INDUSTRY NEWS
GAMA announces World War II commemoration sponsors
The Arsenal of Democracy Flyover will take place on Victory in Europe (VE) Day—Friday, May 8, 2020—commemorating the seventy-fifth anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.
The Bob Hope Legacy, supported by the Bob and Delores Hope Foundation, will be the presenting sponsor, announced Pete Bunce, Arsenal of Democracy Flyover committee member and General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) president and CEO. The $1 million grant will support the activities taking place between May and September 2020. In addition, Bob and Elizabeth Dole were announced as honorary co-chairs of the commemoration.
“On behalf of my colleagues, working to double the size of the highly successful gala and flyover we coordinated in 2015, we couldn’t be more grateful and enthusiastic to have an incredible organization like the Bob and Delores Hope Foundation and extraordinary patriots like Bob and Elizabeth Dole to help lead our mission to honor our nation’s greatest generation, the sacrifices of our allies, and to remember the Holocaust,” said Bunce.
As part of a five-day slate of educational and commemorative activities in and around the nation’s capital, the flyover will coincide with a ceremony for veterans at the World War II Memorial. The flyover will consist of more than 100 vintage warbirds of various types flying over the National Mall in 24 separate, historically sequenced formations. The formations will represent World War II’s major battles, from the Battle of Britain through the final air assault on Japan, and will conclude with a missing-man formation.
The Battleship Missouri Memorial and Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum will commemorate the anniversary in the Pacific with another five-day schedule beginning August 29 and commencing in a special ceremony September 2, 2020.
