ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Major Matthew Blue was understandably hesitant.
Blue, of the United States Airforce, had already seized his “once in a lifetime” opportunity to perform a military flyover, in all its majestic, fan-favorite glory, at a Buffalo Bills home game. And it had come on the most ideal day — at the Bills’ “Salute to Service” game against the Chicago Bears on Nov. 4, 2018.
For Blue, it was a perfect moment, the one instance in which being a Western New York native, proud service member — from a service family — and lifelong Bills fan came together in an almost-poetic fashion. He fretted that doing it again might lessen some of the significance from his one flawless Sunday.
But then he considered the magnitude of this moment. And when the Bills asked him about again doing the flyover for this Sunday’s anticipated season-opener against the Steelers, his decision came easy.
“To get offered the home-opener in the 2021 season with hype surrounding the Bills; the first time the fans are in the stands (in two years) …” said Blue, born and raised in Portville. “Not only is it the home-opener, but it’s opening week. It’s just the whole thing is way too big for me not to have been absolutely ecstatic to accept.
“They love the idea of a hometown kid getting to do the flyover and I love the idea of being able to represent Western New York and the Bills Mafia in any capacity that I possibly can.”
BLUE LOVES the idea of being the key element to this crescendo, those few seconds at the end of the national anthem when Buffalo’s rabid fanbase — undoubtedly ready to burst at the seams — will turn its eyes to the sky and see his C130 J-model flying overhead. Even more so that it will come in the first fully-packed Highmark Stadium since 2019 and in a year with Super Bowl-or-bust expectations.
But those are only footnote-level factors to what this day promises to encompass for the 2006 Portville Central School graduate.
Because the many degrees to this story run so much deeper.
IN AN amazing stroke of luck, this is the same weekend that his father, Senior Master Sergeant (SMSgt) Lesley, is finishing a 31-year career in the US Air Force, which will honor the elder Blue with a retirement ceremony at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve, just 30 miles from Highmark Stadium, on Saturday night.
It’s a massive game for Buffalo that will come just one day after the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. And it happens to fall within Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, a period for which Blue now has one particular name in mind: fellow Portville native Colt Matz, who was diagnosed with leukemia in the spring.
On Saturday, Blue will fly a C130J from Little Rock Air Force in Arkansas, through the Olean-Portville area (where he plans to do a bit of a scenic flyover during the afternoon), to Buffalo, where he’ll reunite with family in Niagara Falls and prepare for his next “once in a lifetime” moment.
And when he does those things, he’ll be thinking about more than just a football game.
“That’s a hell of a coincidence, right,” he said, when asked about his father’s retirement dinner. “Fate, divine intervention, whatever you subscribe to there. It is incredible. But there are … there are so many facets to this weekend.
“Dad’s last weekend of service, for me to kind of send his military career off into the wild blue yonder with hopefully a perfect flyover. We always talk about how big this Buffalo Bills season is, every year, but this one actually is. And with (it being) Childhood Cancer Awareness month, it’s just a really big weekend.”
BLUE graduated from the United States Air Force Academy and has served multiple tours in Afghanistan. Currently, he’s based at the 62nd Airlift Squadron in Little Rock, essentially “the schoolhouse” for the C130Js, where he helps train those who will eventually fly that aircraft in the military.
“Anyone who’s ever flown the C130 graduates through us,” he said. “That’s our bread and butter.”
Before that, however, Blue was a hometown kid, where he played baseball and football and wrestled at Portville. Mike Matz was his baseball coach (a position he still holds) and Christina Matz was his gym teacher.
Given that connection, Blue has always had Colt in mind. Earlier this summer, he sent the younger Matz a postcard of himself standing in front of his plane, flew a “Colt 45” banner during a flight and wrote Colt, who just celebrated his 11th birthday, a letter. For his flyover, however, he has something bigger in mind.
“I was thinking outside the box and got approval,” he said. “What we’re going to do Sunday, the airplane that goes over the top of the stadium will carry the ‘Colt 4-5’ call sign as it takes off out of Buffalo. That will be the official call sign for that flyover: ‘Colt 4-5.’”
FOR BLUE, being the one guy to rocket over 71,000 raucous fans will be fun. And as part of that fun comes this question: How do they time those flyovers so perfectly with the last few words of the anthem?
“I know, it seems like wizardry,” he said with a laugh.
Much of it has to do with Blue’s military training. He prides himself on being precise, a component that is “paramount to us completing a successful mission.” It’s second nature, something he works on every day.
At its most complicated, it involves complex math. At its simplest, he’s aided by on-board GPS. But mostly, it’s merely a matter of lining up with that particular anthem singer’s average length of song.
“The Bills organization is incredibly professional and they care about these things,” he said, “so they’ve got all this stuff worked out. So, much like they’re working with us about, ‘Hey, you need to be over at the stadium at time x,’ they’ll also work with the singer (about starting at a certain time).
“It all kind of predicates on the singer starting on time. So if they do, then in theory, you already know that at time y, you need to be at the stadium. So they’ll give me a time to be overhead and they’ll give it to be the exact second.”
More than fun, however, it will be meaningful.
