Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
The 2007 Blue Angels schedule is out. I won’t have to travel so far to see them…they are flying right across I94 at Willow Run (Ypsilanti, MI) on 7-8 JUL. Anyone know what historical significance Willow Run Airport holds?
Why the “Axel” call sign?
does he bray like a donkey?
Lex, if you’re still in contact with him, tell him thanks for the wonderful demos. I watched them at Andrews AFB and NAS Oceana this year. A good time was had by all.
Sah-weet!!!
Bullnav – where did you find the 2007 schedule? I checked their website and didn’t see it. Can you share…please?
Kris — story found here…
http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=26906
Lex, is the reason he owes you $ the reason San Diego is not on the list? Perhaps it’s the rain these past two years.
You will NEVER collect…
re: call sign
A really funny story about a sports writer for SI got a ride in a Hornet. A week later his pilot sent him a patch with call sign, “Two Bags”.
Cin – thank you for the link. Looks like I might get lucky with 2 shows nearby – RI and ME. Yeah!
UNKAWILL: AXEL FOLEY is the name of Eddie Murphy’s character in the Beverly Hills Cop movie (and I can’t remember the name of it right now UNLESS THAT IS the name).
That is my guess and I hope that’s why he got the call sign because it’s clever and sort of esoteric.
Phil Andrilla, if that’s the SI story I recall, it came out in 1999, and the pilot was named in the article, “Biff”, jerking a Tomcat around (flying is just too nice a word for it). CAPT Lex, too, knows the good Biff. As for “Two Bags,” let’s just say that Biff knows how to get it out of you. Back in the day, you could count on me hurling once every flight, a thoroughly useless passenger. One day Lex’s lovely wife (I can’t bear to call her the Hobbit) brought in red beans and rice for the ready room at lunch, very nice of her. Very tasty, too. Four hours later, I found myself in the backseat of a TA-4 driven by Biff, on a 1v1 hop versus a Hornet. Biff easily got four bags out of me: pulling Gs, going airliner, landing and roll-out, I spent most of that 1.1 developing my esophageal evacuation skills. Red beans and rice don’t digest that fast, I discovered. For three days afterwards, I couldn’t even drive I was so nauseous. So when someone sent me that article, I really, really felt for that sportswriter. And if I had the chance to do it again, I would, without hesitation.
Don’t know where Biff is now, but he was CO of the snakebitten VF-213, took them into combat in the first wave of OEF in Afghanistan, killed some guys who deserved to die and brought all his fighters home. Can’t see nothing but good in that.
Steve,
Ever hear of “Shrek”?
I was trying to be funny.
Apparently I failed miserably.
When given a “handle” or “call-sign”
tis best it not be related to pop culture,me thinks.
Boss Foley is a really cool guy. I met him a few times in passing. My it is a small Navy.
Off the top of my head (meaning I might be wrong), Willow Run was a Ford plant that was converted to Liberator production during WWII. There were some sort of problems either building or operating the plant (can’t remember), a not so nice alternate name became “Willit Run?”.
I cannot BELIEVE the Blues will not show up at Miramar during 2007, but El Centro is only an hour and bit to the east, and far less crowded. The one year we drove out we saw a gorgeous F-86 that happened to be owned by Michael Dorn (the Klingon Worf from Star Trek). He was very proud of that jet.
/BeachBum
I guess my attempt at sarcasm was a little over the op. Sorry Lex.
Nice Plane Pr0n, but ya calls that precision flying? They can’t get it together in numerical order.
Seriously, the pointy Blues make for a great show. Big Bird Fat Albert does a great job as well. Heard the last older Herc lost a huge chunk of wing during a recent show. Was it retired to the JAX museum? Neer Hercs with the big engines outperform the old Fat Albert with RATOs
I met him and drank Sake with him over here in Japan………
Too acute for the parade posit I was taught!
Hard to hold.
b2
Zane – yep, that’s the one. Thanks for refreshing my memory.
BeachBum got it right. Ford picked up B-24 Liberator production after Consolidated could not meet demand. At one point it was the longest production line in the world. The plant is currently a GM transmission plant (my loyalty lies with Ford).
There is also a cool organization out there, the Yankee Air Museum (http://yankeeairmuseum.org/index.php) currently in the process of rebuilding since their hangar burned in October 2004.
I notice that San Francisco Fleet Week is still on the Blue’s Schedule. I guess the Navy hasn’t canceled it in disgust yet.
Short Thread jack if you don’t mind Captain Lex. My daughter received two nominations for the Naval Academy this week, one from a Senator and the other from our Congressman. Now we just have to wait for that last “Congratulations” letter (knock on wood.)
Idaho Joe- that’s fantastic! Good on your daughter!!!