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Thunderbirds Honor Air Force's 70th Anniversary Plus The 2017-18 Thunderbird Season Show Schedule Is Out!

7 February 2017 by Military Bridge

LAS VEGAS, NV, UNITED STATES

02.07.2017

Photo by Tech. Sgt. Christopher Boitz

U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron “Thunderbirds”

Lt. Colonel Jason Heard, Thunderbirds Commander/Leader, taxis to the runway at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., Feb. 7, 2017. In honor of the United States Air Force's 70th Anniversary, the Thunderbirds will fly with the logo displayed on their aircraft for the rest of the year. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Christopher Boitz)

Staff Sgt. Aaron Langley sets up the cockpit of a Thunderbirds F-16 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., Feb. 7, 2017. In honor of the United States Air Force's 70th Anniversary, the Thunderbirds will fly with the logo displayed on their aircraft for the rest of the year. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Christopher Boitz)
History of The Thunderbirds
The USAF Air Demonstration Squadron ("Thunderbirds") is the air demonstration squadron of the United States Air Force (USAF). The Thunderbirds are assigned to the 57th Wing, and are based at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Created in 1953, the USAF Thunderbirds are the third oldest formal flying aerobatic team (under the same name) in the world, after the United States Navy Blue Angels formed in 1946 and the prestigious French Air Force Patrouille de France formed in 1931.
The Thunderbirds Squadron tours the United States and much of the world, performing aerobatic formation and solo flying in specially marked aircraft. The squadron's name is taken from the legendary creature that appears in the mythologies of several indigenous North American cultures.
On 1 March 2013, the USAF announced that due to budget cuts, aerial demonstration team performances would cease indefinitely, effective 1 April 2013.  On 6 December 2013 the Thunderbirds announced their 2014 schedule and the resumption of their appearances.
Read More 
The Thunderbirds Are Coming To Town!

2017-18 Thunderbird Show Season

The Thunderbirds have the privilege and responsibility to perform for people all around the world, displaying the pride, precision and professionalism of American Airmen. In every hour-long demonstration, the team combines years of training and experience with an attitude of excellence to showcase what the Air Force is all about.
The sharply choreographed, drill-style ground ceremony kicks off the demonstration by showcasing the attention to detail and esprit de corps that defines our enlisted members. As the jets take to the skies and fly only a few feet from wingtip to wingtip, the crowd gets a glimpse of the awesome skills and capabilities that all fighter pilots must possess. The solo pilots integrate their own loud and proud routine, exhibiting some of the maximum capabilities of the F-16 Fighting Falcon – the Air Force’s premier multi-role fighter jet.
The flying unit, officially known as the U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron, will perform its first public flyover of 2017 at Houston, Texas for Super Bowl LI.

2017 Show Season Schedule:

February 5: Super Bowl LI, Houston, Texas (Flyover)
February 26: Daytona 500, Daytona Beach, Florida (Flyover)
March 11-12: Titusville, Florida – “TICO Warbird Air Show”
March 18-19: Waco, Texas – “Heart of Texas Air Show”
March 25-26: Lancaster, California – “Los Angeles Air Show”
April 1-2: Melbourne, Florida – “Melbourne Air & Space Show”
April 8-9: Maxwell AFB, Alabama – “Maxwell AFB Gathering of Eagles”
April 22-23: Tyndall AFB, Florida – “Gulf Coast Salute”
April 29-30: Lake Charles, Louisiana – “Chennault International Air Show”
May 6-7: Travis AFB, California – “Travis AFB Open House”
May 13-14: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – “Wings Over Pittsburgh”
May 20-21: Tinker AFB, Oklahoma – “Star Spangled Salute Air Show”
May 24: USAF Academy, Colorado
May 27-28: Wantagh, New York – “Bethpage New York Air Show”
June 3-4: Open Date
June 10-11: Scott AFB, Illinois – “Scott AFB Air Show & Open House”
June 17-18: Youngstown ANG, Ohio – “Thunder Over the Valley Air Show”
June 24-25: Dayton, Ohio – “Vectren Dayton Air Show”
July 1-2: Traverse City, Michigan – “National Cherry Festival Airshow”
July 8-9: Gary, Indiana – “Gary Air Show”
July 14-16: RAF Fairford, UK – “Royal International Air Tattoo”
July 22-23: Great Falls, Montana – “Flight Over the Falls”
July 26: Cheyenne, Wyoming – “Frontier Days Air Show”
July 29-30: Fairchild AFB, Washington – “Inland Northwest Skyfest”
August 12-13: Westfield, Massachusetts – “Westfield Air Show”
August 19-20: Selfridge ANGB, Michigan – “Selfridge ANGB Air Show/Open House”
August 23: Atlantic City, New Jersey – “Thunder Over the Boardwalk”
August 26-27: Dover AFB, Delaware – “Dover AFB Open House/Air Show”
September 2-4: Cleveland, Ohio – “Cleveland National Air Show”
September 9: Altus AFB, Oklahoma – “Altus AFB Air Show”
September 16-17: JB Andrews, Maryland – “JB Andrews Air Show”
September 23-24: Colorado Springs, Colorado – “Pikes Peak Regional Airshow”
September 30-Oct 1: Grand Junction, Colorado – “Grand Junction Air Show”
October 7-8: Minden, Nevada – “Minden-Tahoe Air Show”
October 14-15: Boise, Idaho – “Gowen Thunder Air Show”
October 21-22: Houston, Texas – “Wings Over Houston Air Show”
October 28-29: Moody AFB, Georgia – “Moody AFB Community Appreciation Day”
November 4-5: JB Lackland-Kelly, Texas – “JB Lackland-Kelly AFB”
November 11-12: Nellis AFB, Nevada – “Aviation Nation Open House”

