In a week when US dictator Donald Trump was allowed to stop at Shannon Airport, we had multiple US military landings. All were approved by our Department of Foreign Affairs who seem to operate on the understanding that if the US Air Force, Navy or Marine Corp say they want to land at Shannon, they can do so.

The photo shows a US Navy Hercules C130 registration 16-5352 that landed at about 23.41 on Thursday 22nd Jan. It came from Bermuda. On Saturday 24th it flew on to Ioannis Daskalogiannis Airport in Chania, Crete. This is the location of a major U.S. and NATO military installation. 

The were other US warplanes at Shannon on Thursday. A US Air Force C-17A Globemaster III registration 04-4129 landed at about 07.16. Early on Thursday it had left Ramstein air base in Germany, flew to Spangdahlem Air Base, from there to the RAF base in Mildenhall in the UK, and then to Shannon. It left around 10.30 to go to Aldergrove in Belfast.

Another US Air Force C17, this one with registration 03-3119, landed at about 03.13 on Wed 21st coming from Camp Springs in Maryland and Charleston AF Base SC. It took off about 05.26 and also flew on to Belfast.

On Thursday we had two US Air Force C-32A's (militarized 757's) with registrations 09-0015 and 09-0016 that came from Zurich in Switzerland. One of them with call sign AF1/RCH1 was carrying Trump. As far as we know he didn't get off the plane while it refueled.

It seems that the president’s usual Air Force One plane had been forced to abort its flight to Switzerland and turn back after what was described as a “minor electrical issue”. As a result, Trump used the Air Force C-32 for his trip to and from the World Economic Forum in Davos instead..

On Friday 23rd we had a US Marine Corp KC-130J, registration 16-6512. It came from the NATO air base in  Aviano in Italy. On Wednesday it left Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv (Israel). This plane is a mid-air refueller, operated by the Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 352 of the Marine Corp.

The troop carriers kept on landing too. Omni Air N468AX on contract to US military landed at about 21.15 on Wed 21st coming from Kuwait. It took off about 00.41 on 22 Jan and flew on to Baltimore MD. New England Patriots Boeing 767 with registration N225NE, also on contract to US military, landed at about 06.08 on Thursday 22nd coming from Fort Campbell Army Air Field SC. It took off about 09.24 heading East. 

Shannon is operating as a US military transit base, And the government continues to repeat the lie that none of the planes that land are involved in military operations or exercises.