Information: Directions and tickets available at miramarairshow.Amy McGrath (Courtney Daniel) This article is more than 1 year old. “It’s a dangerous profession and there’s minimal room for error, whether it’s a training flight or a combat flight.” MCAS Miramar Air Show “Every time we go flying, well, you never know,” said Bissell.
He was 35.īoth names are stenciled on the driver and passenger doors of the fightertruck.īissell drew some of the hardest duty in his career as the “CACO” - Casualty Assistant Calls Officer - to Norton’s family, ensuring that they received the funeral and pay benefits that they deserved while honoring the sacrifice of the pilot. Richard “Stranger” Norton was killed in a crash near Twentynine Palms during a training exercise.
Taj “Cabbie” Sareen, 34, died in 2015 when his fighter crashed near the Royal Air Force Lakenheath base in Great Britain. They don’t broadcast it, but the Red Devils have been touched by tragedy in recent years. The show of force was meant to demonstrate both American resolve and the capability of America’s aerial forces during an ongoing standoff with a nuclear North Korea building missiles that can strike the United States. It was the farthest north of the Demilitarized Zone any American combat aircraft have ventured in the 21st century, according to a statement released by the Pentagon. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers from Guam, escorted by F-15C Eagle fighters from Okinawa, buzzed international waters near North Korea.
Being gone from them was tough, but working with Marines and flying obviously make it worth it.”Įarlier Saturday, U.S. That’s hard and that was my first deployment. While the Red Devils spent the bulk of the deployment training at Marine Air Corps Station Iwakuni in southern Japan, they also ventured north of Tokyo to fly alongside Japanese Air Self-Defense Force pilots, took part in the Northern Edge 2017 exercise in Alaska and helped the grunts of 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines master close air support operations in Hawaii. 13 from a six-month deployment across the Pacific Ocean. 1, 1925, VMFA-232 is the oldest and most decorated squadron in the Corps, flying sorties during the early years of the Chinese civil war before logging heavy combat in World War II, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. We’ve got a really cool legacy.”īorn on Sept. “And they kind of want to know the history of our squadron, the oldest fighter squadron in the Marine Corps. “People just want to know about the jet,” said Capt. Next to a cherry red “fightertruck” - a vintage fire engine with a large part of a jet’s tail section welded on its rump. Raybans and aviator watches could give them away, but there’s also the Satanic iconography of their booth at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, replete with a howling Lucifer statue, plenty of pitchforks and patches from their 2015 combat operations in Iraq pledging to open the “gates of Hell” for Islamic State militants.Īnd, well, the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C Hornet strike fighter parked behind them. Perhaps in keeping with traditional Marine Corps subtlety, you really can’t miss the pilots of Fighter Attack Squadron 232, the “Red Devils.”