It was like old home week for Latrobe native Will Brooks, a Navy pilot who flew an EA-18G Growler into the Shop ’n Save Westmoreland Airshow at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport near Latrobe.
He greeted old friends and teachers Saturday next to the jet displayed on the airport apron.
The air show resumes Sunday at 12:20 p.m. and concludes at 4. Gates open at 9 a.m.
“I wanted to be in the Navy since I was a kid. I grew up watching ‘Top Gun,’ ” said Naval Lt. Cmdr. Brooks, 34, a 2008 graduate of Greater Latrobe Area High School.
The jet Brooks flew into the airport Friday was one of several aircraft — including airplanes and helicopters — that were part of a ground display the thousands of air show visitors were able to see up close Saturday.
In the case of the 18G Growler, the electronic warfare aircraft didn’t carry any of the missiles it ordinarily would have had attached underneath its wings.
Brooks achieved his dream of being a pilot after undergoing lengthy training — three years of flight school and two additional years of training.
“It’s a complicated aircraft,” one that Brooks said can fly at speeds that break the sound barrier.
Brooks, who earned a degree in homeland security from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, had previously been a helicopter pilot.
Among those greeting Brooks on Saturday was one of his high school teachers, Jason Brandt, who teaches astronomy at Greater Latrobe.
“It’s great to see what they (former students) are doing with themselves,” Brandt said. “It’s always fun to see former students who have been able to achieve … these great things. That is why we do what we do.”
One of the service members greeting Brooks was Air National Guard member Kierra Jackson, 23, of Greensburg, who is part of the 171st Air Refueling Wing stationed at a base near Pittsburgh International Airport.
Jackson, a substitute teacher at East Allegheny School District, said she joined the military after an old brother, Quincy, died in a motorcycle accident while stationed in Japan.
Among the hundreds who stayed in the air show parking area to watch the aerial maneuvers was Tom Harris of Castle Shannon and his family.
“My dad was a World War II mechanic in the Army Air Force,” said Harris, who was with his daughter, son and granddaughter.
Harris said his fascination with planes started at an early age, with his father taking the family to the former Pittsburgh-Monroeville Airport. It was where he learned to fly a Piper Cub airplane at the age of 15 or 16, he said.
“We went to the airport every Sunday,” Harris said.
