MARQUETTE, Mich. (WLUC) – Three Upper Michigan communities will be greeted with military flyovers this July 4.
Two F-16s are scheduled to fly over Bessemer, Wakefield and Marquette.
For Marquette, it’s a new addition to the festival, which is also a celebration of the city’s 175th anniversary.
In just two days, Washington Street in Marquette will be filled with thousands of people of all ages. Two F-16 fighter jets from the 148th Fighter Wing will fly over the city at 12:14 p.m.
“We can expect two aircraft in close formation, and we do it basically to support and give a little bit of a shoutout to our patriotic fans, and the Upper Peninsula is very supportive of us,” said Scott Prom, a lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Air Force’s 148th Fighter Wing. “We have an airspace that we train in and the people are very supportive, and 1 percent of our people are from the Upper Peninsula.”
Prom said that while you are admiring the spectacle of the planes in the sky, it is important to understand the significance of a flyover. He said that normally they are meant for funerals to honor the dead, but Thursday is a holiday.
“It’s a rematch, we hope it makes people’s hair stand up and say ‘wow,’” Prom said. “It’s 1,000 feet above sea level, so it’s not as low as usual, it’s a nice, comfortable altitude.”
Prom said before Marquette that the jets will fly over Bessemer at 10:52 a.m. Central time and Wakefield at 10:53 a.m. Central time on Thursday.
In Marquette, the flyover will take place one hour and 45 minutes before the parade.
“We have three bands, we have the NMU band, the Marquette Highs marching band with their dance team and these special Scottish bagpipers,” said Robert Anderson, Marquette’s Fourth of July director and a member of the Kiwanis Club of Marquette. “Do you know why we have this parade, why the Fourth of July is so important? It’s the one day that unites us, because what unites us is greater than what divides us,” said
Anderson said Nicolet Bank will also have a special parking lot with 40 cars for people with disabilities. The parade in Marquette will begin at 2 p.m. Thursday.
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