My synagogue, Beth Israel, is in Lexington Park, Maryland. Yesterday, I visited the control tower at the nearby Patuxent Naval Air Station. Impressive. But what impressed me even more was 250 feet bellow-the control tower trainer (pictured). It doubles as a flight simulator. Costing only $133,000, it cuts training time about 30% - a real value to the taxpayer.
Yesterday afternoon, we had a lunch meeting at the NAS about homelessness in St. Mary's County. The county has a population of about 125,000, but about 1% of the population live on the streets. Many of these are veterans.
Last night I worked with adults at the synagogue, teaching Biblical Hebrew. This morning I will be traveling to St Mary's City, Maryland's first settlement, to see what I can go to jumpstart the Hillel at st. Mary's College.
This evening, I will have a Shabbat dinner at the synagogue with young families, followed by Shabbat services. Services again tomorrow morning. I will be working with three bar mitzvah boys. Sunday morning, we will have Hebrew school. This will be followed by a board meeting.
On the way back to Bethesda, I hope to drop by the Charlotte Hall veterans facility to visit some of our retired heroes.