Local teacher, navy pilot flies F-18 Super Hornet
-By Leslie Jones
Paul Oyler and his family.
–As Lieutenant Commander Paul “CJ” Oyler stood proudly next to his F/A-18E Super Hornet, on display this weekend at the Paso Robles Airport / Estrella Warbirds Museum, he spoke fondly of growing up nearby. “It was such a thrill to taxi the jet past the same pavement where I used to ride my bike. Bringing a Super Hornet to this airport is a dream-come-true,” he said.
Oyler is a math teacher at Flamson Middle School, as well as a navy reserve pilot and instructor pilot at Naval Air Station Lemoore. He flew the F-18 Super Hornet from Lemoore to Paso Robles on Saturday. The fighter jet was on display the rest of the day at the museum.
After spending 11 years flying FA-18s in the Navy, Oyler returned home to Paso Robles to teach math at Flamson. Growing up a few miles from the Paso Robles Municipal Airport, his frequent visits as a child, an uncle – a Lockheed engineer – and the movie “Top Gun” all helped Oyler catch the flying bug early in life.
Attending the United States Naval Academy, he majored in economics and was commissioned in May 2002. Receiving orders to flight training at NAS Pensacola, Florida, he earned his Navy Wings of Gold in 2004 after advanced training at NAS Kingsville, Texas.
After learning to fly the FA-18 Hornet at NAS Lemoore, he soon transitioned to the Super Hornet and was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom aboard USS Harry S. Truman. He was deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan before leaving active duty a few years ago. He works as a Navy Reservist as an instructor pilot at Naval Air Station Lemoore (NAS) part-time during the school year and full-time during the summer.
“I hope that my students will come by to see and experience the airplanes and other exhibits. This is a unique opportunity for me to share my passion for Naval Aviation with them,” he said.
“The community owes it to itself to visit the Estrella Warbirds Museum. It is a world-class facility and home to some amazing pieces of our history. For me, sharing this F/A-18 with the public is a way to allow people to see Naval Aviation’s present alongside its past,” he said.
Held in conjunction with Desert Thunder XI “Mountain Mayhem” war game flying event, the museum brought more than twenty flying aircraft, including several legendary P-51 “Mustangs” to the skies and the Paso Robles Airport over the weekend. Watching them fly overhead and land nearby was quite an opportunity for the diverse crowd that gathered throughout the day.
The Estrella Warbirds Museum and Woodland Auto Display, dedicated to the restoration and preservation of wartime aircraft, automobiles and memorabilia, started out 25 years ago with merely a few items. The museum and auto display buildings offer everything from authentic wartime uniforms, an extensive library and impressive Pearl Harbor display to Packards and Fords from the early years. Today it prides itself in being one of the fastest growing nonprofit museums on the central coast.
View the video of the Super Hornet below, contributed by Hunter Olsen:
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