2018 Show Season Schedule:

February 25: Daytona 500, Daytona Beach, Florida (Flyover)
March 10-11: Open Date
March 17-18: Melbourne, Florida – “Melbourne Air & Space Show”
March 24-25: Dobbins ARB, Georgia – “Dobbins Air Reserve Base”
April 7-8: March ARB, California – “March Field Airfest”
April 14-15: Lakeland, Florida – “Sun-N-Fun Fly-In Expo”
April 21-22: Columbus AFB, Mississippi – “Wings over Columbus”
April 28: JB Charleston, South Carolina – “Joint Base Charleston Air Show”
May 5-6: Fort Lauderdale, Florida – “Fort Lauderdale Air Show”
May 12-13: Laughlin AFB, Texas – “Laughlin AFB Open House
May 19-20: Langley AFB, Virginia – “Airpower Over Hampton Roads”
May 23: USAF Academy, Colorado
May 26-27: Cannon AFB, New Mexico – “Cannon AFB Air Show Air Commandos on the High Plains”
June 2-3: Mountain Home AFB, Idaho – “Gunfighter Skies”
June 9-10: Niagara Falls, New York – “Thunder Over Niagara Military Air Show”
June 16-17: Ocean City, Maryland – “OC Air Show”
June 23-24: Hill AFB, Utah – “Warriors Over the Wasatch”
June 30-1 July: JB Elmendorf, Alaska – “Arctic Thunder Open House”
July 7-8: Duluth, Minnesota – “Duluth Air Show”
July 14-15: Westover ARB, Massachusetts – “Great New England Air Show and Open House”
July 21-22: Milwaukee, Wisconsin – “Milwaukee Air & Water Show”
July 25: Cheyenne, Wyoming – “Frontier Days Air Show”
July 28-29: Latrobe, Pennsylvania – “Westmoreland County Air Show”
August 4: Minot AFB, North Dakota – “Minot AFB”
August 18-19: Chicago, Illinois – “60th Annual Chicago Air & Water Show”
August 22: Atlantic City, New Jersey – “Thunder Over the Boardwalk”
August 25-26: Ypsilanti, Michigan – “Thunder Over Michigan Air Show”
September 1-3: Toronto, Canada – “Canadian International Air Show”
September 8-9: McConnell AFB, Kansas – “McConnell Open House”
September 15-16: Mather, California – “California Capital Air Show”
September 22-23: New Windsor, New York – “New York Air Show”
September 29-30: Salinas, California – “California International Airshow”
October 6-7: Baltimore, Maryland – “Maryland Fleet Week and Air Show Baltimore”
October 13-14: Fort Worth, Texas – “Fort Worth Alliance Air Show”
October 20-21: Huntington Beach, California – “Huntington Beach”
October 27-28: Little Rock AFB, Arkansas – “Little Rock AFB”
November 3-4: Homestead ARB, Florida – “Wings Over Homestead ARB”
November 10-11: Nellis AFB, Nevada – “Aviation Nation Open House”
Admission to air shows at military installations are generally free and open to the public. Cost for attendees at civilian air show sites may vary.


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Show Season For 2014

The Thunderbirds have the privilege and responsibility to perform for people all around the world, displaying the pride, precision and professionalism of American Airmen. In every hour-long demonstration, the team combines years of training and experience with an attitude of excellence to showcase what the Air Force is all about.
The sharply choreographed, drill-style ground ceremony kicks off the demonstration by showcasing the attention to detail and esprit de corps that defines our enlisted members. As the jets take to the skies and fly only a few feet from wingtip to wingtip, the crowd gets a glimpse of the awesome skills and capabilities that all fighter pilots must possess. The solo pilots integrate their own loud and proud routine, exhibiting some of the maximum capabilities of the F-16 Fighting Falcon – the Air Force’s premier multi-role fighter jet.
The flying unit, officially known as the U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron, will perform its first public flyover of 2014 at the opening of the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 1. The remainder of the schedule is as follows:

