No Blue Angels This Year Folks...

D'oh! Apparently a press release from the Blue Angels just came out stating that the Tues and Wed performances for the Naval Academy have been cancelled due to a problem with their show this past weekend in Lynchburg. This has forced them to stand down until they sort things out. It's still in question whether they will make the Friday flyover. Shoot! Guess we all have to go to school and work this week after all! Might I suggest an alternative?

Not quite the same, huh? Sorry gang. Hope they're safely back in the air soon.

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The Blue Angels - Navy, Blue and Flying!

It's Commissioning Week at the Naval Academy, a week that those of us in Cape St. Claire look forward to almost as much as the graduating class of midshipmen. For the graduating middies, it is the culmination of four years of a college education unlike any other in the country. Our new Navy officers will move on from the hard work of training and learning here at the Academy to the hard work of serving their country. We have shared our city, and even our Cape homes as sponsor families to some of these kids. They are the pride of Annapolis, and we like to send them off in style with a heartfelt congratulations.

As host city to this fine Academy and home to a significant population of USNA alum, Annapolis and the Cape are fortunate to enjoy a few perks of proximity. Each year as the third week of May rolls around, we are treated to the thrilling roar of F/A-18 Hornets buzzing through our skies. The Blue Angels precision flying team pays us a string of visits during Commissioning Week, first during a training run on Tuesday, then for the actual precision flying demonstration on Wednesday, and finally for the graduation ceremony flyby on Friday. It is a fitting tribute to the best and brightest that the Naval Academy has to offer who will take up the important work of defending our nation.

Next year's Class of 2012 will unfortunately be deprived of this tribute as a result of some poor planning on the part of the previous Academy Superintendent which I ranted about incoherently in a prior post:

Commissioning Week Without the Blue Angels?

It appears that other than the irreversible disappointment of missing them next year, sanity has prevailed, and the Blue Angels will return to our skies in 2013. All the more reason not to miss them this year, though. I know a lot of Capers and their hooky-playing kids would have been crushed to permanently lose the yearly Blue Angels show that we've come to know and celebrate. It's an integral part of the bond our community shares with the Naval Academy.

I always find the juxtaposition of 21st century technology skimming the tops of 18th century steeples and domes to be awe inspiring. Within one field of view, a glimpse of the continuum of our country's history from our past to our present.  How did we get from the Liberty Tree to supersonic jets?

The story of the Blue Angels dates back to the mid-1940s. Following WWII, the Navy was looking for a way to showcase their air capability by creating a flight exhibition team. They needed a name for this team of pilots in blue planes (not jets at that point but Grumman F8F-1 Bearcats which were state of the art for their time). The following is an excerpt from the book: Blue Angels: 50 years of precision flight by Nicholas Veronico and Marga R. Fritze:

How the Blues Got Their Name

Let's face it, "The Flight Exhibition Team" is not a very catchy name. To find a new name, the team ran a contest throughout the training command, and (Thea) Voris described how the winner was picked:

We were getting hundreds of names back, but not one grabbed us like we wanted to be grabbed. I got a call to go up to the staff, this time to meet with the chief of staff, Capt. Bill Gentner. He asked how the name contest was coming. I told him that we were just not finding anything right yet, but that I was sure we would get something soon. Gentner told me he had one for me to consider, the Navy's "Blue Lancers." Something rung a bell:  I remembered that his son had submitted this one. I said, "Yeah, it's got a ring to it, hasn't it, Captain." He asked me to give it serious thought, and I knew what he meant.

We were going to go to New York for a show, and Wickendoll, who was my No. 2 man, was looking through the New Yorker Magazine. We were sitting having a scotch in my room at the BOQ (bachelor officers quarters), and he said, "I've got it, Boss." I asked what he meant. He was looking at a column called Goings On About Town, and the nightclubs were all listed. The Blue Angel nightclub was a big thing in its day. I think it took up a whole block. Four orchestras, eight or nine bars - it was massive. I said, "Gee, that sounds great!  The Blue Angels. Navy, blue and flying!"

With the help of the press at a subsequent airshow in Omaha, the pilots pulled an end around on Capt. Gentner, and the team became known as the Blue Angels instead of the Blue Lancers. The rest, as they say, is history (OK, that doesn't take us all the way back to the 18th century. You're on your own for that research).

Enjoy the shows wherever you are over the next couple of days. If you're driving, please try to keep your eyes on the road or pull over if you just can't resist looking out the sunroof. I've been there and nearly driven off the Severn River Bridge at the excitement of being buzzed by the Blue Angels in formation. My kids tell me Magothy River Middle is planning "field days" this week in anticipation of mass absences. Most schools in the area don't force us to come up with lame lies like "dentist appointment" anymore. They just acknowledge that a significant number of kids will be absent and even provide instructions on how to minimize the disruption to the school day with early dismissals. If you can't beat them...

