Wiregrass natives making dramatic entrance at Peanut Festival

As boys growing up in the Wiregrass, Jason and Paul weren’t much different from their school mates, in that each fall, they counted the days until the National Peanut Festival.

“It was the highlight. I always looked forward to the Peanut Festival,” Columbia native Jason Alderson said. “There were always all these pretty girls there.”

Alderson – that’s U.S. Marine Capt. Jason Alderson – hasn’t been to the annual festival since Garth Brooks performed here in 1990. Paul Blair – that’s fellow Marine Major Paul Blair – recalls his last stroll down the midway was in 1996. Blair is a Dothan High School graduate.

Both men, F/A-18 Hornet pilots stationed at Marine Corps Air State, Beaufort, S.C., will return to the fair in a big way this weekend, flying into the Dothan Regional Airport around 1 p.m. on Friday. Their jets will be on display at Airspeed Aviation and the two plan to attend the festival that night.

The big show will occur the next morning at 9:30 as the pilots fly over the National Peanut Festival Parade at about 480 knots – about eight miles a minute.

“The major and I are pretty excited,” said Alderson, who helped put the fly-over together. “The Marine Corps does not send Hornets to a lot of activities. We want it to be high-visibility things which is why we usually fly over national football games or racetracks.”

Alderson really wanted this public display of patriotism for his home town.

“He came upon the idea and he followed it to fruition,” Blair said. “I am ecstatic. If you had told me when I was 10 years old that I would be flying an F/A-18 down Main Street in Dothan, I would have said you are smoking crack. But what are the odds two dudes from the Dothan area would be in the same squadron?”

The F/A-18 has been in service to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps since the early ‘80s, flying missions in Libya, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The single-seat jets are arguably the most versatile military aircraft in the world and among the most challenging.

Alderson, who attended the U.S. Naval Academy and transitioned to the Marine Corps in 2005, said F/A-18 pilots are multi-skilled as one man completes a mission that might require intercepts, firing, and landing on a boat.

Both men said they expect to visit with family, friends and former school teachers during their weekend visit. They will fly back to South Carolina immediately after the fly-over. The Marine Corps Ball is Saturday night.

“Our coming there is a big thank-you to the community,” Alderson said.

Blair said he plans to head “straight to the elephant ears” at the festival.

“Growing up there, when the carnival comes and it’s Peanut Festival time – that is a big deal,” Blair said. “I remember this ride that went upside down. I remember the corn dogs and the elephant ears. I remember trying to win stuffed animals there every year.”

Blair and Alderson, a graduate of Houston County High School, will deploy to Iraq in 2009.