Princesspilot206
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- Oct 18, 2023
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Princesspilot
If you all have not heard the news, Julie Vessigault has been missing since January 25, 2024 from California. She has ties to CA, UT, GA, and FL that I am aware of. If you come across her in your everyday life, or more likely at an airshow this year, please contact authorities. Many people inside and outside of the aviation community miss and love her.
This is her story:
April 2013 World Airshow News -
"One of the privileges of being an airshow journeyman is meeting and working with people who share the aviation passion. Each weekend, we travel to a new town, enjoy making new friends, renew contact with the old ones and often work with some exceptional people.
Such a person is Julie Vessigault. Many of you know Julie as the self-proclaimed “Roving Airshow Support Volunteer,” follow her exploits on Facebook, and appreciate her willingness to tackle any job at the airshow, but do you know her back story? Being a curious journalist, teller of tall tales and all-around nosey person, I sat with Julie at the Columbus, Vidalia and Monroe events to learn more about Julie, the person.
Our ubiquitous airshow volunteer was born in California to parents she describes as “developmentally challenged.” Unable to care for their new baby girl, Julie quickly became a ward of the state and entered the foster child not-so-merry merry-go-round. Julie attended and graduated high school in Morgan, Utah, but living in a home with six children, she missed many opportunities to expand her horizons.
Aging out of the foster care program, Julie was turned out into a big world to find her way. She started college at Weber State. That path was derailed by a poor marriage choice to a young man with Asperger’s syndrome, a pregnancy, and a divorce. Now homeless and with an unsupportive, hostile extended family, Julie was forced to give custody of her daughter to ex-in-laws.
Homeless in Salt Lake City, she moved to Orlando, Florida, where Julie discovered the Sun-n-Fun Fly-In and Airshow in 2007. At 30, Julie found her calling: volunteering at aviation events.
For the past six years, Julie has crisscrossed the USA, living in her car, sleeping in hangers, and sometimes the guest of pilots met along the way. Traveling between airshows, she supports herself by washing airplanes at airports along the way. When she arrives at the next airshow, she seeks opportunities to assist the show and its performers, demonstrating a tireless work ethic that I find amazing.
She can be found stringing wire for the sound guy, wiping oil from the belly of a warbird or bussing tables at the performer’s party. Julie is constantly on the move, doing whatever is necessary. Her energy can be disconcerting with a compulsion to be constantly busy. Julie Vessigault is the ultimate airshow grunt. She never asks for money (although she appreciates whatever is offered); she is satisfied with a thank you or even a smile from people she considers her heroes.
That feeling seems to be mutual within the performer community. Julie was involved in an accident at the Sun-n-Fun Splash-in. She and her cell phone took an unexpected bath in Lake Agnes, Julie survived with minor injuries, but the cell phone did not. Several airshow performers, including members and friends of the Aeroshell team, gathered the cash necessary to buy her a new phone to continue to communicate and post additional stories on Facebook and eloquently blog about her travels around the country."
This is her story:
April 2013 World Airshow News -
"One of the privileges of being an airshow journeyman is meeting and working with people who share the aviation passion. Each weekend, we travel to a new town, enjoy making new friends, renew contact with the old ones and often work with some exceptional people.
Such a person is Julie Vessigault. Many of you know Julie as the self-proclaimed “Roving Airshow Support Volunteer,” follow her exploits on Facebook, and appreciate her willingness to tackle any job at the airshow, but do you know her back story? Being a curious journalist, teller of tall tales and all-around nosey person, I sat with Julie at the Columbus, Vidalia and Monroe events to learn more about Julie, the person.
Our ubiquitous airshow volunteer was born in California to parents she describes as “developmentally challenged.” Unable to care for their new baby girl, Julie quickly became a ward of the state and entered the foster child not-so-merry merry-go-round. Julie attended and graduated high school in Morgan, Utah, but living in a home with six children, she missed many opportunities to expand her horizons.
Aging out of the foster care program, Julie was turned out into a big world to find her way. She started college at Weber State. That path was derailed by a poor marriage choice to a young man with Asperger’s syndrome, a pregnancy, and a divorce. Now homeless and with an unsupportive, hostile extended family, Julie was forced to give custody of her daughter to ex-in-laws.
Homeless in Salt Lake City, she moved to Orlando, Florida, where Julie discovered the Sun-n-Fun Fly-In and Airshow in 2007. At 30, Julie found her calling: volunteering at aviation events.
For the past six years, Julie has crisscrossed the USA, living in her car, sleeping in hangers, and sometimes the guest of pilots met along the way. Traveling between airshows, she supports herself by washing airplanes at airports along the way. When she arrives at the next airshow, she seeks opportunities to assist the show and its performers, demonstrating a tireless work ethic that I find amazing.
She can be found stringing wire for the sound guy, wiping oil from the belly of a warbird or bussing tables at the performer’s party. Julie is constantly on the move, doing whatever is necessary. Her energy can be disconcerting with a compulsion to be constantly busy. Julie Vessigault is the ultimate airshow grunt. She never asks for money (although she appreciates whatever is offered); she is satisfied with a thank you or even a smile from people she considers her heroes.
That feeling seems to be mutual within the performer community. Julie was involved in an accident at the Sun-n-Fun Splash-in. She and her cell phone took an unexpected bath in Lake Agnes, Julie survived with minor injuries, but the cell phone did not. Several airshow performers, including members and friends of the Aeroshell team, gathered the cash necessary to buy her a new phone to continue to communicate and post additional stories on Facebook and eloquently blog about her travels around the country."
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