I have had the honour to witness four of these repatriation ceremonies at Bonriki. Each one has been an experience I will always remember. This one was timed for dawn and the timing could not have been better: an exceptional "pink" dawn sky as a backdrop and the light sensitive blue apron lights extinguished individually as the Marines carrying the coffin passed each one. The rays of the sun came through the clouds as the bugler played the Last Post (Taps, as the Marines call it).
The C17 departure was, in its own way, spectacular. The apron is really only suitable for two narrow body single aisle jets so with an A320 overnight on Wednesday the C17 had to reverse almost the full length of the apron and then do a 90 reverse onto the runway before taxiing forward to line up for a 27 departure. Unfortunately the video, even in three parts, is too large a file size to post or email so I'll attach a still shot of one of the earlier departures: July 2017 .
The first operational use of our solar powered WIFI controlled runway lighting.
MJG.