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My Blue(s) Heaven
People have as many “addictions” as there are people, I suppose. I hesitate to even use that word in view of the horrendous nightmares it has visited upon so many families, including, most definitely, ours. However, I guess if one is to have one of those, it might not be the worst outcome to be totally “addicted” to the finest aerobatics demonstration team ever assembled, The Blue Angels, who are based at Pensacola Naval Air Station, a short drive from our new home here in the Florida Panhandle.
As a result, I try to get out to the base every Tuesday or Wednesday for their practice sessions and I also try to be on the beach when they return home from one of their shows around the country to announce their return home on Sunday evenings with the tradition, well known in these parts, we call “The Beach Buzz!” Here’s a shot from their practice of this morning at the base which I offer as Exhibit A in support of the proposition that I am well and truly “hooked” on the Blues!
This is the Sound of Freedom and may it long resonate, no matter the current trends or grotesqueries.
God Bless America!
Published in General
30 years ago we owned a place that was under the approach path to Moffett Field in the South SF Bay. Meaning that when the Angels came to town, we could soak in our hot tub, drinks in hand, and enjoy the sights and sound of freedom on both practice and show days. And we’d get occasional aviation exotica like AN-124s overhead, presumably serving NASA and the aerospace companies that clustered there in those years.
Blue Angels are a choice.
Me too Jim. They come to SF every Oct. during fleet week. Scares the hell out of the dog but I love it. And when dumping my dad’s ashes in Pensacola Bay over 3 years ago recall their test flights. Appropriate since dad was a Marine WWII aviator and wanted to be with his flight school pals who did not survive flight school.
I’m an Air Force brat, but I love the Blue Angels! Always made a point to see them at SeaFair when I lived in the Seattle area. (SeaFair was cancelled for both 2020 and 2021 due to COVID hysteria. Wonder if TPTB will manage to hold it this year.). Now that I’m in AZ, I’m not sure when I’ll get to see them again. Got to figure that out……
I was also USAF (SAC) and my brother, RIP, who was career Air Force, used to get “outdone with me” and my devotion to the “other” team when I should have been giving all my allegiance to The Thunderbirds! Now, I’m a fairly regular visitor to the flight line on practice days and I have seen the Red, White and Blues Beach Show from the Pensacola Beach Fishing Pier every year (excepting, of course, the COVID years and Obama’s disgusting “Sequestration” year) about 19-20 times — actually, I have lost count! Sincerely, Jim
Ah the memories Jim! Totally agree. These guys are fun to watch from any angle and the Hornet, their current “ride” is a magnificent converter of jet fuel into noise and speed!
Here’s a great view from the cockpit!
And a ride-along from 2017. Don’t get dizzy! :-)
skip ahead to the 10:00 mark for the takeoff.
Can’t believe no one posted this one yet. I picked the older one with A-4s.
P.S. The only single engine jet ride I ever had was in a TA-4 as a midshipman. Lots of fun.
Did someone mention the Thunderbirds.
This will always be the Thunderbirds to me.
I was born at the Chanute Air Base hospital, in Rantoul, Il. My dad 23, my mom 17—she said she was in labor with me 52 hrs. Weighing 9#, 7 oz., that’s probably why a caesarean was performed. Unfortunately, we moved back to Kansas when I was 2, so I have no memory of planes or jets. But, I do love to see them soar! There is an antique plane fly-in tomorrow at Iola, but rain is forecast. We saw two of the planes practicing Wednesday evening about 20 south and east of Iola. Calm, clear—flying paired so close, an eagle couldn’t get between them (from our viewpoint), steep climbs, rolls, flying upside-down. They were red and silver—beautiful! Couldn’t break away long enough to find the binoculars . Nephew saw them on Thursday at the airport. Rumor has it the Topeka Air Museum is to fly half their flyable craft—wouldn’t that be sonething?
Oh, what you have is an ‘obsession’, not an ‘addiction’…..