Locals part of Golden Knights parachute team
Army parachutists to jump at air show this weekend.
— Army parachutists DAYTON Justin Blewitt and Corey Hood call themselves a band of brothers in a tribe of knights of the air.
Blewitt, who grew up in Lima and attended Wright State University, and Hood, a West Chester Twp. native, will make a homecoming of sorts when they and their Golden Knights team members jump into the Vectren Dayton Air Show today.
“It’s definitely like a band of brothers,” said Hood, 31, a 2001 graduate of Lakota West High School. “When we are out there doing our performances, you have a lot of trust in your teammates.”
“It’s a really tight group of people that you get to know almost as much as your family,” Blewitt said.
Both soldiers have the rank of sergeant first class.
The team has separate Black and Gold demonstration teams, a tandem jump team and a competition team. This weekend, the 11-member Black demonstration team is set to jump out of a twin-engine C-31A turboprop plane, depending on weather conditions, and onto the grounds of Dayton International Airport in front of thousands of spectators.
“It’s a great feeling to be able to exit the aircraft at about 12,500 feet,” said Hood, who has about 700 parachute jumps and has started his second year with the Golden Knights. “The view and the scenery is always amazing at every location we go so it’s a really great feeling to be able to do.”
Hood, an Airborne paratrooper with multiple tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan, said the hardest part of being a Golden Knight is being on the road up to 270 days a year and making a quick transition from home life to the air show circuit. “It takes a little bit of an adjustment in the beginning,” he said.
Blewitt’s aspirations to become a Golden Knight trace back to the Dayton Air Show.
“My dad actually brought me to this air show ever since I was in a stroller,” said Blewitt, 33. “And all I ever wanted to do was watch the Golden Knights jump.”
Today, the Iraq veteran has tallied about 8,500 jumps and 10 years on the team.
Of all those descents, one stands out the most.
“I’d say my first jump into Yankee Stadium was probably my first biggest memory,” he said. “I was originally born in New York, so it kind of hit home for me.”
Normally, he performs with the competition team, but literally jumped at the chance to travel back to Ohio this weekend. He started with the Black demonstration team in the first three years of his Golden Knight career.
He’s never lost his connection to the sport or the feeling of being in free fall.
“To me, it’s just complete freedom,” he said. “You get so comfortable in the sky you almost feel more comfortable in free fall than you do on the ground. And I know most of these guys would rather land under their parachutes than in an airplane.”