Veterans Day Event At Flabob Airport Returns After Pandemic Shutdown

JURUPA VALLEY, CA —After canceling the event for the last two years because of coronavirus public health restrictions, Flabob Airport's "Veterans Day Celebration" will return this November, featuring skydivers, airplane rides, military equipment displays and other activities.

The daylong event will be held Nov. 12 with organizers expecting to draw 2,000 to 3,000 spectators.

Parachutists loaded onto a DC-3 are slated to make a drop over the airfield to start the celebration followed by an honor guard ceremony with the UC Riverside Bagpipers and Arlington High School J-ROTC squad.

Representatives from each service branch are expected to be in attendance, with tributes paid to veterans from all major overseas campaigns.

Cowboy re-enactors will put on an Old West gunfight on the tarmac. The airport's Skyraider Crossfit gym will be hosting a competition in its leased hangar that includes weightlifting and rope-climbing.

There will also be live music, military armaments, vintage automobiles, motorcycles and tractors on the airfield. Rides aboard several types of planes will be available for attendees interested in a bird's eye view of the Riverside metropolitan area.

The celebration will also include food booths and a "kids zone," where "Star Wars" figures and dinosaurs will be on display.

The event is set to conclude about 4 p.m.

Event planners canceled Veterans Day festivities scheduled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 public health restrictions. The 2021 show was all set, and notices were sent out months in advance, but last September, as COVID-19 cases spiked again, airport officials decided to cancel the show.

More information is available at www.flabobairport.org.