Fans Blue with No Blue Angels
I’ll never forget that night, standing on a condo balcony on the beach in Pensacola, Florida seeing the fiery glow of jet engines piercing the inky black sky. I was visiting my parents who had come down for a few weeks that winter. The Blue Angels were coming home from California. I went out on the balcony to keep watch for them, scanning the dusky sky for any sign. The night fell and grew darker, and suddenly I could feel more than hear them coming. The vibration of the balcony told me they had arrived. The sound of waves was drowned by the steady ear-splitting roar as the first jet flew seemingly only feet above. One by one, perfectly timed the Angels were home!
I grew up loving the airshows every late summer at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, watching the Snowbirds and other Military aircraft displays. From the time I was a little girl and still now, I love our military jets, still I run outside every time I hear one coming so I can watch “our guys” fly by.
People of all ages have loved to watch our Angels in Blue flying for over 60 years. Millions from all over the world have grown up going to airshows year after year and never tire of seeing them. Sadly however, this season, the skies over America will be empty of our Blue Angels and Air force jets. The U.S. Air Force plans to ground about a third of its active-duty planes and the U.S. Navy cancelled the rest of the Blue Angels’ team’s season because of automatic federal budget cuts.
Once again, the Obama administration is playing politics, blaming cuts on the sequester. Yet with all of these cuts which only seem to effect things that Americans have enjoyed doing and seeing, especially in these past few years of uncertainty, the Obamas seem to be weathering the cuts just fine. Beginning their year in Hawaii, they have enjoyed separate vacations during the President’s Day weekend, with Michelle and the girls skiing in Aspen, while Obama played some more golf in Florida with Tiger Woods. The daughters also enjoyed a spring break in the Bahamas. Then there are the endless parties and concerts at the White House. People are missing their Blue Angels as Obama sings along to “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” with Justin Timberlake.
Maybe Obama will think about the loss of yet another beloved American past time at his next big bash but I doubt it. Or maybe yet, he’ll sing a resounding version of Roy Orbison’s “Blue Angel”.
