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Fly By after the National Anthem - Change of Command for Captain Fred Melnick.

1,174 views · Published 5 August 2011 · 2:14 · Indexed 8 October 2026

Channel: John Sooklaris · 2011 · People & Blogs

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You will notice one guy towards the end is communicating with a hand held radio with the pilot of the FA 18 aircraft so that he times his fly by precisely after our national anthem is finished.  He says "6 Seconds".  At that moment, I knew what was happening.  I could begin to hear the aircraft, but it was flying so low, there is no way I could see it.  It was going quite fast.  When I caught a glimpse, I trained my camera on it as best as I could, as it screamed right past us.  You can hear the car horns celebrating the fly-by in the final scene.  

This ceremony was the change-of-command for Captain Fred Melnick, who served an impressive tour at Coronado Island by heading up the Maintenance and Repair Facility at the Coronado Naval base.  They rattled many more facts than I can recant, but one was that 4200+ people rebuilt 237 aircraft last year, and expended between 20,000 to 50,000 hours per aircraft, and did so at a fraction of the cost to buy new planes.  Their objective is to exceed the prescribed life cycle for these planes.  Quite an amazing facility.  This little ceremony celebrates their accomplishments as Fred passes the buck to his XO, John.

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