OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss fans who looked skyward before Saturday night’s game against LSU witnessed more than an impressive military flyover.
They witnessed history.
Two U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster IIIs roared over Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in formation before kickoff, part of what crew members said was the first two-ship C-17 stadium flyover mission in history.
The Oxford appearance carried an additional Ole Miss connection.
Leading the formation was Lt. Col. Jonathan Taylor, commander of the 58th Airlift Squadron at Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma and a 2009 cum laude graduate of the Ole Miss School of Business Administration.
Taylor was also a Distinguished Graduate of Air Force ROTC Detachment 430 during his time at the University of Mississippi.
Years after beginning his Air Force career at Ole Miss, Taylor returned to Oxford at the controls of the lead C-17, flying over a packed Vaught-Hemingway Stadium before one of the biggest games on the Rebels’ schedule.
But Saturday’s flyover was the work of far more than one pilot.
A 15-member Air Force crew operated the two C-17s during a three-day mission that included three football stadiums in three states.
The mission began Friday night with a flyover before Texas Tech and Houston in Lubbock, Texas. The aircraft then traveled to Oxford for Saturday’s Ole Miss-LSU game before heading to Nashville for Sunday’s NFL matchup between the Tennessee Titans and Philadelphia Eagles.
All three flyovers were completed on time using the same two-ship formation.
For Ole Miss fans, though, Saturday night was the centerpiece.
The sight of two massive C-17s crossing above Vaught-Hemingway was memorable on its own. Learning that the formation was part of a historic Air Force mission, led over Oxford by an Ole Miss graduate, made the moment even more meaningful.
Taylor now commands the 58th Airlift Squadron, the Air Force’s C-17 Formal Training Unit. The squadron trains pilots and loadmasters who go on to operate the Globemaster III throughout the Air Force.
The C-17 itself is one of the Air Force’s largest transport aircraft, measuring 174 feet long with a wingspan of nearly 170 feet. Seeing one above a stadium is impressive. Seeing two flying together over Vaught-Hemingway made Saturday night’s moment especially rare.
For the 15 crew members, Oxford was one stop in a demanding three-day mission.
For Ole Miss, it was a historic flyover with a distinctly Rebel connection.
One of the Airmen involved in the flyover even shared this first-hand video with HottyToddy.com, capturing the game-winning interception from inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
Hotty Toddy.
