WEBVTT

00:04.150 --> 00:06.261
The jet , the Jersey Jer honors Mayor

00:06.261 --> 00:08.359
General Donald Street . He was from

00:08.359 --> 00:10.303
Jersey joined the European theater

00:10.303 --> 00:12.415
operations . He went to his crew jeep

00:12.415 --> 00:14.637
and asked for a name for his plane . He

00:14.637 --> 00:16.637
wanted to have Jersey in it because

00:16.637 --> 00:18.803
he's from Jersey , and the cruise ship

00:18.803 --> 00:18.489
came back with a jersey jer .

00:19.430 --> 00:21.152
Essentially jerk , I think had

00:21.152 --> 00:23.374
different connotation then than it does

00:23.374 --> 00:25.597
now . Jerk meant only a jerk would take

00:25.597 --> 00:27.763
off in a single engine airplane and go

00:27.763 --> 00:29.819
fight the Germans over the Channel .

00:30.059 --> 00:32.337
When you look at the squadron flagship ,

00:32.337 --> 00:34.281
right , it's it's a symbol for the

00:34.281 --> 00:36.226
squatter , and it has the squatter

00:36.226 --> 00:38.226
commander's name on it . It has the

00:38.226 --> 00:40.559
crew chief and the assistant crew chief .

00:40.559 --> 00:42.726
It has the three names because of what

00:42.726 --> 00:44.559
it represents . It's unity , its

00:44.559 --> 00:46.670
strength , it's a symbol of pride and

00:46.670 --> 00:48.615
honor . The Jersey jerk was on all

00:48.615 --> 00:48.479
Donald Strait's planes , and he had

00:48.479 --> 00:50.590
eventually became the 118th commander

00:50.590 --> 00:52.812
when he was assigned to the 108 fighter

00:52.812 --> 00:55.035
interceptor wing at the time . Uh , and

00:55.035 --> 00:54.889
then eventually he became the commander

00:54.889 --> 00:57.056
of the New Jersey Air National Guard ,

00:57.056 --> 00:59.167
so he retired as a 2 star . World War

00:59.167 --> 01:01.167
II ace , I remember probably 13 . 5

01:01.167 --> 01:03.439
kills kills . It's a huge deal . He is

01:03.439 --> 01:05.550
integral to the history of the Jersey

01:05.550 --> 01:07.550
Guard and the 119 . That is the jet

01:07.550 --> 01:09.717
that represents the fighter squad . To

01:09.717 --> 01:11.717
say it's an honor would be a better

01:11.717 --> 01:13.939
statement for this , to see how far the

01:13.939 --> 01:16.106
squad has come in the last few years ,

01:16.106 --> 01:15.870
really just getting back to grassroots

01:15.870 --> 01:18.092
and forming that standalone identity is

01:18.092 --> 01:18.389
pretty awesome .