Dublin native visits home on final flight
Two Apache helicopters touched down at Dublin Municipal Airport on July 8, marking the final flight and a homecoming for 1997 Dublin High School graduate Justin Huckabee.
“It’s a tradition to do a final flight right before retirement,” the US Army Major said. “I’ve been at Fort Hood since 2018, and Dublin is well within the flight zone.”
The Dublin native thought a return to the place where he was born and raised would be fitting, especially since he could be greeted by his parents, Nancy and Jimmy, as well as “see some friends that don’t get to see what I do.”
“I wish I could’ve told everybody,” Huckabee said of the flight, admitting that many friends on social media had remarked that they wished they knew he was flying into town.
Among those who came to see him at the Dublin Airport was the Lewis family from DeLeon, the daughter and son-in-law to the Hunters, who were like family to Justin growing up.
Huckabee remembers he and his best friend, John David Hunter, being taken to watch F4 Phantoms at Cargill, inspiring a love for flight at a young age.
“I always said I’d fly anything,” Huckabee remembered.
The love never faded and he began writing to Air Force recruiters in the third or fourth grade.
He went into the Air Force after graduating from Dublin High School in 1997 and returned to Erath to attend Tarleton. He returned to military service in 2006, when he enlisted in the Army.
This career would see two deployments in Iraq in 2008 and 2011 under Operation New Dawn, a rotation in Korea and time as an aviation instructor in Saudi Arabia.
Huckabee started flying the Bell OH-58D, a helicopter Huckabee describes as close to WWII designs and “nimble and quick.”
He transitioned to flying Apache aircraft in 2014.
It was this vehicle in which Huckabee touched down at Dublin to greet family and friends.
Dublin Airport Manager Brad Stanford described the event as a “banner day” for the airport and said he had promised that the first military aircraft to land since he started volunteering in 2017 would get a box of Dublin Bottling Works soda.
Huckabee loaded the drinks onto his helicopter and handed them out to his fellow enlisted at Fort Hood when he returned. He was also greeted at Fort Hood by his sister, Jennifer; his wife, Ashley; and their children, Jaci and Josh.
Huckabee’s official retirement is June 30, 2022 and he will be transitioning to leave in February, but this marked his last time in the air as a US Army Major.
Huckabee doesn’t know what the next chapter holds, saying he might look into flying AirEvac or just ‘settle into business.’ Whatever the case, he was able to fulfill a childhood dream of seeing the world from up above.
Huckabee wanted to add the following: “I, of course, want to thank my mom and dad, Jimmy and Nancy Huckabee as well as my wife and kids for their support and sacrifice over the years. I would also like to say a special thanks to Jon and Lois Henson, Larry and Debbie Tunnell, and Dale and Sammie Hunter. They were basically extra parents to me growing up and their support and encouragement over the years are equally important and influential to my success.”