibility of further strikes on Iran. ^[1] I hear that language and feel the future getting narrower. The administration keeps talking about force. I keep thinking about the people who will have to live through it.

Reuters reported in September that Iranian strikes damaged American military aircraft at a base in Jordan, citing a U.S. official. ^[2] Its October 8 reporting on RAF Fairford describes a suspected plot still under investigation, with suspects released on bail and American bombers moved following a reported threat. ^[3] An attack and a suspected plot are different things. Both leave me thinking about the people behind the perimeter.

The preparation keeps its own calendar. Avenger Triad 26 is scheduled for October 6–15, linked with NATO’s Steadfast Duel 26, testing how allied headquarters operate together in large-scale combat. ^[4] I understand why people train. I want them prepared. But exercise announcements land differently when the same screen keeps bringing threats of another war.

An aircraft silhouetted against textured clouds. — Flight beneath a ceiling of clouds.

There is too much of our military’s movement in the daily conversation for my comfort. Ships, departures, projected arrivals, the next possible escalation. I want the public to know what is being done in our name. I want the costs investigated. I also want some restraint around turning every movement into a spectacle. I can’t establish that a particular article has compromised an operation. I can say that watching people become pieces on a public map makes me uneasy.

The machines are beautiful. That is part of the difficulty. You can admire the engineering and still hate what it may be asked to do. A small shape against that much sky carries an enormous amount of work, money, training, and somebody’s life. The photograph can’t hold all of it.

A small aircraft silhouetted in an expansive blue sky. — The sky keeps its scale.

I feel the doom. I’m not going to dress it up. But I still have sons, work to make, and people to love. My willpower is in returning to those things when fear wants the whole day. I keep looking up. I keep taking the picture. I want a future where the next sound overhead doesn’t make us wonder what is coming for us.