Blue Angels Are Back on the Road

The Blue Angels are flying again this weekend as the team tries to recover from the loss of one of their members:

SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. — After 21 years as a U.S. Navy pilot, his career boasting nearly 900 aircraft carrier landings and air combat during the first Gulf War, tragedy comes as no surprise to Cmdr. Kevin Mannix.

That includes last month's fatal crash of a fellow Blue Angels pilot during a show in South Carolina.

But for Blue Angels pilots, whose demeanor is a key part of the job, the tragedy offers another opportunity to perform the mission they were first given six decades ago: promote the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marines Corps to the world.

"Our ability to bounce back and do our mission is the same as every other squadron in the U.S. Navy or U.S. Marine Corps," said Mannix, minutes after practicing Thursday at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, where the team on Saturday was to perform its first show since the crash April 21.

"The only difference is there's a lot more visibility on us because we are in the public eye," he said. "That's our job and that's what we do. I think a lot more media was focused our way on this specific mishap."...

The Blue Angels typically fly their F/A-18A Hornets six days a week, but they stayed on the ground for nine days after the crash, canceling scheduled performances May 5 and May 6 at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

Saturday's show was to feature only five jets. Lt. Cmdr. Craig Olson, 37, of Kirkland, Wash., replaced Davis a couple of weeks ago. Olson, who flew with the Blue Angels from 2003-2005, will practice with the team for a few more weeks before flying in a show, Mannix said.

In 2004 the team lost a member due to a medical condition and replaced him with a former member, just as they are doing now. The skills required to fly the Angels' show pretty much require them to bring in someone who has done it before if they have to make a change mid-season.

In 1979 the team lost a member in a crash at Miramar Air Station in San Diego during their arrival maneuvers and flew a 5-plane show that same weekend (I lived right next to the base at the time). I'm not sure how they could concentrate on what they were doing, but somehow they pulled it off.

They're great ambassadors for the Navy and Marine Corp, and it's good to see them back in action.