THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 TAG: 9702060336
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: 30 lines
A farewell flyover of four A-6 Intruder jets will be held above South Hampton Roads and North Carolina landmarks beginning at 11 a.m. today as the Virginia Beach-based attack bombers, just three weeks from retirement, salute their home of the past 34 years.
The ``Sunday Punchers'' of Attack Squadron 75 will fly in a diamond formation - weather permitting - at about 2,000 feet and 300 mph to give the public a glimpse of a plane that has been a regular sight over Oceana Naval Air Station since 1963.
The Intruder is being retired from naval service on Feb. 28. VA-75 and its sister squadron on the West Coast, VA-196, are the last of the all-weather bomber units remaining.
Plans call for the flight to leave Oceana at 11 a.m. and arrive at these locations at the approximate times indicated: Rudee Inlet at 11:11; Cape Henry at 11:12; Willoughby Spit at 11:15; Fort Monroe and the Norfolk Naval Station piers at 11:16; and Waterside at 11:17.
The formation will then head for the Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point, N.C., arriving there at about 11:39 a.m., and at Cape Hatteras at 11:53; Wright Brothers Memorial at 12:03; and the Navy Dare Target Range at 12:06. The planes will then return to Oceana.
In case of inclement weather, the squadron will fly the same routes and times Friday.