What a uplifting way to honor our fallen service members as well as health care and frontline workers on Memorial Day, but you’ll need to eye the skies this morning. The Colorado National Guard will perform a helicopter flyover across much of the state on Monday, March 25. The one over Denver takes off from Buckley Air Force Base at 8:30 a.m. and will head across the metro area, then to Colorado Springs and back to Buckley.
Photo by Frank Crebas, Bluelife Aviation
The helicopters flying out of Buckley AFB will be a CH-47 Chinook, two UH-60 Black Hawks and one LUH-72 Lakota.
The National Guard says the flyovers are part of training for pilots and are not costing taxpayers any extra money. The pilots will fly over several of Colorado’s veterans cemeteries and memorials,too.
The 2nd General Support Aviation Battalion, 135th Regiment, Colorado Army National Guard, Buckley AFB, and the HAATS unit will all participate in the flyover.
Here are the Front Range routes for the Memorial Day flyovers (times could vary by about 15 minutes, according to the National Guard):
Route 1 (Denver area)
8:30 am — Buckley AFB
8:45 am — Centennial Airport, Centennial
10:00 am — J.S Parker Cemetery, Parker
10:10 am — Highlands Ranch
10:15 am — Ft Logan National Cemetery, Englewood
10:20 am — Arvada
10:15 am — Thornton
10:35 am — Denver
10:45 am — Centennial Airport
Route 2 (Colorado Springs area)
10:55 am – Centennial Airport
11:30 am – Colorado Springs
12:00 pm – Buckley AFB