From the stands to the sky: Hill pilot’s Broncos story comes full circle

For a few seconds on Sept. 27, thousands of Denver Broncos fans stopped watching the field and looked toward the sky.

Among them were Capt. Jacob Harrold’s wife, Hannah, two young daughters and members of their extended family.

They knew one of the pilots overhead.

Harrold, a pilot with the 419th Fighter Wing, Air Force Reserve, at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, was part of a four-ship F-35 formation that flew over the stadium before the Broncos faced the Los Angeles Rams.

The mission brought together several threads of Harrold’s life: growing up with an Air Force fighter pilot for a father, pursuing the same dream himself, attending college in Colorado and marrying into a family whose Sundays often revolved around Broncos football.

Years ago, Harrold was the boy looking up.

On Sunday, he was in the cockpit.

“I grew up watching the flyovers and always hoped to be in that position, but never thought it would actually happen,” Harrold said before the mission. “It’s kind of surreal.”

Following a path into the cockpit Harrold’s path to the cockpit began with his father, an Air Force F-16 pilot.

“Aviation has always been a central part of Jake’s life,” Hannah said. “When we met in college, his goal was to be a fighter pilot.”

She has since watched that goal become a career.

“It’s been so fun to be along for the ride and watch him achieve each of the goals he’s set for himself,” she said.

The Sept. 27 mission gave Hannah and their daughters a rare opportunity to see that career from a different perspective – among 76,333 fans at Empower Field at Mile High.

For their family, the setting carried significance of its own. Where two family traditions meet Hannah grew up in Colorado, where Bronco’s football became a fixture of family life.

“I grew up watching the Broncos every Sunday, asking for tickets for my birthday and getting jerseys for Christmas,” she said. “Broncos games have always been something that brought my family together. My mom makes great food, we all sit in the living room, we overreact to play calls, and a ton of great memories have been shaped around the games.”

Harrold developed his own Colorado ties while attending Colorado State University, and the Broncos eventually became part of the traditions he and Hannah shared with their children.

Their oldest daughter attended one of her first Broncos games when she was only months old, bundled in a swaddle and wearing hearing protection inside the stadium.

This time, she returned with her younger sister to watch their dad.

“The girls knew that Jake would be flying ‘his airplane,’ as they call it, over the Broncos game,” Hannah said before the mission. “They’ve been practicing cheering for him all week.”

When the F-35s passed overhead, the girls knew exactly where to look.

“Watching them look up and cheer for their dad was probably my favorite part,” Hannah said. “They’re still young, so they don’t understand everything that goes into what he does, but they knew their dad was in one of those airplanes. Seeing how excited and proud they were made the moment even more special.”

For Hannah, having Harrold overhead turned a longstanding Broncos tradition into something unique for the family.

“This flyover is so fun because it’s kind of like the two sides of our lives coming together,” she said. “My family has enjoyed going to a lot of Broncos games together, but it was extra special for all of us to see Jake do this.”

The occasion even prompted some good-natured ribbing at home.

“My wife has decided this is going to be the pinnacle of my career,” Harrold said, laughing, “pretty early on in my career.”

Precision over Denver The mission carried another Colorado connection for Maj. Conner Deebel, a 419th Fighter Wing pilot and 2013 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy.

“I haven’t been back to the Denver area much since graduating from the Academy,” Deebel said. “Colorado holds a special place for my family, so getting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fly over a Broncos game with family in attendance was incredible.”

Deebel flew the No. 3 position off Harrold’s left side, maintaining formation while also backing him up on timing.

“We had to hit the stadium precisely as the singer finished the national anthem,” Deebel said.

The brief appearance above the stadium required considerably more work than spectators could see. The crew coordinated takeoff times, aircraft positioning, holding locations, Denver-area airspace and air traffic control requirements to put four F-35s over the stadium at the designated second.

That precision reflects skills the pilots routinely practice for missions far removed from a football stadium.

One team from Hill The formation also showcased a partnership central to F-35 operations at Hill.

Air Force Reserve pilots from the 419th Fighter Wing flew alongside active-duty pilots from the 388th Fighter Wing. Both wings are based at Hill, where their Airmen train and operate together as part of an integrated Total Force team.

Capt. Thomas Saitta, a 388th Fighter Wing pilot who participated in the flyover, said that partnership extends from daily operations at Hill to missions like the one over Denver.

“When we step to the jet, it doesn’t matter whether the patch says 388th or 419th, we’re there to execute the mission together,” Saitta said. “Flying over Denver was a unique opportunity to show the public what that partnership looks like. Four jets flew over the stadium, but what people were really seeing was one team from Hill.”

For Harrold, the mission also returned him to familiar ground.

The F-35s staged from Buckley Space Force Base, where he once served as a crew chief before becoming a pilot. This time, instead of preparing aircraft from the ground, he departed Buckley in the cockpit of one.

The crew even carried a small nod to the team waiting at their destination, wearing Broncos morale shirts beneath their flight suits.

Looking up For all the planning and precision behind the mission, Hannah’s lasting memory was watching the F-35s approach with their daughters beside her. “They’re probably too young to understand how much work it took for Jake to get here,” Hannah said, “But I hope someday they look back on this and understand what it meant to see their dad doing something he worked so hard to achieve.”

Years ago, Harrold was the child looking up.

On Sept. 27, his daughters were.

This time, their dad was overhead.

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.