The Air Force Thunderbirds arrived at McChord Air Force Base today and will fly a private show beginning around 2 p.m. Friday for about 1,200 special-needs children and their families.

Then on Saturday and Sunday they’ll be the headliners of 14 flying acts at the McChord Air Expo, the first time it's been held since 2005.

Planners won’t publish a precise schedule, but the flying will generally begin between 10:30 and 11 a.m., and wrap up with the Thunderbirds performances that will start at about 3 p.m.

“Planes break. Higher needs call them away. There’s all kinds of stuff,” said Maj. Doug Edwards, the Air Expo director.

“I don’t think we’ll post it by times, because the second we do, things will change.”

The show will end both days by 4:30 p.m., Edwards said.

On Saturday and Sunday, flying acts will take place in this order:

• C-17 air drop demonstration

• Air Force Academy “Wings of Blue” precision parachute team

• Jacquie B’s Pitts S-1T biplane

• Air Force Reserve jet car

• Bud Granley’s T-6 Texan

• B-2 Spirit bomber (Saturday only)

• F-15C Eagle tactical demonstration

• P-51 Mustang heritage flight

• Air Force Reserve jet car race

• C-17 tactical demonstration

• Bud and Ross Granley dueling YAKs

• F/A-18F Supe Hornet tactical demonstration

• Navy Tailhook legacy flight

• Tim Weber Geico Extra 300

• Pearl Harbor “Tora, Tora, Tora” reenactment

• Thunderbirds

Access to McChord will be open to the public on both days. Edwards said there’s plenty of parking but expect traffic to be jammed on Bridgeport Way Southwest leading into the base from Interstate 5.

Sound Transit Pierce Transit is operating free buses from the State Route 512 Park-and-Ride lot and from Lakewood Town Center.

Visitors will go through one of two security checkpoints to get into the show area. Bags are subject to search.

“The rule of thumb is if you can’t get on an airplane with it, you can’t get on the flightline with it,” Edwards said. “Security is not going to let you do so.”

A few other notable restrictions: No bikes, skateboards or rollerblades. No pets. No coolers, weapons, glass bottles, alcohol, backpacks or bags.

If you're out and about the general area of McChord Air Force Base in, say, an hour or so – and the flippin' overcast burns off – you should keep an eye out for at least half-a-dozen inbound F-16s.

Don't know whether they'll be doing any kind of fancy flyin' on their way in. Otherwise, the Thunderbirds will be doing an invitation-only show 2 p.m. Friday for special needs kids, and then the two big shows 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Air Expo.

A Special Forces soldier and father of five from Fort Lewis was killed Tuesday in a vehicle accident in Mosul, the U.S. military announced today.

Staff Sgt. David W. Textor, 27, was in Iraq as a weapons sergeant with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group.

Three other soldiers were injured in the accident, according to Lt. Gen. Robert Wagner, commanding general of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, speaking Wednesday at the 1st Special Forces Group headquarters at Fort Lewis.

There was no additional information Thursday about the accident, or the extent of the other soldiers’ injuries. A Special Operations Command spokesman said the accident was under investigation, and that the command doesn’t release information about wounded or injured soldiers.

Originally from Jamestown, N.Y., Textor lived in Olympia with his wife Colette and their five children, the command said in a press release.

Textor deployed in May, his first deployment in the war on terror, the command press release said.

He is the fifth soldier from 1st Group to be killed in Iraq, and the 200th from Fort Lewis to be killed while deployed worldwide since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Textor played football, wrestled and ran track in high school and joined the Army in 2002. He was an infantryman with the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, before winning a spot in the Special Forces in November 2006.

In addition to his wife and children, he is survived by his parents and five sisters.