PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and the U.S. Navy Blue Angels are meeting for a rare joint training session in the Florida Panhandle.
The Pensacola News Journal (https://goo.gl/aF40r5 ) reports that the Thunderbirds landed Monday at “The Cradle of Naval Aviation.” The eight Air Force F-16 pilots and more than 50 other officers and support staff from the Nevada-based Thunderbirds will join the six F/A-18 Blue Angels pilots and support staff at Naval Air Station Pensacola through Wednesday.
The U.S. military’s two elite fighter-jet demonstration teams are seldom in the same place. Department of Defense guidelines say the teams must perform at the different air shows to cover as much recruiting territory as possible.
The two teams haven’t been in Pensacola together for more than 15 years.
Zookeeper recovering from burns, saved rhino from wildfire
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida zookeeper is recovering from burns he received while saving a rhinoceros from a wildfire that threatened his animal sanctuary.
Local media organizations report NGALA Wildlife Preserve President and CEO Donovan Smith remained at Tampa General Hospital on Tuesday after sustaining second-degree burns over 18 percent of his body last week.
The fire began to close in Friday on the wildlife refuge in Naples, southwest Florida, burning about 7,000 acres (2,800 hectares). Smith posted on Facebook that staff members saved all of the more than 40 animals there.
He says he was working with fire rescue crews to save Walter, an 8-year-old rhino, at the time he was burned. But he said in his post Saturday on Facebook that it was worth enduring the pain to protect the animals.
Man charged in shooting of semi-trailer driver on I-88
WHEATON, Ill. (AP) — A suburban Chicago man has been charged in the fatal shooting last week of a semi-trailer truck driver on Interstate-88 near Oak Brook.
Illinois State Police announced Tuesday that road rage was behind shooting of 43-year-old Eduardo Munoz of Sunshine, Florida by 34-year-old Anthony Tillmon of Lansing.
State police in a statement said an investigation found no apparent ties between the men.
Munoz was driving east on Interstate 88 on Friday when a shot was fired at the truck from another vehicle, striking him. He was able to pull off the highway onto the shoulder. The Oak Brook Fire Department took Munoz to Elmhurst Hospital where he later died.
Tillmon is being held at DuPage County jail. It wasn’t immediately known if he has legal representation.