MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGG‐TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFFFFF!!!!!
Anyone who has attended the MCAS Miramar Air Show in the past few years will immediately recognize the
“Voice of MAGTF”, Capt. John Reeves, announcing the exciting, fast‐paced and explosive action of the Marine
Air Ground Task Force. The air show staged a triumphant return after last year’s last‐minute cancelation, and
the MAGTF, always an integral part of the show, took center stage this year: “Celebrating the Marine Air
Ground Task Force (MAGTF)” was the theme for this year’s three‐day show, which took place October 3‐5.
The schedule for each day’s show was roughly the same. The gates opened to the public at 0800, the flying
began an hour later and continued pretty much non‐stop until 4PM. On Saturday there was a twilight show
which started at 5:30PM and concluded with the “Great Wall of Fire” at 8:30PM. That’s more than twelve
hours of action and made for a long day! Especially with the sunny skies and triple‐digit temperatures. Luckily
there were lots of places to sit down: free open seating at each end of the flightline, numerous box seats, six
massive sets of bleachers and a variety of public chalets providing shade and catered food and drinks. There
were also many food and drink vendors distributed throughout the tarmac, most operated by base squad‐
rons with proceeds going towards their morale and welfare funds.
This year’s event featured two jet demonstration teams, the civilian Patriots and the Navy’s Blue Angels, tac‐
tical demonstrations from the AV‐8B Harrier II, MV‐22 Osprey and the F‐35B Lightning II, civilian aerobatic
performers, two parachute teams, and, of course, the Marine Air Grou