The Thunderbirds team touched down Thursday afternoon at a foggy Little Rock Air Force Base, marking the first time in five years that the U.S. Air Force's Ambassadors in Blue have visited the area.
Eight pilots and a host of crewmen and technicians flew in from Las Vegas, the home base of the air-demonstration squadron, two days before the start of the Thunder Over the Rock air show.
Maj. Jared Jones, director of operations for the air show, said the free event allows people to visit the Jacksonville base, meet the airmen and see the dramatic dives, rolls and maneuvers of the Thunderbirds.
"The open house is our opportunity to tell our story," Jones said.
He said event organizers expect 300,000 people to attend the Saturday and Sunday shows, though that number could be higher because it's been nearly five years since the last show at the base.
The Thunderbirds fly the United States' most recent F-16 Fighting Falcons -- jets that are used in active military zones around the world, he said.
Also among the aircraft on display this weekend will be the Army National Guard's Black Hawk and Lakota helicopters, and the massive C-130J Hercules. The Army's Golden Knights parachute team will be among the event's performers.
Gates open at 8:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Demonstrations are planned throughout the day until 4:30 p.m.
No aerobatics were on display Thursday afternoon when the Thunderbirds' Block 52 F-16s rolled onto the runway. The weary pilots were looking Thursday to get settled in and prepare for one of their last shows of this year's nine-month tour, a process Maj. Nick Krajicek knows well.
Krajicek, a three-year veteran of the Thunderbirds and a 24-year veteran of the U.S. military, is nearing the last of his shows with the Thunderbirds.
Before joining the Air Force in 2004, Krajicek spent nine years in the Army and flew helicopters on multiple tours in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq -- some just months after Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Va.
Joining the Air Force, he said, was an opportunity to adapt to a new challenge: fighter jets. The thin, nimble aircraft are "like strapping into a jet pack," he said.
Krajicek grew up on a farm in West Point, Neb., and said that even as a young boy he wanted to travel. His nine years in the Army and 14 years in the Air Force have allowed him to live in such places as Italy and South Korea, and in various states here at home, he said.
In 2015, Krajicek said he took on the new challenge of becoming a Thunderbirds pilot. The elite team performs dozens of aerial acrobatics -- from barrel rolls and swan dives to "flying 3 feet away from a friend at 300 miles per hour," he said.
But it turns out that the airborne acrobatics were the easier part of the job. Harder, he said, is being a living representative of the U.S. Air Force.
"It's so much pressure, but my job is incredible," he said. "We get to meet the next generation of the Air Force. It's really a humbling experience."
Normally, pilots with the squadron serve only two-year stints, but Krajicek was called back to the Thunderbirds this year after Maj. Stephen "Cajun" Del Bagno died in an F-16 crash on the training range in April. It was the first fatal crash for the squadron in decades, and Krajicek said returning to lead the air show was a "solemn honor."
After the Little Rock Air Force Base show, he has only one more remaining -- in Miami. Krajicek said he is preparing to say goodbye to his fellow pilots for his second and final time. With a wife and two daughters waiting at his home in Hawaii, he said he's ready to move on to the next challenge.
Additional information about the air show is available at thunderovertherock.com.
Metro on 10/26/2018