Veterans' air show returns to Columbia airport

A BT-13 Vultee is seen coming in for a landing during Columbia's 2015 Salute to Veterans event.
A BT-13 Vultee is seen coming in for a landing during Columbia's 2015 Salute to Veterans event.

Since 1990, the Columbia Regional Airport has been the scene of a Memorial Day weekend air show.

And, 2016 won't be any different.

The 28th annual Memorial Day weekend "Salute To Veterans Air Show" will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 28-29, using the theme "Honoring Those Who Risk All - To Protect All."

There's no admission charge to the event, which will include:

WWII de Havilland Vampire - the world's first single engine jet fighter, flying its first U.S. airshow.

U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute Team.

USN F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Tac Demo Team.

Trojan Phlyers T-28 aerobatic demonstration team.

WWII BT-13 Vultee "Valiant Echoes" aerobatic demonstration.

WWI Kansas City Dawn Patrol - 19 planes flying and on display.

WWI JN-4 Curtiss Jenny.

Canadian Armed Forces Parachute Team, The Skyhawks.

Canadian Forces CF-18 Hornet Tac Demo Team.

MU Pershing Rifles drill team.

Salute to the Nation Ceremony with honored guests from the military.

The air show also will have "static" displays open for tours throughout the two-day event, including a WWII B-25 Mitchell Bomber, a USN P-3 Orion and a USN C-1A Trader.

Columbia native Mary McCleary Posner helped found the event in 1989, with a Memorial Day parade through downtown Columbia that also featured two WWII warbirds, a B-25 bomber and a P-51 fighter.

"They overflew the parade in a salute to fallen comrades," Posner wrote in a history of the airshow that's available on the air show's website, salute.org/History2016.html.

"That first year, as Taps were being played at the Veterans Memorials, the B-25 appeared over the (Boone County) courthouse dome in one final tribute, with smoke coming from one wing."

She said one Columbia resident was concerned "we had shot down an airplane."

The event moved to the airport the following year - with the parade remaining in Columbia on Memorial Day.

It has continued to grow during the years, including expanding to a two-day weekend event in 1993.

Since 1994 - weather permitting - the parade has begun after a military team has parachuted into eight intersections on Broadway, through downtown Columbia, Posner noted.

This year's 28th annual Salute To Veterans Parade will be closed with members of both the U.S. Army Golden Knights and the Canadian Forces Skyhawks parachuting into the athletic field at Columbia College (north of downtown Columbia), where the parade will end and the "Salute to the Nation" ceremony will be held.

Posner noted the ceremony has become an important part of the Salute to Veterans Air Show, as well.

"We always have a one-hour 'Salute to the Nation' ceremony each day," she wrote. "We hold thousands of people silent while we play our National Anthem, do a 21-gun salute to the nation, lower the flags to half-staff, read the 225 names that are on the Veterans Memorials at the (Boone County) Court House, and play 'Taps.'

"Then we escort our honored guests to Show Central behind a bagpipers band, accompanied by our Tuskegee Airmen, WASPs and military reunion groups. They are introduced and recognized by the crowds."

Free parking is available at the Columbia Regional Airport, although air show organizers encourage Mid-Missourians to use the shuttle service instead.

The round trip is $5, with buses boarding beginning at 8:30 a.m. each day at the Jefferson City Memorial Airport and at Columbia's Walnut & 5th Parking Garage, 500 E. Walnut St.

The buses run continuously to and from the airport until the end of the day's events.

No reservations or advance tickets are needed.

Those attending the air show may bring collapsible strollers but no coolers, picnic baskets, alcohol, bicycles, tricycles, scooters or roller blades.