APR 16, 11:31 AM

That Noise You Heard Overhead Was Part Of A Planned Memorial Ceremony

Margaret Barthel https://twitter.com/margaretbarthel

You may have looked up at the sky a few minutes ago and thought: Okay, that one wasn’t a helicopter.

And you were right. The loud sound heard overhead around D.C. shortly after 11 a.m. was a flyover from some fighter jets, part of the dedication of the new National World War I Memorial in D.C.

TOMORROW, Fri. April 16, 10am EDT / 7am PDT TUNE IN: https://t.co/2SGwNUk1gw for historic FLYOVER by 94th Fighter Squadron as they salute all who served in #WW1 & new National #WWI Memorial DC. AKA 94th Aero Squadron, was most victorious air warfare unit of #WWI. pic.twitter.com/O2BRSCXGMy

— WW1 Centennial – Doughboy Foundation (@WW1CC) April 15, 2021

The jets were part of a live broadcast ceremony meant to commemorate the sacrifices of the “4.7 million Americans [who] sent their sons and daughters off to fight a war that would change the world,” according to a press release from the World War I Centennial Commission. Besides the flyover, officials also unveiled an American flag first flown in D.C. on April 6, 2017, the centennial of the United States’ entrance into World War I. Since then, the flag has been on tour, flying over American battlefield cemeteries in Europe. It will now be a permanent fixture at the World War I memorial on the National Mall.

The flyover was close to the White House, where the daily press briefing was, for once, drowned out.

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