Window to the World, calling for Wind of Wisdom, as common sense is a gift to each soul, as common environment is the inseparable planet, as common desire is to live in a better world.
75th anniversary air shows from Blue Angels, world’s 2nd oldest formal aerobatic team founded in 1946 after World War II. What characters!
First Blue Angels pilots. From left to right: Lieutenant Al Taddeo, Solo; Lieutenant (junior grade) Gale Stouse, Spare; Lieutenant Commander R.M. Voris, Leader; Lieutenant Maurice Wickendoll, Right Wing; Lieutenant Mel Cassidy, Left Wing.
April 28, 2020: elite flight demonstration squadrons, the Navy’s Blue Angels and the Air Force’s Thunderbirds, gave a salute to health care workers and others on the front lines in the fight against coronavirus
(quote)
The U.S. Navy Blue Angels are celebrating their 75th anniversary this year (2021). For only the second time in U.S. history, the three North American jet teams — the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, and the Canadian Forces Snowbirds — will perform together at one airshow. The Thunderbirds had been scheduled to appear in another airshow that was canceled, so they were added to the lineup this week.
The Blue Angels is a flight demonstration squadron of the United States Navy.
Formed in 1946, the unit is the second oldest formal aerobatic team (under the same name) in the world, after the French Patrouille de France formed in 1931. The team, composed of five Navy and one Marine Corps demonstration pilot, fly Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets.
Rear Admiral Ralph Davison personally selected Lieutenant Commander Roy Marlin “Butch” Voris, a World War II fighter ace, to assemble and train a flight demonstration team, naming him Officer-in-Charge and Flight Leader. Voris selected three fellow instructors to join him (Lt. Maurice “Wick” Wickendoll, Lt. Mel Cassidy, and Lt. Cmdr. Lloyd Barnard, veterans of the War in the Pacific), and they spent countless hours developing the show. The group perfected its initial maneuvers in secret over the Florida Everglades so that, in Voris’ words, “if anything happened, just the alligators would know”. The first four pilots and those after them, were and are some of the best and most experienced aviators in the Navy.
