YAKIMA, Wash. – The Yakima Air Terminal opened its runway to the community for its second annual Aviation Day; a free event aimed at sparking interest in aviation careers.
The event featured several military-grade aircraft, including the United States Air Force’s MC-130J. Airport Director Robert Hodgman emphasized the value of this event.
“This is just an opportunity for the community to come out and see the airport and see all the neat things that happen at the airport,” he said.
Thousands of people attended despite the hot weekend. Hodgman discussed the event’s mission.
“This is a great opportunity for people to come out and speak with the pilots and the crews on these aircraft and go up inside and see all the neat stuff that’s inside,” he said.
Senior Airman Anias Harris, who has served in the United States Air Force for over four years, and his crew flew from New Mexico to Yakima with their MC-130J to educate the community about their aircraft and work. Harris described their aircraft’s versatility.
“It’s a multi-capable mission aircraft. So we do pretty much all sorts of missions. You can go from aerial refueling to cargo…and then lots of reconnaissance and surveillance missions. Those are our main missions that we typically do,” he said.
Both Harris and Hodgman view the event as a unique opportunity for people, especially kids, to learn about aviation careers and see aircraft up close.
“This is actually a really cool experience to be able to have a lot of people come see our mission capability, our aircraft and our air power,” Harris said.
“Sometimes you can see that little kid get that little sparkle in their eye and you know that they’ve been bit by the bug and that they’re going to be doing something in aviation. And we always enjoy that,” Hodgman said.
Hodgman also expressed hopes to bring an air show back to Yakima, which hasn’t hosted one in almost 30 years
