The Blue Angels

[timboucher]

I have been talking with a local paper here in Seattle about putting together an article on the Blue Angels, who recently terrorized the skies here for a week in "celebration" of summer. <br><br>My basic angle is that the group is designed to acclimate people to the militarization of America, and that if we lived in another country, we wouldn't be celebrating American military jets flying over our airspace.<br><br>Does anybody have any good stories (from the news or personally) about the Blue Angels that they think might make this article even more fun than it's already going to be? Most of the information about them online is - surprise - rather positive... <p></p><i></i>

[Et in Arcadia ego]

When I was a kid I got an autograph from one of the Blue Angels pilots. I can't remember his name, but his nickname was 'scar'. He was killed in a collission with at least one other plane during a show. Fortunately it wasn't a show I was attending or I would have had my heart broken as at the time, the guy was a hero of mine(I was very young).. <p>____________________<br>Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night.</p><i></i>

[Et in Arcadia ego]

Don't know if this was the actual crash I mentioned, but it's the only thing I came across on a quick google:<br><br><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.sreedhara.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/mphotos/mill23.JPG" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><br>edit - Got it:<br><br>On occasion, however, something goes wrong, and a fortnight ago it did. In Niagara Falls, Lieut. Commander Robert Michael Gershon, 32, was piloting his Skyhawk through a stunt called the opposing blivot, in which two planes approach head on, then, as they come within 200 ft. of each other, go into steep climbs. At the peak of the stunt, the pilots pull out of a 6,000-ft.-high loop, point their planes downward and crisscross paths at a 45° angle. It was during that precisely timed climax that Gershon's plane and another A-4 collided. The pilot of the other plane ejected and parachuted to safety, but Gershon's plane went into a dive that ended in a fiery crash.<br><br>http://time-proxy.yaga.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1048404,00.html<br>I had that guy's autograph on a Blue Angels program flyer. <p>____________________<br>Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night.</p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=etinarcadiaego@rigorousintuition>et in Arcadia ego</A>  <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://www.sickle666.com/images/Arcadia.jpg" BORDER=0> at: 8/16/06 9:28 pm<br></i>

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

Angels don't fly fighters or bombers. Period.<br><br>Fekkin' advertising for kiddies. And it works. <p></p><i></i>

[juno jones]

Oh touched a nerve there. I used to live in Springfield, Il not far from the airport there which plays host to an obnoxious group of Nat'l Guardsmen. I had small ones at the time, and it would never fail, get the little sprogs down for a nap and the damn air guard would start practicing right over the house. Hundreds of square miles of cornfields and they had to practice over our neighborhoods. They'd come in low. Too low. The houses would shake, the noise was deafening, I was always waiting for one of those incidents like in FL when one of those suckers plowed into someone's house. $2000 dollars a pop to get one hour of airtime to terrorize the springpatch...<br>Funny, they turned out to be the same guard unit that killed all those Canadians in Afghanistan. Didn't surprise me one bit...assholes. <p></p><i></i>

[5E6A]

I was traveling, once, from San-Diego eastward one late summer afternoon in a vehicle not imbued with climate control; hence the all windows down mode. My fuddness, also, eschews velocities above 100 km/h. All at once, my faculties registered impending doom. Nothing about my vigilant checking of roadway or all of the rear view mirrors supported the sense, but almost instantaneously I was aware of a fast moving object almost parallel horizontally off my right field of view that came to dominate my eyes then ears. <br><br>Unbeknownst to me, one F-18 was tracking the east bound I-8 at less than 50 feet off the ground and less than 300 feet away from the breakdown lane. As he over took me, he banked hard left, crossed all four lanes of interstate basically with wings perpendicular to the ground, completed a 180 turn and headed of west. For the next five minutes or so the rest of the squadron did other foolhardy moves over traffic. I was ok, but other cars did have a distinct swerve reaction to first realising that an aircraft was in such close unannounced proximity. I later learned they often use the airspace along I-8 to 'practice'. I prefer to call it 'terrorise'... <p></p><i></i>

[Comfortably Numb]

When I was a young kid, seeing the Blue Angels perform at local airshows was always a big highlight of my summer. It's sad to realize how much of it, combined with my uncle being involved in Desert Storm and my conservative upbringing, contributed to a buildup of subtle nationalism.<br><br>Just like it's much easier for a child to learn a language, irrational nationalism and militarism bears more fruit when the seeds are planted early. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=comfortablynumb@rigorousintuition>Comfortably Numb</A> at: 8/16/06 10:52 pm<br></i>

