Saints vs Jaguars Game Day Newsletter 5Oct13Saints_Digital | Page 10
PREGAME
The Star-Spangled Banner will be performed this
evening by The Jacksonville Symphony
As Music Director Courtney Lewis begins his fi fth
season on the conductor’s podium, the Jacksonville
Symphony celebrates the 2019-2020 season
that promises more weeks of music reaching
more people than ever before. Each season, the
Symphony reaches almost 290,000 individuals
through over 300 performances.
The Jacksonville Symphony is one of Northeast
Florida’s most important cultural institutions.
Founded in 1949, the Symphony is ranked among the nation’s top regional orchestras. In March
2020, the orchestra will depart on a tour to Washington, D.C. as one of four orchestras selected
from across the country for SHIFT: A Festival of American Orchestras. The Symphony’s home,
Robert E. Jacoby Symphony Hall, is considered to be an acoustic gem. Each year thousands enjoy
the Symphony’s performances both at Jacoby Symphony Hall in the Times-Union Center for the
Performing Arts and at venues located throughout the state of Florida.
For more information about the Jacksonville Symphony, please visit JaxSymphony.org, like us on
Facebook at Jacksonville Symphony, follow us on Twitter @JaxSymphony, and on Instagram at
JaxSymphony.
On hand to interpret the National Anthem for the hearing impaired is Caitlin Brock.
Today’s Colors will be presented by the US Coast Guard Color Guard Sector Jacksonville.
The American fi eld fl ag will be held by the valued Partners of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Today’s fl yover will be done by 455th
Flying Training Squadron, a United States
Air Force unit within the Air Education
and Training Command, stationed in NAS
Pensacola, Fla..
The 455th Flying Training Squadron is a
United States Air Force unit within the
Air Education and Training Command. It
was most recently activated in October 2009 at NAS Pensacola as part of the 479th Flying Training
Group, providing the DoD’s only fl ying training squadron for Undergraduate Combat Systems Offi cer
Training (UCT) in the Raytheon T-6A Texan II aircraft.
The squadron was fi rst activated during World War II as the 455th Bombardment Squadron. After
training in the United States, it deployed to the European Theater of Operations where it participated
in the D-Day invasions, earning a Distinguished Unit Citation before returning to the United States
for inactivation. It was activated again in the reserves in 1949. It was mobilized in 1951 for the
Korean War and inactivated, as its personnel were used as fi llers for other units.
The squadron was redesignated the 455th Fighter-Bomber Squadron and activated in Tactical Air
Command in 1955, but inactivated two years later. In 1973 it was activated at Mather Air Force Base,
where it trained navigators until it was inactivated on 1 October 1993.