The Michigan Air National Guard conducted flyovers across nine Michigan communities on Tuesday.
The flyover event was a part of the United States Air Force’s 100-year commemoration of aerial refueling.
Aerial refueling is meant to increase the effectiveness of combat aircraft by transferring gas between two aircrafts mid-flight.
In 1923, U.S. Army Air Service aviators, Virgil Hine, Frank Seifert, Lowell H. Smith and John P. Richter flew DH-4Bs and were the first to accomplish aerial refueling in the world, according to Grissom Air Reserve Base. The flight took place between Los Angeles and San Diego.
Today, in Alpena, the flyover took place across Thunder Bay. Due to Canada’s wildfires, smoke polluted the view of the aircraft’s. Residents were able to just barely hear them as they flew 1,300 feet in the air.
Bev Olsen is an Alpena resident that lost her brother, Lt. Cmdr Rodney Max Chapman of the U.S. Navy, during the Vietnam War.
Bundled up in a turquoise raincoat on the marina pier looking over Thunder Bay, Olsen waited as she looked up to the sky for the KC-135s and A-10s that were to be participating in the flyover.
She said she was “of course” disappointed that she was unable to see the flyover due to the smoke.
“But I knew they were there,” Olsen said. “And it’s better that they didn’t come any lower because of the danger factor... And I’m sure they were disappointed also.”
The pier was speckled with residents anticipating the event, but Olsen said she was surprised there weren’t more people there to witness it.
Commemorating the legacy of her brother, Olsen paid a visit to the Veterans Memorial Park after the aircrafts had passed unseen.
According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Lt. Cmdr. Chapman was sent on a tanker mission from the USS Coral Sea over the Gulf of Tonkin on February 18, 1969. He and two other crew members were ordered to assist in aerial refueling.
The aircraft was a KA-3B Skywarrior called “Tenpin 017”. Upon returning to the Coral Sea, the Skywarrior was reported to have crashed into the water with 33-year-old Chapman, and the other crew members. A search was conducted for the aircraft and its crew, but all have remained missing since.
“The news of his plane going down, not being able to land on the carrier, is devastating to all of us,” she said.
Chapman was in his 13th year of service and had previously flown his 90th mission on Feb. 13 before his departure for the tanker mission on Feb. 18, according to records at The Alpena News.
Olsen said Chapman and his wife Dorothy had a daughter, Audrey who was only five when the telegram arrived from the navy. The document said he was previously reported as missing in action, but they had concluded he died Feb. 18.
“It’s always been a hope that they would find something more, but they weren’t ever able to get any more information,” Olsen said.
Being in close touch with her brother’s daughter, Olsen said she shares many memories with her niece so she can know more about her father.
“That has been my lifeline, I would say,” she said.
Thirty years ago, Olsen said she was then able to understand the pain of losing a son, similar to the grief her parents experienced when she comforted them after the loss of her brother. Her son, Paul Cousineau, had also served in the Navy, but as a payroll clerk.
As Olsen held a photo of her brother in his Navy uniform and a binder containing more photos and telegrams, she spoke of the other families having lost loved ones reported as missing in action.
“For any (soldiers) that have been lost, they’re never forgotten,” Olsen said. “For the families, my heart goes out to them. We all carry the same thoughts and heart ache.”