[bvonahsen]

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>My basic angle is that the group is designed to acclimate people to the militarization of America, and that if we lived in another country, we wouldn't be celebrating American military jets flying over our airspace.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Nawww, it's just PR and I think the millitary has a right to promote itsself. Just no propaganda, yeah, there is a difference.<br><br>Nothing wrong with feeling pride in one's millitary... if.... and it's a mighty big if... they weren't actively subverting our countries' principles and working to stuff the bank accounts of the millitary/industrial complex. I could believe in and support a military that was actually there to serve and protect.<br><br>Of course, you can't have top guns doing stunts in populated areas, that's just stupid. <p></p><i></i>

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Just like it's much easier for a child to learn a language, irrational nationalism and militarism bears more fruit when the seeds are planted early.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Cogently put, Comfortably Numb. The ooh-aah factor as psy-ops.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>"...the bombs bursting in air and the rockets red glare..."</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>That's the national anthem sung by kiddies in public schools and at all those sports events which are really mock warfare representing the mythical American level-playing field where the best man wins by playing by the rules.<br><br>It should be illegal to lie to children. It certainly is immoral. <p></p><i></i>

[thrulookingglass]

The aircraft pictured above is a MiG-29 at the Paris Air Show. There have been several crashes of the Fulcrum during its demonstration flights. The pilots who collided in the picture above were able to eject and survived the crash (Russian ejection seats have a reputation for being some of the best around). The blue angles do fly a fighter/bomber aircraft, currently the Boeing (formerly a McDonnell Douglas)F/A-18, "F" designation for fighter "A" for attack aircraft. Most modernized airforces have demonstration teams that fly at different events worldwide. Many probably remember the Italian Frecce Tricolori horrendous crash at the Ramstein Airshow in Germany. Canada, France, GB, USA, Russia and a few others have air demonstration teams.<br> On the parahistory side of things, what an incredible waste of fuel, resources and training to make the audience go "ooooh, aaahh". What could impress a child more than the roar of an modern fighter streaking by at near mach speeds?!The crash at Ramstein had many debating the need for such demonstrations especially within close proximity to the crowd.<br>Your defense dollars at work! Indoctrination indeed! <p></p><i></i>

[johnny nemo]

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>It should be illegal to lie to children. It certainly is immoral.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <br><br>Damn straight.<br><br>Why do we lie to them about even simple things like mathematical problems?<br><br>Remember when you were in 1st or 2nd grade and you did a math problem like 3-2=1, but 2-3= "can't be done"?<br>Then when you got to 3rd or 4th grade, you learned about negative numbers and that 2-3 = -1 .<br><br>Why not simply tell them the truth and then say that "we'll get into negative numbers later" or something, instead of telling them a lie?<br><br>Why do we continue to teach kids that Columbus discovered America, and celebrate him as a hero on Columbus Day, only to admit later on that he enslaved Natives and helped pave the way for the genocide of the Native Americans?<br><br>I will never understand why the hell we tell kids that there's an Easter Bunny, Santa Claus & Tooth Fairy, and make up elaborate lies about them, only to devastate them with the truth later. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=johnnynemo>johnny nemo</A> at: 8/17/06 1:17 pm<br></i>

[Seamus OBlimey]

<!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r9juAkXM5E">Red Arrows</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> <p></p><i></i>

[yathrib]

Not directly related to the Blue Angels, but still about military pageantry... In my area there's an annual event called the "Spirit of America." Basically, it is rather impressive drilling mixed with a heavy dose of pro-war, pro-military recruiting propagand. Very popular with scouting groups, conservative churches, etc. I refuse to attend it because I refuse to buy that militarism is the Spirit of America. I refer to it as the "Spirit of Prussia." <p></p><i></i>

[Joe Hillshoist]

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>I will never understand why the hell we tell kids that there's an Easter Bunny, Santa Claus & Tooth Fairy, and make up elaborate lies about them, only to devastate them with the truth later.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Because, as Terry pratchet said, its important to get kids believing in those lies when they are young so that when they grow up they will believe in such lies as honour, decency, justice, freedom and the like. Unfortunately these days they believe in other lies like the economy, national interest, democracy and feedom OUR way (or else) and the like. <p></p><i></i>

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

Good citation, Joe.<br><br>Terry Pratchett's many books are <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>the only fiction I've read in the last ten years.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>His understanding of human nature struggling for decency in the web of control mechanisms as Python-esque fantasy farce is mighty satisfying. <br><br>Granny Weatherwax: "Sin is when you treat people like things." <p></p><i></i>