The news media swarmed around Maj. Jason Curtis of Kalispell Thursday afternoon for a chance to interview him while other members of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds took a back seat to the “hometown hero.”

That’s as it should be, said Maj. Blaine Jones, the Thunderbirds No. 5 lead solo pilot.

“It’s rare you get an opportunity to come to your hometown, so when it happens, it’s really special,” Jones said. “This is such a great opportunity for him.”

Events such as the Mountain Madness Air Show this weekend at Glacier Park International Airport aren’t staged in most of the elite pilots’ hometowns, he said. Many of the pilots are from small towns across the United States.

Jones, 40, is also from a small town — Kingman, Kansas — but he was fortunate that the Thunderbirds performed in 2012 at McConnell Air Force Base in nearby Wichita.

“To be able to come home and have everyone there that you know is wonderful,” he said.

Like most of the Thunderbird pilots, Jones was awestruck when he saw them perform for the first time. It was life-changing.

He was in the baking business, running a Wonder Bread plant in Kansas City.

“I’d done very well and was feeling good about my life,” he said.

“One day I was up on the roof,” he recalled. “It was a few miles from the airport, and when I watched them [the Thunderbirds] it was like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

He wasted no time in signing up for flight school and had his first flight lesson on Sept. 8, 2001. 

Three days later, on Sept. 11, the U.S. was forever changed by the terrorist attacks that would be seared into the psyche of every American.

Jones remembers thinking of all the great things he’d accomplished, “that didn’t account for anything. It was all for myself,” he said.

“For the first time I realized it all could be taken away from us” in a flash, he said.

He was 27 and quit his bakery job. The following year he entered the Air Force after completing officer training school. He’s in his third season with the Thunderbirds.

Jones has served in active duty in many places overseas, including Asia, the Middle East and the United Arab Emirates.

These days, Jones aims to be an inspiration to others, like the Thunderbird pilots that soared above him so many years ago.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.