President Donald Trump announced during the coronavirus task force briefing Wednesday that the Air Force’s Thunderbirds and the Navy’s Blue Angels would be performing flyovers across major American cities to honor “American medical workers.”
“I’m excited to announce that in the coming weeks, the Air Force Thunderbirds – are incredible – and the Navy Blue Angels, equally incredible, will be performing air shows over America’s major cities,” Trump said.
“What we’re doing is we’re paying tribute to our front line health care workers confronting COVID. And it’s really a signal to all Americans to remain vigilant during the outbreak. This is a tribute to them, to our warriors. Because they are equal warriors to those incredible pilots and all of the fighters that we have for the more traditional fights that we win and we win,” he added.
Trump did not specifically say which cities the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels would be visiting, but a memo from the Pentagon said the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels would be flying over Washington, DC; Baltimore; Trenton, New Jersey, and Newark, New Jersey; Atlanta; Philadelphia; Dallas, Texas, Austin, Texas, and Houston, Texas.
They will also fly separately over other cities, and the cost of the flights will come from the money that is already in the Pentagon’s budget.
The Air Force’s Thunderbirds have already performed an extended flyover over Colorado health care facilities to honor American health care workers shortly after honoring its Air Force Academy graduates with a traditional flyover.
KDVR published a flight map of the Thunderbirds over the weekend, which began in the Fort Collins area before heading south over Boulder and flying over the Denver metropolitan area — including Aurora and Lakewood, then headed south to Colorado Springs around the area where the Air Force Academy held its graduation ceremony, and finished off its route past Pueblo.