Chapter 24

The air show was announced, and all eyes turned toward the sky. Sarah, despite her reluctance to come, clapped and whistled along with the rest of the crowd. The planes took off from the base and flew overhead. For a moment, one seemed close enough to reach up and touch—then, ZOOM, it was gone. The different formations amazed Sarah. When two planes flew straight at each other and then turned on their sides to pass, narrowly missing the other flying by, she gasped.

AJ smiled. He had seen the show a couple times before and knew what she was experiencing. "Are you enjoying yourself, Sarah?" he grinned, watching her grip the blanket as the planes went by.

"How do they do that, AJ, without crashing into each other?" she gasped as another formation flew by.

"It's called precision flying, Darlin', and it takes a lot of practice with only the most skilled pilots," he grinned.

"You've seen them before," she accused.

"Guilty! But each time is like the first, and I love watching them," he laughed. The next formation required two planes-one flying right side up and under it another flying upside-down.

"WOW! Just think, if one pilot moved an inch, they both would crash," whispered Sarah.

"Yep, used to think I'd like to try it just once," said AJ as they flew by. "Not anymore. I learned my lesson after ejecting over George Washington National Forest."

"Yes, dear, but you were flying with Harm," laughed Sarah. "I've been there a time or two myself." They watched the formation of four planes coming in at four different directions. Just before they met, the pilots turned the planes straight up and climbed to 12,000 feet. Then, at the same time, they broke off, each going off in a different direction. They did the same formation with five planes, only the fifth plane rolled up and up as the four separated.

"AJ, this is terrific, thanks for bringing me," Sarah said, leaning over to kiss his cheek.

"Save your thanks for later, Sarah, they're not quite finished," beamed AJ. The next formation required all the pilots to fly their planes by stacked so close that one slight dip of a wing would have wiped out all the Navy's Blue Angels, plus several spectators on the ground.

A voice came over a speaker informed, "Ladies and gentlemen, did that look close to you? Yes? Well, the Angels were flying 36 inches apart, wing tip to wing tip!" The crowd whistled and applauded. "Next, please note our Angels, which are based right here at Pensacola, are about to honor our dead and missing pilots. Please join us at this time in recognizing all the struggles and trials our service men and women have suffered for each of us, over the years, for our freedom. Ladies and gentlemen, the missing man formation."

At that, the six planes were aligned to fly the missing man formation. All six, flying in a diamond, had almost reached the crowd when one split off from the group and flew skyward and away.

"Ladies and gentlemen, just a little about our Angels before we introduce them and send them home for supper. Our Blue Angels are the oldest Flight Team and were formed in l946. They fly only a MacDonald-Douglas F-Al8 Hornet. They each travel around 400 to 500 MPH, except for the solo's and they travel at about MACH .9. Each Angel is a volunteer and is hand picked by the team of Blue Angels-and the vote has to be unanimous. He has to have logged in around 2500 hours, which would be about 8 to l0 years flying time. Each Angel has been an instructor, training some of our finest pilots. Please put your hands together for these pilots. Thank you, everyone, and we hope you enjoyed our Blue Angels and will come back and see them again sometime."

"WOW! Spectacular, AJ-and one WAS a Marine!" Sarah elbowed him after the introductions where done to make her point.

"Yes, Sarah, they do let you guys off the ground every now and then," he grinned, rubbing his side. "I just happen to know Commander Woolridge, would you like a ride?"

"No, thanks-I'll stick with my Mercedes while we're here," she said, turning and walking away. AJ picked up the blanket and followed her.

To be continued….