Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Yorktown Day to Feature French Air and Space Force Flyover

U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors and French Air and Space Force Rafales perform a flyover at a Battle of Yorktown Victory Monument wreath-laying ceremony in 2021. (U.S. Air Force photo by SSgt. Don Hudson)

YORKTOWN — On Oct. 19, the French Air and Space Force’s Lafayette Squadron (Escadron de Chasse 2/4 La Fayette) will perform a flyover of Yorktown’s historic Main Street in honor of Yorktown Day, commemorating the Siege of Yorktown in 1781.

The American Friends of Lafayette, a society dedicated to the memory of the general and the official hosts of this year’s celebration, helped to facilitate the flyover. The organization was started in 1932 at Lafayette College by Lafayette Alumni and boasts 1,500 members across the country.

“One of the most important things we’re trying to teach people is the Frano-American alliance. Without France, we never would have won the Revolutionary War. As a matter of fact, there were more French military personnel at Yorktown than there were American military personnel,” said American Friends of Lafayette Executive Director, Chuck Schwam.

“We thought it was very appropriate to have the French military involved in our very important Yorktown Day commemorations,” Schwam continued. “Not only did the British surrender on Oct. 19, 1781, but Lafayette also went exactly there on Oct. 19, 1824, and [American Friends of Lafayette] will be there Oct. 19, 2024, 200 years later. So we thought a military presence by the French would be appropriate. They loved the idea and they are providing us with this flyover.”

Schwam says the organization aims to teach three things:

  • That history is important — drawing parallels between the presidential elections of 1824 and today’s presidential elections
  • The Frano-American alliance
  • How Lafayette worked as a human rights activist

“[Lafayette] was an abolitionist, a feminist, he was a friend of the Native Americans, he was an environmentalist. This was a man that really believed all people were created equal and this is something that we really want to accentuate as we travel around the country and talk about this great man,” Schwam said about the group’s namesake.

The flyover will begin at 10:30 a.m. down Main Street in Yorktown preceding the Yorktown Day parade, then make a circle and fly over Redoubts nine and ten before flying up the York River. Schwam estimates about 300 members of American Friends of Lafayette will be in attendance for the celebration.

For more information about Yorktown Day’s itinerary or American Friends of Lafayette, please visit the official website.

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