Univ. of Utah & Southern Utah alumni to perform F-35 flyover before Utah/SUU football game

Published: Aug 28, 2024 Duration: 00:04:33 Category: News & Politics

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I am from Utah yeah I grew up in price actually I went to school at the University of Utah and that's why I'm pretty uh excited to fly to fly over so I started at the U in 2005 right after the incredible 2004 football season where we were undefeated of course and then uh graduated in 2009 so my senior year was that 2008 another incredible season where we were undefeated and beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl uh so 05 to 09 I studied uh physics was a graduate of the physics Department did uh Air Force ROTC at the Detachment 850 and that's where I got my commission and that's where I got the pilot slot so great experience we never missed a home game uh even when we had a lot of uh lot of work to do a lot of school but uh uh we didn't make the away away games always but uh never missed a home game so have you done flyovers over the U before you know actually I think I have not believe it or not I've done quite a few f but it just never has quite worked out to go over the youth so yeah special day for me and for for all the rest of us too how surreal is this you went to the U you used to pack the stadium probably go to all the games now you get to be a part of such a unique and special moment to kind of kick things off and get the season going um what could be another incredible year for the youths it's such an honor I'm so happy to be able to do this you know just like you said as I I used to be in the stadium watching the flyovers and you know that was my dream to maybe uh be able to do that someday and and here we are of course um I loved my time at the U uh it's great School uh huge fan of the football program obviously and uh yeah it's it's really come full circle we're we're all really excited I think I speak for the rest of the guys in the formation too we're all really excited for this so we're planning a for ship of f35s um so it will look at a fingertip formation it'll look somewhat like the pcture behind me but it'll be a little bit tighter uh so you have like a lead aircraft and then you have one on the right side two on the left uh so we'll bring it in tight for the pass we are going to fly a thousand feet over the uh stadium and we're going to fly from south to North so you'll see us uh you know showing up from from the south and pass over the North and then we'll have to pop up over the mountains there that are pretty pretty close as you know right behind the U um but yeah just a single pass we'll just be straight and level and uh uh yeah hopefully it's a good good show for everybody we do have a pilot that uh that went to suu and I think he might have even been on the football team uh for some amount of time which the rest of us were were never uh on the UDS football team we're just their number one fan of course um happy to watch from the stands but uh yeah so a couple of yous One suu Pilot um it's really special for us you know I I've lived in Utah my whole life um it was seeing an air show at Hill or Force Space that inspired me to to want to pursue being a fighter pilot um and I was you know it's probably been 30 years now um but I really I never lost that so I I pursued my dream there and it all worked out and I've just been so lucky to get to fly the F-35 here at Hill and it's such a crucial um thing that we're able to have f35s based here in the local community obviously it has a huge economic impact for the wasach front but also just for our nation's defense uh there is some airspace out here on the Utah test and training range that is really unique um you just can't find that pretty much anywhere else in the country or in the world so it's really important that we keep up you know good relations with the local community uh again for my decade or so that I've been here flying jets the local community has been extremely supportive and that means the world to us and we want to keep that relationship going likewise with the school the school was extremely supportive of The Roc units and uh you know students pursuing military careers and I really love that about the University of each they're so supportive of the military and the community in general is so supportive so and of course we have the best football team in the country go youths uh and I think this is going to be an incredible season so yeah it's uh all of it's coming together uh we're so happy to provide this flyover so you get to fly over are you going to the game afterwards yes we are going to be at the game uh it'll take us a little bit of time after you see us fly over to go land the Jets at Hill Air Force Base and put them away and then drive ourselves down to the stadium so we'll get there as soon as we can uh hopefully we don't miss too much of the game

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