Jurupa Veterans Day event returns after 2-year break

After a two-year hiatus, Flabob Airport’s “Veterans Day Celebration” will return Saturday, featuring skydivers, airplane rides, military equipment displays and other action.

The daylong event is expected to draw 2,000 to 3,000 spectators.

Event planners pulled the plug on Veterans Day festivities scheduled in 2020 because of the COVID public health lockdowns. The 2021 show was all set, and notices were sent out months in advance, but in September of that year, as COVID cases spiked again, airport supervisors decided to cancel the show.

Parachutists loaded onto a DC-3 are slated to make a drop over the airfield to start things off for this year’s event, after which there will be an Honor Guard ceremony with the UC Riverside Bagpipers and the Arlington High School J-ROTC squad.

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

Cowboy re-enactors will give the tarmac an Old West flavor, and the on-site gym, Skyraider Crossfit, will be hosting a competition in its leased hangar that includes weightlifting and rope-climbing.

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

Food booths and a “kids zone,” where Star Wars figures and dinosaurs will be on display, is slated to be part of the goings-on, according to airport officials.

Festivities will wrap up about 4 p.m.

More information is available at flabobairport.org/veterans-celebration-parade-festival.