Here's the link to the schedule of events for this year's Commissioning Week. Weather permitting, I expect to be on the water to see the Blue Angels on Tuesday, but I'm not sure about Wednesday. What is your favorite place to watch the show? Let me know, and feel free to send me pictures or post them on the Cape Blogger Facebook page. Congratulations to the USNA Class of 2011!

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Commissioning Week Without the Blue Angels?

I just took a glance at HometownAnnapolis.com, and I was stunned by the headline that the Blue Angels will not be performing during Commissioning Week in 2012. WHAT!!!?? A heads up about this possibility was reported in Eye on Annapolis back in December, but I am just tuning into the fiasco. I guess this came about as fallout from a decision made last year by now-departed Naval Academy Superintendent Fowler to move the academy graduation back a week (this from the same guy who also last year banned the use of grease when the plebes compete to scale the Herndon Monument - what has taken as long as four hours of teamwork and persistence in the past took just over 2 minutes without grease - nice to see our warriors challenged, but I digress). The HometownAnnapolis article contained a lot of politician and administrator-speak about traffic and schedules, blah blah blah. I read it all with my mouth agape.

Blue Angels to miss Commissioning Week in 2012

Late May in Annapolis with no Blue Angels? Are you kidding? What next? Are they going to lop the acorn off the Statehouse? Sure it houses the original lightning rod built to Ben Franklin's specifications over 200 years ago to protect one of our young country's proud symbols of freedom and independence, but, you know, it can also be glaringly bright and potentially blinding on a sunny day and might serve better as an artificial oyster reef on the bottom of the Bay. Pave over Ego Alley? We could sure use the extra parking downtown for all that Market House business and traffic, and it's such a hassle to walk all the way around it. Abandon and gut the Market House, the heart of our city's shared history and traditions, and leave it for dead? Oh, right...

I have to confess, my first reaction to the story was disappointment for myself and my family and friends. We love going to see the Blue Angels every year and invite friends to enjoy the show with us. It's wrapped up in the excitement of the school year coming to a close and summer just around the corner. We've watched them fly from the Naval Academy grounds, from the WWII Memorial on Rt. 2, from the water on our boat, from my kids' preschool graduation ceremony at Anchors-A-Wee (the kids went crazy thinking the jets flying over in Delta formation were for them), from my house, from work, and serendipitously (and a bit precariously) while driving over the Severn River bridge on Rt. 50. Wherever you are in Annapolis during Commissioning Week, you feel the power and the pride of the Navy and the tribute they pay to their newest and richly deserving new officers and the city that embraces them.

And this brings me to my second and more important reaction that followed instantaneously on the heels of the first more selfish one. I really feel awful for the Naval Academy class of 2012 that is going to miss out on this highlight of their graduation week. They'll still get the flyby at graduation (I think), but they get that at most home football games in the fall. It just seems so unfitting that they and their families should be denied the power and impact of the full performance, especially if "traffic" is the underlying issue, as suggested in the article. I feel like somebody did not put up enough of a fuss or fight for our boys and girls in white. If traffic is really the concern, all the beachgoers can cool their jets on Rt. 50 and enjoy the show while the Midshipmen, at the most important milepost of their lives to date, watch their mentors light up some F/A-18 afterburners.

My bigger concern with the article is that it suggested that this could possibly be a permanent change. One year without the Blue Angels would be a shame for the Naval Academy graduating class of 2012 and their families, but putting a final end to a tradition so integral to this right of passage for our Midshipmen would be heartbreaking. Yes, those of us who live in Annapolis selfishly love seeing the Blue Angels fly each year, but more than that, we love being part of the celebration and sendoff for the Middies - having the opportunity to show our appreciation and affection for the shiny new officers who will go on to become military, government, private sector, and community leaders of our nation.

Ah well. Maybe someone can setup a monster screen during Commissioning Week on the shore of the Severn and play Top Gun for the Middies' viewing pleasure. Or maybe Dan Snyder can get Tom Cruise to put in a personal appearance ("I'm not a real Navy pilot, but I've played one in a movie..."). Danger zone, baby. Officer and a Gentleman, anyone? The uniform is right, and the Moms would enjoy it. No jets, though. Just a motorcycle and a great walk. Or perhaps they could get a Duck Boat from Baltimore to make a pass on the river. "I've got a need... a need for speed!" Quack...

Sorry, I'm punchy with disappointment and dating myself with my 80s references. Please, if anybody is listening, please fix this!!!

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