Originally Posted by
SaltyDog
Was representing Navy in Oct for one of our MIA later classified KIA finally repatriated and laid to rest in October at Arlington. The Hornet lead hit TOT exactly on time. Family and his old squadron (VA-163) were mightily impressed. The run in angle was spot on. Wish I was flying, but felt proud of my fellow aviators who hopefully knew how important their efforts were to so many Americans. We explained to the family the whole coordination process and pointed out the ground players, they were moved that the military and country went to such great effort to bestow the flyby honor to a LTJG shot down and killed in an A-4 near Hanoi 42 years earlier.
They nodded when we explained that is why they saw a parade of so many Reagan airliners going by after the fly by <g>.
Agreed....and I have NO DOUBT that the aircrew knew/knows how important and meaningful the fly-over is and what it signifies. It is absolutely worth the time, effort and coordiantion required (even as far as disrupting flight ops at Reagan for a couple of minutes IMO)
USMCFLYR