Feb. 23: Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Fla.
March 9: Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas, Nev.
March 15-16: Luke AFB, Ariz.
March 22-23: MacDill AFB, Fla.
 March 29-30: Punta Gorda, Fla.
April 5-6: Columbus AFB, Miss.
April 12-13: Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz.
April 26-27: Barksdale AFB, La.
May 3-4: Travis AFB, Calif.
May 10-11: Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.
May 17-18: Youngstown Air Reserve Base, Ohio
May 24-25: Cannon AFB, N.M.
May 28: U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo.
May 31 – June 1: Fairchild AFB, Wash.
June 7-8: Rockford, Ill.
June 14-15: Ocean City, Md.
June 21-22: Tinker AFB, Okla.
June 28-29: Hill AFB, Utah
July 5-6: Battle Creek, Mich.
July 12-13: Newton County, In.
July 15: Target Field, Minneapolis, Minn.
July 23: Cheyenne, Wyo.
July 26-27: JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska
Aug. 2-3: Oshkosh, Wis.
Aug. 9-10: Ypsilanti, Mich.
Aug. 13: Atlantic City, N.J.
Aug. 16-17: Rochester, N.Y.
Aug. 23-24: Waterloo, Iowa
Aug. 30-31: Kalispell, Mont.
Sep. 13-14: Altus AFB, Okla.
Sep. 20-21: Mountain Home AFB, Idaho
Sep. 27-28: Salinas, Calif.
Oct. 4-5: Melbourne, Fla.
Oct. 11-12: Daytona Beach, Fla.
Oct. 18-19: Rome, Ga.
Oct. 25-26: Ft. Worth, Texas
Nov. 1-2: Santa Teresa, N.M.
Nov. 8-9: Nellis AFB, Nev.





Maj. Caroline Jensen, Thunderbird 3, Right Wing pilot, shares a moment with her son Finn at the Thunderbird hangar. Military children make up a very special part of our nation's population. Although young, these children stand in steadfast support of their military parents through moves and deployments. To honor their unique contributions and sacrifices on behalf of our country, each April is designated the Month of the Military Child.

River Falls native is first mom, female reserve officer as Thunderbirds pilot

Meg Jones

Major Caroline Jensen, 37, from River Falls, flies No. 3 with the Thunderbirds, the first female and reservist to fly with the demonstration squad. The unit will perform this weekend at the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh.

By Meg Jones of the Journal Sentinel

July 31, 2014

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Oshkosh — It was a homecoming of sorts for Caroline Jensen on Thursday. When she arrived at EAA AirVenture, it was with a bang.
Actually, it was a low rumble followed by a deafening screech that prompted spectators to stick fingers in their ears as Jensen and her five teammates soared through the skies over Oshkosh to prepare for their performances this weekend.
The Air Force major, fighter pilot and Wisconsin native is the third woman and the first mother to fly in the Air Force Thunderbirds flight demonstration team.
"For me, this is a dream come true — who wouldn't want to perform at Oshkosh? It's kind of like playing at Carnegie Hall," Jensen, 37, said in an interview outside her No. 3 plane shortly after arriving at Wittman Regional Airport.
Born in New Richmond, Jensen grew up in River Falls and got hooked on flight when she saw a plane flying in the clouds in a TV movie at the age of 5. She watched the Thunderbirds perform in Eau Claire when she was 13, sparking her dreams of one day becoming an Air Force fighter pilot.
She didn't get her first flight until she was 15 — in a single-engine Cessna 172. Her second and third flights were to and from the Air Force Academy for swim camp and her fourth was to basic training after she had been accepted as a cadet.
The daughter of a Marine helicopter pilot in Vietnam, she graduated from the Air Force Academy with a bachelor's degree in English and spent 10 years on active duty and the past five years as a reservist. She's the first female reserve officer to fly with the Thunderbirds
Before joining the famous flight demonstration team, she was a T-38 instructor and assistant flight commander for Air Force Reserve Command's 340th Flying Training Group at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas.
She met her husband in glider school while they were at the Air Force Academy. He's now a commercial airline pilot and stays home in Las Vegas with their 5-year-old son while Jensen is on the road 220 days a year. With both parents pilots, it's no surprise their son has a propeller next to his bed, a Braniff Airlines poster on his wall and a bookcase in the shape of a plane tail.
When she finishes this season in the Thunderbirds, she'll head to Washington, D.C., to be a congressional liaison for the Air Force.
One reason there are so few female Thunderbird demonstration pilots is because only 7% of America's fighter pilot forces are female, Jensen said.
"To be on the team, you have to be at the right place in your career with the right set of skills, a family who's supportive and the desire to do it. So there's a lot of things that have to happen for any pilot who wants to be part of the team," she said.
She has spent quite a bit of time in the cockpit — it is, after all, her office — with 3,100 hours as an Air Force pilot, including 200 hours of combat in F-16s in Iraq.
Jensen was at Disneyland with her family, standing in Cinderella's castle, when her cellphone rang in 2012. On the line were all 12 officers from the Thunderbird team calling to congratulate her. Most pilots spend two years in the Thunderbirds but because the military's flight demonstration teams were grounded last year due to sequestration, the entire team stayed together for an additional year.
She flies the No. 3 plane on the right side of the diamond, sometimes as close as 18 inches from the lead plane at speeds up to 450 knots. It's not for the faint of heart. In some of the maneuvers, Thunderbird pilots feel as much as 9 Gs on their bodies and fly as low as 300 feet from the ground.
This weekend AirVenture air show spectators will see Jensen and the rest of the Thunderbirds perform loops and rolls as they zoom as low as 500 feet over the crowd in their white F-16s adorned with red and blue stars and stripes. Her favorite maneuver is when the four planes in the diamond split off from each other in four directions.
So is it nerve-wracking or comfortable flying in such tight formation?
"It's both," she said, adding that the pilots practice their show far away from each other and gradually move closer.
"It's all very controlled. I know exactly what (the lead pilot) is going to do, he knows exactly what we're going to do. There are commands we go through and we've literally done them hundreds of times," she said. "It's very deliberate, very rehearsed and very safe."
This is the first visit by the full Air Force Thunderbird flight demonstration team to EAA AirVenture and because the "aerobatic box" — the air space above the grounds — is bigger than for other air show performers, convention organizers are moving spectators 150 feet back from the normal flight line. Also, residents and businesses inside the aerobatic box must leave for a few hours while the team performs.
The Thunderbirds are scheduled to perform at the end of the weekend air shows, approximately 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 3 p.m. Sunday.

