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A little boy’s dream to become a golden star

  • Published
  • By Airman Ariel Owings
  • Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Public Affairs
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. --      The smells of festival food fill the air as he climbs over enormous static aircraft displays. Pausing in his exploration, Landon, a 4-year-old New Jersey boy, looks up and sees them; plummeting from the sky as trails of smoke follow behind them creating red-stained spirals in the midst of the clouds.
    They formed diamonds and stars in the sky with their free-falling bodies before breaking off from each other. Landon watched with wide eyes, the bright yellow parachutes explode out of their backs with a black “Go Army” flag flowing behind one of the tiny humans. He wondered who they were:
    They are the U.S. Army Golden Knights.
    Watching the Soldiers hit the ground, Molly Biggs, Landon’s mother, watched as her son developed a passion unlike any other: a newfound dream to become a professional parachute jumper on the Golden Knights team.
    “The first time I saw them, they did a lot of tricks and I liked it a lot,” said Landon.
    Coming from a military family, Biggs told Landon about her father serving in the Air Force, which kicked off his aspiration to become a pilot.
    With hearts full of patriotism and a military mindset, this young family of six have been traveling the Northeast, following the U.S. Strategic Army Corp Sport Parachute Team, the “Golden Knights,” to watch the intense, high-speed demonstrations they perform.
    By following the Soldiers around, Biggs wanted to show her three sons what their family has been a part of while serving in the military.
    With his new dream in mind, Landon was performing his own “demonstrations.” Using the edge of the couch as the ledge of the C-31A Troopships open door, he jumps, feeling the wind on his face. He hits his target perfectly -- landing on his living room floor.
    “We got home that night and Landon was jumping off of everything pretending he was with the [Golden Knights],” said Biggs. “He’s been obsessed ever since.”
    Landon’s fixation sky rocketed when he met the Golden Knights Team at the 2014 Millville, New Jersey air show just a couple of months later.
    He walked up to the signing booth star struck, hoping for their autographs.
    “I wanted to fly planes until I met the Golden Knights,” said Landon. “Now I want to jump and fall from the sky.”
    Biggs said after meeting the Golden Knights, Landon wanted to be one for the following Halloween. All she had that resembled a flight suit was black hoodie. She put an Army patch on it and called him a Golden Knight.
    After relentlessly searching, Biggs found a flight suit that looked just like the Golden Knights.
    Noticing 4-year-old Landon running around the Millville air show in his flight suit, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jennifer Espinosa, a Golden Knights team member, gave them an airborne patch to put on the tiny suit – his uniform was complete.
    Now having a suit that looks just like the ones the Golden Knights wear, Landon’s dreams have come one step closer to coming true.
    “He’s been a Golden Knight every Halloween since,” said Biggs.
    Now seven, Landon has passed his original flight suit on to his 4-year-old brother and has a new suit that matches. Now a two-man team, Landon and his brother play pretend, turning the heads of their audience across the flightline as they hit the target on their living room floor.