BRUNSWICK, Maine — A Marine who died four years ago is being remembered this weekend at the Great State of Maine Air Show, which is being held 10 years after the closing of the Brunswick Naval Air Station.
A Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey like the one Capt. Benjamin Cross was helping to fly during a training accident off the coast of Australia in 2017 will be on display at the show. Cross, 26, of Bethel, and two other Marines died.
The tilt-rotor aircraft can take off vertically like a helicopter and then fly like an airplane.
Airshow guests can walk inside the Osprey, view a memorial about Cross’ life and meet with Marines.
Marine Corps Capt. Virginia Cutler, an Osprey instructor pilot who was a member of Cross’ squadron, told the Sun Journal that Cross had a “constant thirst for adventure.”
“He was always up for something exciting and was willing to do basically anything that would be a great story. He had told me once that he wanted to be a writer kind of later in his life and he felt like the stage he was in now was all about collecting amazing, crazy stories.”
The air show is being held for the first time in five years. It was originally scheduled for August 2020.
The show featured vintage airplanes, modern jets, aerial acrobatics and the Navy’s Blue Angels flight demonstration team.
Because of the pandemic, the number of tickets was limited to 10,000, a fraction of tickets sold in the past.
Air shows have been a tradition for nearly six decades in Brunswick. The first air show featuring the Blue Angels coincided with a visit to Maine by President John F. Kennedy in 1962.
Brunswick Naval Air Station lowered its flag for the final time on May 31, 2011, but the Great State of Maine Air Show has continued under the former base’s civilian leadership.
The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, which is tasked with bringing business to the facility, was capping Saturday’s festivities with a 10-year anniversary party featuring food trucks and a band.