Aerial show, STEM festival draw crowds

Thunder Over the Rock returns after 6-year hiatus

The announcer egged on the crowd as U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds prepared to begin their aerial show.

“I said, are you ready to see the Thunderbirds?” he said. “I said, are you ready to see the Thunderbirds?”

Four planes took off, looping around the crowd and flying straight into the air.

Sunday marked the last day of the three-day Thunder Over the Rock event, said 2nd Lt. Hunter Rininger, chief of media for the 19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs. The group expected to have 200,000 attendees but does not know if the event met that goal.

The event, which hasn’t occurred since 2012, took a year to plan, said Col. Gerald Gyro Donohue, the commander for the 19th Airlift Wing and the Little Rock Air Force base.

On Friday, the officials hosted a science, technology, engineering and math festival for Arkansas students, bringing in about 20,000 students and chaperones, Donohue said.

The rest of Thunder Over the Rock was dedicated to air shows. About 1,300 people manned the event.

Government funds and donations from the Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council provided money for Thunder Over the Rock, which was a free event, Donohue said. It had been on a six-year hiatus because the group didn’t have enough federal money to put on the event. The runways were also undergoing construction, making a show impossible.

The first Thunder Over the Rock took place in 1955, Rininger said. Officials hope to have the next air show in 2020.

Thunder Over the Rock had about 200 parachutists on both Saturday and Sunday, and the event also had 82 planes on display. The public was allowed to enter some of the planes for tours, Donohue said.

“You know we’re ambas-

sadors as the military members,” said Justin Strain, the command chief for the 19th Airlift. “We’re ambassadors when we go out to other countries, and it’s a way for us to show the community and be an ambassador back to them for what they give to us. You know, we deploy airmen that live in the local communities, right? Go to the local churches, play in the local schools, play in the local sports teams, and they sometimes see maybe their mom and dad are not there, and they come out here, and they can realize why their mom and dad are not there.”

Kevin Golden, who has been to every Thunder Over the Rock since his childhood, said he was excited to get to see the show again.

“It was awesome as always,” Golden said.

Golden arrived to the show at noon following church. He said the weather was perfect for the show.

Mark Sorenson and Mark Nowosielski, who have been part of the Twin Tigers since they formed the group in 2012, agreed that the weather was superb for flying. They flew at Thunder Over the Rock on Sunday and perform 12 to 15 shows a year.

“We’ve both been interested in aerobatics since we were kids,” said Nowosielski, who is from South Africa and now lives in Florida.

Sorenson is from Georgia, where the group is based.

“We’re just happy to do what we do,” Nowosielski said. “We love flying.”

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/THOMAS METTHE

A crowd takes pictures and videos on their phones Sunday as 200 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division are dropped from a line of C-130J aircraft during the Thunder Over the Rock air show at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville (top photo). Kylie Miles, 7, of Hot Springs waves to passers-by at the air show as she peeks out the cockpit of a C-130 (photo at left). More photos are available on arkansasonline/galleries.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/THOMAS METTHE Ethan Atkinson, 6, of Benton sits on the landing gear of the KC-10 Extender while watching the Thunder Over the Rock air show with his family on Sunday at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville. More photos are available at arkansasonline.com/galleries.