EVERETT — Three U.S. Navy personnel with local ties will take to the skies over Seattle on Sunday when the Seahawks take on the Green Bay Packers for a trip to the Super Bowl.
Several aircraft based at Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island will buzz CenturyLink Field before the game to decide the NFC championship.
Everett-resident Petty Officer Melissa Dixon will be on a helicopter from NAS Whidbey Island Search and Rescue (SAR). She joined the Navy after graduating from Mountlake Terrace High School in 2001. She was deployed four times to Iraq. Since joining the SAR unit, she has flown on 16 rescue missions and six medical evacuations, helping save 18 lives, according to a Navy news release.
Dixon, who serves as a crew member, flew SAR missions after the Oso mudslide. Her unit rescued seven people from the slide’s debris field, according to the Navy.
She is passionate about physical fitness, and was part of a team from CrossFit Marysville in Marysville that took third place in the 2014 CrossFit Games.
Lt. Cole Heller will be flying one of the helicopters on Sunday. Heller was raised in Oak Harbor, graduated from Washington State University in 2007 and became a naval aviator in 2010. Since joining the SAR unit, he has flown six rescue missions and five medical evacuations, and is credited with helping to save 13 lives.
He and his wife live in Oak Harbor.
Woodinville-native Commander Eric Illston will be piloting a Boeing EA-18G Growlers, an electronic warfare airplane. He graduated from University of Puget Sound in 1992, received an officer’s commission in 1996 and following flight training, became a naval aviator in 1999.
He has served overseas supporting combat operations in the Iraq and Afghanistan.
He currently is assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron 130, the Zappers at NAS Whidbey Island. He lives with his wife and their two children in Anacortes.
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