Perspective can be an interesting thing.
For example, the iconic Flying WV logo on the 50-yard line at Milan Puskar Stadium still manages to be prominent — even as you’re looking down at it from 1,000 feet or so while in the cockpit of a C-130 transport plane.
Maybe it’s because you know right where to look.
That logo, of course, is more prominent four hours later, when you’re literally smack-dab on top of it, on bended knee, looking up into the face of the woman you’re asking to marry.
Then, the thing is positively giant.
That’s because what you’re proposing is positively giant — even if she’s always been the one, and you’ve known it since middle school.
“Well, that was one of our more interesting weekends,” said Suveer Shekhawat, who asked.
“Oh, heck yeah,” said Allison Helmick, who answered.
Last Saturday’s WVU football matchup with Texas Tech opened up with a fitting tribute to West Virginians everywhere who have worn the uniform in service to their country.
Game day was also Armed Forces Appreciation Day, and part of the festivities before kickoff included a flyover of two C-130s, the giant, workhorse planes of America’s military.
Piloting one of them was Shekhawat — or, “Shake,” as the U.S. Air Force captain is known to his buddies back home in Morgantown.
Shekhawat, who is 26, went straight into the Air Force Academy in Colorado after his graduation from Morgantown High School.
He’s a member of the 40th Airlift Squadron at Dyess Air Force Base, in Abilene, Texas.
Flying is all he ever wanted to do — besides spending time with Allison.
As a kid, he was enthralled by the C-130s that flew into Hart Field in Morgantown, up from the West Virginia National Guard in Charleston.
“I was fascinated by them,” he said. “I still am.”
He’s piloted the big birds in war zones in Afghanistan and other missions of military importance in Africa.
Shake has been instrument-steady with one cruising 200 miles an hour and 300 feet above the ground.
“They’re more versatile than you might think,” he said.
“And they’re faster than they look. They’re so big that they look like they’re just lumbering along, but up there you’re really moving.”
Cleared for takeoff
In the confines of Milan Puskar Stadium last Saturday, things were really moving for Helmick.
Like the C-130 pilot, the 26-year-old grew up in Morgantown, went to MHS and graduated with a nursing degree from WVU.
She moved to Texas a couple of years ago to be close to Shake. She’s a nurse practitioner at a medical center in Abilene.
Her parents and other family members are season-ticket holders, and a cousin snagged a ticket for her, as she likes to get back to her hometown whenever she can.
Shekhawat told her he’d have to stay on duty in Texas for this one.
“I started getting all these texts from my dad and cousin,” she said. “It was like, ‘Come on, come on, you gotta get to your seat.’ ”
Helmick managed to get there right before the Pride of West Virginia Marching Band went into “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
When it came over the P.A. that two planes from Dyess would be doing a flyover, she gave a fixed look to her family.
“I said, ‘Is that him?’ It had to be him.”
Her family wouldn’t answer. When she felt a pair of familiar hands on her shoulders halfway through the first quarter, she turned around to regard a certain captain.
“I knew it!”
She didn’t know the second part of the mission, though — but she started getting an inkling.
Shake scored two on-field passes, and when he and Allison walked onto the turf after the game, her cousin came also, and started firing off lots of cellphone snaps.
“That’s when I started thinking something was up.”
They taxied toward the logo when the pilot dropped to one knee.
“Hey, uh, Allison?”
“Yes, yes, you know I’m saying yes.”
They go way back to South Middle School, where they developed serious crushes on one another in art class.
“Now, I’m an even happier man,” Shekhawat said.
Roger that on the emotion, his now bride-to-be said.
“Happiest weekend of my life, I can tell you that.”
What Brawl?
Not all the photographs that day were snapped on terra firma.
The one that went viral among Mountaineer Nation is one that was shared from Shake’s plane.
It’s the one showing the two crew members standing on the open hatch of the C-130 while the ship is passing over the stadium.
In the snap, one is holding an American flag while the other is waving.
Jaden Townsend, an airman from Apollo, Pa., was the designated waver.
What a second — Apollo is in western Pennsylvania, the land of Pitt, and the Backyard Brawl with WVU, which still manages to resonate, even though the teams haven’t faced each other for years.
Did Townsend feel like he was perched over an abyss of enemy territory?
“Nah, I didn’t follow college football growing up. I was a soccer kid. I just got to wave and enjoy the view and the crowd.”
Perspective, you know.
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