Bigda will get a chance to fly aboard an F-16 Falcon fighter jet with the U.S. Air Force’s aerial demonstration team, the Thunderbirds, as part of the Westfield International Air Show.
Mark Bigda, an Easthampton resident who practices in Southampton, examines a child in Haiti during one of his volunteer medical trips. The doctor is being rewarded by the Air National Guard’s 104th Fighter Wing with a ride in an F-16 Falcon fighter jet during the Air Force Thunderbirds show next weekend at the Westfield International Air Show.EASTHAMPTON – When he was a boy of 5 or 6, or even 7 – he doesn’t remember exactly when – Mark A. Bigda sat inside his Chicopee home and listened to the B-52 Stratofortress bombers fly by en route to and from Westover Air Reserve Base.
“They would come screaming over, shaking the house, knocking things off the shelves – so unbelievably loud, and it was awe-inspiring,” he recalls.
Bigda, a physician who lives in Easthampton and practices in Southampton, never forgot those days of thunder.
And, now, what was once a childhood dream will become a reality when Bigda flies aboard an F-16 Falcon fighter jet with the U.S. Air Force’s aerial demonstration team, the Thunderbirds, as part of the Westfield International Air Show.
“Finding out was surreal,” said Bigda. “I was speechless. I have no idea what this is going to be like. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
The 49-year-old Bigda was selected by the Air National Guard’s 104th Fighter Wing as a “Hometown Hero.” He was among 67 nominees who were considered by a selection committee for the honor to fly in the back seat of one of the Air Force jets that will perform at the air show on Aug. 21 and 22 at Barnes Municipal Airport.
Bigda was selected because of his work to help people across Western Massachusetts and around the world.
“I was inspired by the quality of the nominations,” said Col. Robert T. Brooks Jr., 104th commander. “I learned about some ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I wish we could recognize them all.”
Bigda has volunteered for the past seven years with the Health Care Project at the College Church in Northampton, providing free medical care to homeless and uninsured people.
“It completes me,” he said. “Without doing that, I don’t know if I would feel like a complete doctor. This is why I entered medicine.”
Bigda has also traveled to Haiti several times a year since 2004, before the devastation left by this year’s earthquake. Without any pomp, ceremony or compensation, he has been visiting the most remote, poorest sections of the island nation, delivering health care to people in need.
“These people have no money; they’re the poorest of the poor in the world,” Bigda said. “They’d never see a doctor, ever, if we didn’t go down there.”
Bigda was nominated for the Air Guard’s Hometown Hero recognition by his wife, Jean A. Bigda.
“We started with nothing as a family, and he’s always made us feel safe, and now he’s making other people feel safe,” she said. “He’s giving them the same feeling our family has.”
Mark Bigda had no idea his wife of 27 years had nominated him. He found out one day when they watched a plane fly by, and he said how great it would be to be up there – and she said, “You may get your wish.”
Mark and Jean Bigda, of Easthampton, are seen here during a recent humanitarian trip to Haiti.“I want him to know how much we as a family appreciate what he does,” she said. “I’m really proud of what he’s achieved.”
Saying he doesn’t deserve the recognition, the doctor displays the same humility most heroes show when the community salutes them.
“There’s plenty of people who help,” he said.
The shock of knowing he’ll ride with the Thunderbirds has worn off, and the suspense is setting in.
But, Bigda says he wouldn’t trade his place in the cockpit for anything. And when he roars overhead, he’ll be taking in the sights as well as the satisfaction of knowing he’s his wife’s hero.
“She’s my hero, and, maybe, I’m her hero. We always do good things for each other,” he said. “For her to think of me like that is awesome. It makes me feel great.”
Bigda has been recognized as the Clinician of the Year by the Massachusetts Medical Society and as a Rotary Club Paul Harris Fellow for his humanitarian actions.
The committee also selected two additional “heroes” who will be the air show’s special guests for the event. They are Anna Saldo-Burke, of Williamstown, a school teacher in North Adams, and Larry Ross, of Canaan, Maine.
Saldo-Burke has been the organizer of an Operation Troop Support effort to provide holiday cheer to overseas military members.
Ross, who is also a school teacher, is the founder of the Lindberg Crate Day, which celebrates the accomplishments of aviator Charles Lindberg and all military veterans. It draws its name from Lindberg’s Spirit of St. Louis having been crated up and sent back to the U.S. through a New Hampshire shipyard in 1927. In 1990, Ross transformed the crate into a museum that celebrates the advancements in aviation.