Bourne Native Participates In Navy Flyover At Fenway
Kyle Songer made sure he and his family arrived early to Fenway Park on Tuesday afternoon, August 9.
They were there to see the Red Sox face off against the Atlanta Braves, but it was also a special occasion: Mr. Songer’s son, US Navy Lieutenant Bobby Songer, would be doing a flyover of the park in his F/A-18 Super Hornet as the grand finale to the game’s opening ceremonies.
“It was pretty cool,” said Mr. Songer, who lives in Monument Beach. He doesn’t see his son often because he now lives out of state, but having him home for a visit was great, Mr. Songer said.
“Especially like that,” he added. “It was just so cool.”
After Chief of Naval Operations Mike Gilday administered an oath of enlistment to a group of future Navy sailors during a pregame ceremony, two jets from the Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA-106) out of Oceana, Virginia, flew over the park. One of the jets was flown by Lt. Songer, a Bourne native.
After the flyover the jets flew to Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford and received a police escort back to Fenway, where Lt. Songer got to watch the Sox game with his family.
“The flyover was awesome,” Lt. Songer said. “Being able to do that, having my family there to see it and then being able to walk up and see them after was a really neat experience as well.”
Mr. Songer made sure to tell all the people sitting around them in the bleachers that it was his son flying the jet, he said.
“We told all the people around us what was happening, but we had no idea my son was going to come up and sit with us,” he said. “He had patches in one of the pockets on his flight suit, and these little kids would want to come up and take a picture with the pilot, he would hand them a patch and take a picture with them. Pretty good stuff.”
As a member of VFA-106, Lt. Songer said he is part of the training squadron and is an instructor in charge of teaching and mentoring the newer generation of pilots coming through. He has been in the Navy for nearly 10 years, a journey that has brought him from Massachusetts to Virginia to California and beyond.
“I’ve done a flyover once before for the Alabama football game, which was pretty cool, but I’ve never done it for a professional sporting event,” he said. “Being from Massachusetts, it was cool to do it for the hometown team in Boston. It was neat.”