JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Because the nation prepares to bid its ultimate farewell to former President Jimmy Carter, some Navy pilots tasked with performing a flyover as a part of the state funeral shared what the previous president meant to them.
The group of F/A-18 Tremendous Hornets arrived at Naval Air Station Jacksonville Tuesday and can take off for Georgia on Thursday.
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News4JAX spoke with a number of of the pilots, three of whom are from Georgia. For Lieutenant Commander Brandon Allgood, the mission is further particular.
Allgood is the grandson of former Georgia State Senator Thomas Allgood, who, along with his wife, Thelma, died in a plane crash in 2000.
“He truly bought elected the identical yr President Carter went to the presidency in 1976,” Allgood recounted. “It’s been 24 years since my grandpa handed away, however in the present day is an emotional day for me.”
He continued, “What number of instances in your life are you able to say that you simply executed a flyover anyone, however particularly for a former president? Being from Georgia, it’s simply wonderful to honor him and my grandpa, who was a buddy of his.”
Allgood explains the crew will carry out a number of Diamond formations, plus the normal lacking man formation.
“My plane, as we go over, planes will pitch up aggressively out of the formation, to represent that our four-ship formation is now lacking an integral member,” Allgood mentioned, alluding to President Carter.
Lt. Commander Charity Somma, one other native Georgian, might be a part of the Diamond formation. She additionally feels a particular connection to the previous president.
“My private connection is, is the legacy of that Georgian,” Somma mentioned. “I bear in mind going to the state capitol as a toddler. We have been driving by the Carter property and being instructed the tales and the historical past of what that man had completed, and being so proud that I, too, was a Georgian.”
The crew might be working towards laborious to verify every thing runs easily. Most of all, these women and men are grateful to be right here.
“Attending to be a part of that is simply such an important honor and a tremendous expertise and one thing that’s solely as soon as in a lifetime,” Allgood mentioned.
“Of all of the issues in my bingo card of what I aspire to be as a Navy pilot, what I believed my profession would possibly entail, with the ability to be part of a flyover to honor President Jimmy Carter was actually not one of many issues I’d have picked,” Lt. Somma mentioned. “However that far supersedes something I may have wished would have been on that bingo card.”
The plane are scheduled to depart NAS Jacksonville for the funeral Thursday afternoon. NAS Jacksonville officers say residents in surrounding neighborhoods will discover a rise in plane exercise and noise through the ceremony.
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