 

May 24, 2013

 ditor@sweetwaterreporter.com

Major Caroline Jensen

Maj. Caroline Jensen, 36, is in her first season with the U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron, “Thunderbirds,” and flies the No. 3 jet as the team’s Right Wing. She will be the featured speaker at the WASP Homecoming luncheon at Texas State Technical College on Saturday.
Major Jensen earned her commission in 1998 as a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. Before her assignment to the team, she served as assistant flight commander and T-38 instructor pilot in the 97th Flying Training Squadron at Sheppard AFB, TX. She has logged more than 2,500 hours as an Air Force pilot, including 210 combat hours during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Major Jensen hails from River Falls, Wis.
She received a Bachelor of Science degree in English at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. in 1999, graduated from Squadron Officer School at Maxwell AFB, Ala. in 2003 and from Air Command and Staff College, by correspondence in 2011.
She is a Senior Pilot with more than 2,900 flight hours. She has flown the following aircraft: T-37, T-38A, T-38C, and F-16C/D.
Maj. Jensen has received many awards and decorations including a Meritorious Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, an Air Medal with oak leaf cluster; an Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters, an Air Force Achievement Medal, a Combat Readiness Medal, a National Defense Service Medal with bronze star, an Iraq Campaign Medal with oak leaf cluster, a War on Terrorism Service Medal with bronze star and a Korean Defense Service Medal.
She was promoted to Second Lieutenant on May 27, 1998, to First Lieutenant on June 1, 2000, to Captain on June 1, 2002 and to Major on Nov. 1, 2007.
Maj. Jensen has had many assignments over the years as part of the U.S. Air Force including the following:
• May 1998 to April 1999, Standardization/Evaluation special projects officer, 94th Flying Training Squadron, USAF Academy, Colo.
• April 1999 to May 2000, student, Undergraduate Pilot Training, Laughlin AFB, Tex.
• October 2000 to October 2004, check pilot; later, Assistant Flight Commander and T-38 Instructor Pilot, 87th Flying Training Squadron, Laughlin AFB, Tex.
• November 2003 to March 2004, student, Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals, Moody, AFB, Ga.
• April 2004 to December 2004, student, F-16 Initial Qualification Training, 62nd Fighter Squadron, Luke AFB, Ariz.
• January 2005 to January 2006, F-16 flight lead; later, Chief Combat Plans, 35th Fighter Squadron, Kunsan AB, Republic of South Korea
• January 2006 to May 2008, F-16 flight lead; later, Flight Commander (and Chief, Wing Training as Active Guard Reserve Officer), 4th Fighter Squadron (388th Operations Support Squadron), Hill AFB, Utah
• June 2008 to July 2011, Assistant Flight Commander and T-38 Instructor Pilot, 97th Flying Training Squadron, Sheppard AFB, Tex.
• November 2011 to Present, Thunderbird Right Wing Pilot, Instructor Pilot, Flight Evaluator, USAFADS “Thunderbirds”, Nellis AFB, Nev.

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