Received this from a friend that was there. Interested if anyone else that attended had the same opinion.
"The anticipation exceeded the event. They weren't interested in anything other than the here and now. It was a plastic, politically correct, self laudatory celebration of the current regime and the current Abilene community.
You would have thought there might have been some interest in attendees that brought the first C-130's there in 1961. There were three there. Forget it! There were four former wing commanders there, Who cares? It was the only AF function I have ever attended which had corporate sponsors.
They had an award for the pilot with the most flying hours in the C-130, a local LC who had 5900 hours. Several of us there had nearly 2000 more and the hosts knew it. There are hundreds of enlisted types who have more time. But it would have spoiled a "gimmick" presentation, so forget it.
We should have expected it, as there certainly was no effort on the part of the hosts to find any of us. We practically invited ourselves. Lesson learned."