Date: April 14-15, 2007
Photography by: Eric Renth
Story by: Scott Slocum

Folks, Larry the Cable Guy, that great observer of the American scene, loves to say "Git-R-Done." Let me say that goal was indeed accomplished by the folks who put on the April 14-15 airshow at NAS Corpus Christi.

The static display was small but featured C-130s from the Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard along with a C-17 Globemaster III, an F/A-18F Super Hornet, and a good assortment of warbirds and trainers.

The flying started with a flyby of T-34s and T-45s plus TC-12 trainers. The audience was taken back to the days of the early barnstormers, as Collinsville,Oklahoma native Greg Shelton put his red, white, and blue Stearman 450 into the air and wooed the crowd. Paul Fiala kept that early-days theme as he flew his Great Lakes biplane. They are masters of their craft! The Red Bull BO105 helicopter then showed that a chopper can do rolls just like a fixed wing plane. Awesome to see. Red Bull also flew their MiG 17 with Bill reesman at the controls, and it was easy to see why it could be a deadlly dogfighting foe. Kudos to the Red Bull folks.

Next was the Tora, Tora, Tora display along with a P-40 and P-51 from the Cavenaugh flying museum. A great history lesson. The Air Force showed off the thunder of the F-15E Strike Eagle out of Seymour Johnson with tight turns and a lot of vapor off the wings. The Strike Eagle still packs quite a punch. The Coast Guard had a neat seach and rescue demo featuring the HH65 Dauphine.

Lastly came a celebration of twenty years of blue color Hornets as the Blue Angels were also showing that the early A model is the only version they've flown. Hopefully, the C model or Super E version will follow, when airframes can be spared. The Hornet is well suited to their flying - graceful and demanding. As usual, they put on a fine show despite strong winds.

A big thanks to Bob Torres and Caleb Booher of the NAS Corpus Christi Public Affairs Office for their help and hard work.

Photo captions left to right: (1) Paul Fiala. (2) Red Bull MiG smoke. (3) C-17. (4) Red Bull Helicopter. (5) Bill Reesman in the Red Bull MiG. (6) USAF Heritage Flight with P-47 and F-15E. (7) and (8) Greg Shelton with Jenny Forsythe subbing for Ashley Battles on the wing. (9) The Blue Angels