PJC Student To Soar With Blue Angels
Pensacola Junior College journalism student Danica Spears, 19, has been selected to fly as a passenger/VIP with the U.S. Navy Blue Angels for the July 10 media rides at Forrest Sherman Field aboard Pensacola Naval Air Station.
She gets to soar in the F/A-18 Hornet – a high performance, ejection seat equipped strike/fighter aircraft. The flight may sustain high G-forces and high speed aerobatic maneuvering.
The media adventure is part of the pre- 2008 Pensacola Beach Air Show scheduled for noon July 12.
“I’m ecstatic…this will be my first time flying in any aircraft,” Spears says. “It will be better than any roller coaster I’ll ever ride on.”
PJC Student Publications Manager Christina Drain says: “We submitted the paperwork not really expecting to be selected. It’s really a great opportunity for Navy recruitment as well as an honor for a budding college photojournalist to be chosen.”
A motion media producer with Navy Recruiting Command has been assigned to produce a mini documentary of Spears’ VIP ride with the Blue Angels. The PJC Journalism department plans to host a campus presentation about Spears’ experience for the PJC and greater Pensacola communities.
Spears is a talented PJC journalism student who has already gained significant experience covering the NASA Atlantis space shuttle flight, with full NASA press credentials at Cape Canaveral. She interviewed and photographed the Atlantis crew and pilot – PJC alumnus Navy Capt. Alan Poindexter – and met Poindexter during his June 18-19 visit to PJC.
For more information, contact Drain at 712-8923, cdrain@pjc.edu