The Greatest Day of My Life (TR w/pics)

[Jihad]

Old friends of OOT,

This is the story, mostly in picture form, of a moment of my life that took months of planning, and perfect execution by many different people. The fact that it went so smoothly is a tribute to my training, and the Jacksonville Jaguars organization.

Sometime before the season started I was contacted by a guy from the Jags organization, asking me if I could arrange a flyover of one of their games. Yes I could, but he'd have to help me do something I've been waiting a long time to do (no spoilers yet). He had to ask permission from several people, and ended up going all the way to the team's owner during a meeting, telling him what I want to do, and the guy ended up waiving a long standing Jags policy to allow this to happen:

The National Anthem ends, and I nailed the flyover (I'm in the lead jet, its my job to arrive overhead right on the last note) coming overhead plus or minus 1 second. The coolest part about the actual flyby was the fact that, as shown in this picture, I could actually see myself from my jet, in the jumbotron:





Then we landed, jumped into our cars, drove to the stadium and parked in the Player's Parking Lot. Parked my sexy little 2000 Accord next to a Bentley. Walked into the stadium and got our credentials. In flight suits, with credentials, it was surprisingly easy to walk onto the field. 3rd Quarter rolls around and they drag us onto the field and say a few words in recognition of the flyby. I'm on the far right:


50,000 people getting louder than they have all game for you is a good feeling.

My girlfriend was on the field to "take pictures", along with my Skipper's wife. The PA system guy says "oh what's this, what's that guy on the end doing?" as I walk over towards GF, legs shaking a bit, only mildly aware of 50K people staring at me:




The crowd goes absolutely insane, and then suddenly very quite as the GF is in shock and hasn't responded yet. Then when we hug, they go [censored] nuts. Loudest I've ever heard at any sporting event:





We get interviewed by several people, find out later we were on TV for the game broadcast, and were picked up by a few national media outlets:


Took some publicity photos afterwards, I invited them all to my bachelor party, I have recieved 0 RSVP, which is surprising considering that 10 of them minimum were strippers or worse:



It seemed like everybody in the stadium wanted to personally congratulate us, and the walk to the car was impossible. Everybody was incredibly warm, kind, and constantly thanking me for my service, which is always a nice feeling. Several players came over to shake my hand, but that really wasn't that amazing because not many of them were recognizable, I'm sure the 1st string guys were busy. Playing.

Obviously an incredibly unique and memorable experience that only comes through an already incredibly rewarding career in Naval Aviation. Every day, especially when things aren't great, I get to say "holy [censored], I'm doing something every 5 year old boy would kill for," and then days like this come along and widen the smile of a child in a grown-ups body. Fortunately, I've got the right girl to share my dreams with.