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Bortnem relieved of command at MCAS Beaufort
Luke Wilkins, 7, plays with his toy jet while waiting for his father, USMC Maj. Brandon Wilkins, to take to the skies as Blue Angel No. 3 on Saturday, April 12, 2025, during the Beaufort Air Show at the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort. Maj. Wilkins is a Beaufort native and lives here with his family. By Delayna Earley/The Island News
A flight home like no other
Beaufort native performs with Blue Angels in MCAS Beaufort Airshow By Delayna Earley The Island News The 2025 Beaufort Airshow flew by in a weekend full of airplanes doing daring aerobatic stunts, beautiful spring weather, static military and civilian displays, exotic cars and of course a flight demonstration from U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels. Around 70,000 people descended on the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort (MCAS Beaufort) over the two-day free air show. So many, in fact, that the Air Station reached capacity well before the Blue Angels demonstration began on Saturday, April 12. While the Beaufort Airshow, which happens every two years, is always a popular event, this year there was a factor that added to the draw for those local to Beaufort, as one of the Blue Angels is a Beaufort native. USMC Maj. Brandon Wilkins, who flies Blue Angel No. 3 F/A18, was born and raised in Beau-
USMC Maj. Brandon Wilkins, a native of Beaufort and Blue Angel No. 3, addresses members of the media on Thursday, April 10, 2025, during Media Day in advance of the upcoming MCAS Beaufort Air Show. Amber Hewitt/The Island News
By Mike McCombs The Island News Col. Mark D. Bortnem was relieved of his command of Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort on Tuesday morning, April 15, 2025, due to a “loss of trust and confidence” in his ability to command. Bortnem had been the Commanding Officer of MCAS Beaufort for nearly two years since he took command from Col. Karl Arbogast on July 14, 2023. 1st Lt. Lyndsay Col. Mark Cribb, Director of D. Bortnem Communications and Strategy (COMMSTRAT) at MCAS Beaufort, initially confirmed Bortnem had been relieved of his command Tuesday morning, but couldn’t comment further. Nat Fahy, Director of COMMSTRAT for Marine Corps Installations East (MCIE) at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune provided The Island News with a statement Tuesday afternoon. “Brig. Gen. Ralph J. Rizzo, Jr., commanding general, Marine Corps Installations East-Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, has relieved Col. Mark D. Bortnem of
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The Blue Angels perform a during the 2025 Beaufort Air Show on Saturday, April 12, 2025, at the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort. By Delayna Earley/ The Island News fort and currently lives here with his family. “It’s surreal to be able to land here, where I grew up, where I flew as a junior officer and be able to fly for the community,” Wilkins said. “I honestly don’t know that I have the right words, it’s just super special to me and I am very thankful for the opportunity.” Wilkins said that his favorite part of the show is seeing the crowd and going to the crowd line to meet those who have come out to see the Blue Angels. “I was that kid, a million years ago, at this air station,” Wilkins said. “It is very special to me.” Wilkins joined the Blue Angels in September 2024 and has accumulated more than 2,300 flight hours and has 331 carrier arrested landings. According to his biography on the Blue Angels website, he has earned three Strike Flight Air Medals, the Navy and Marine Commendation Medal, three Navy and Marine Corps Achieve-
ment Medals among various personal and unit awards. Wikins said that he was excited to perform in Beaufort also because not only did he grow up here, but he has lived here as an adult as well. “I’m pretty sure the entire flight line is someone that either I or my wife knows,” Wilkins joked. The son of a retired USMC Lt. Col., Wilkins was born at Naval Hospital Beaufort and lived the first 10 years of his life in the Lowcountry before he moved away with his family. He attended Thomas Heyward Academy when he lived here, and he returned to South Carolina when he attended The Citadel. The next airshow will take place in 2027. Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
Pine Island developers publish ‘Downzoning Plan’ By Delayna Earley The Island News Pine Island developers have recently reintroduced plans to develop Pine Island to County Council members through a series of committee meetings. The plan, which is called The Pine Island Downzoning Plan and can be found at pineislandplan. com, outlines the plans that Pine Island Property Holdings, LLC hopes to get approved in spite of St. Helena’s Cultural Protection Overlay (CPO) zoning. The CPO is a decades-old ordinance that was originally written in the late 1990s and was intended to uphold the wishes of the residents of St. Helena Island to keep their island mostly rural and to preserve the deeply rooted Gullah Geechee culture that exists there. In 2023, Beaufort County Council voted to strengthen the CPO through revisions that make it clear that there shall be no gated
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