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An angel winging towards ValhallaYou’ll hear a lot in the next couple of weeks or so about how and why Blue Angel #6 went down yesterday at Beaufort. Most of it will be raw conjecture, not worth the pixels used to frame the text. Somebody has a good idea what happened, but he – or they – won’t be talking to the press. They’ll have an investigation to do, and they’ll do it the right way – out of the glare of the public view – in order to find out how the next mishap might be prevented. A board will be convened, gather evidence, weigh and sift conclusions and publish their results – privately. Given what has happened, it will almost seem cold, calculating. Impersonal. It’s not – it’s just business. We have a way of grieving, but it has very little to do with the “how” and everything to do with the “who.” It’s pretty private also. As I mentioned earlier in the week, I don’t know exactly know what form the life hereafter will hold. But I’ve always kind of hoped that heaven would be a place full of 45-minute cycle BFM hops followed by a day trap on a steady deck – MOVLAS – that somehow ends up debriefing at the O’Club during happy hour, before heading home stone sober to the warm embrace of people who love you. I didn’t know Kevin Davis, personally, although there’s enough about him in this brief bio that I know him.
I’ve only ever known a handful TOPGUN grads who were also Blue Angels, there isn’t much overlap in those gene pools. The guys who could play in both sandboxes were really special pilots. So I’m looking forward to meeting LCDR Davis someday in Indian Country, knowing that I need to bring my best game when I check in on freq. We lost a good one yesterday.
The first round’s on me, bud. 17 comments to An angel winging towards Valhalla |
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Copyright © 2009 Neptunus Lex - All Rights Reserved |
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Once a Ripper, always a Ripper. RIP
Next toast is for you.
Here’s to us…
Godspeed, LCDR Davis.
Fair winds and following seas.
Glass drained, inverted on the bar.
Shipmates,
man, can you imagine the conversations he’s going to have? The folks he gets to talk to?
It’s like I was telling my son. Mourning is for those of us left behind. Funerals are for the living. We are sad because we can no longer be a part of his life, nor he a part of theirs. But we do not mourn, we cannot mourn, for those gone on. They are in a far far better place than we will ever know here, and if, as we believe, we are to follow this life with one much better, then he shall be there awaiting us, and it shall seem as if we were never apart.
respects,
Really nice words Lex. Would that we all earned such a tribute someday.
Godspeed LCDR Davis.
Been thinking about you ever since I got word about this accident yesterday. One theory is a bird strike at low altitude… but I just don’t think that would take down such a exceptional pilot. No matter what the investigation says, it would appear we’ve lost a very special pilot.
Here’s a poem apropo: Original author unknown
“I hope there’s a place way up in the sky
Where Naval Aviators go when they die.
A place where a guy could buy a cold beer
For a friend and comrade whose memory is dear.
A place where no black shoe or pork chop could tread,
Nor a Pentagon type would e’er be caught dead!
Just a quaint little ‘O’ club; kind of dark, full of smoke,
Where they like to sing loud, and love a good joke.
The kind of place, where a lady could go
And feel safe and protected by the men she would know.
There must be a place where old Navy pilots go
When their wings get too weary, and their airspeed gets low.
Where the whiskey is old and the women are young,
And songs about flying and dying are sung,
Where you’d see all the shipmates you’d served with before,
And they’d call out your name, as you came thru the door,
Who would buy you a drink, if your thirst should be bad
And relate to the others, ‘He was quite a good lad!’
And then thru the mist you’d spot an old guy
You had not seen in years, though he’d taught you to fly.
He’d nod his old head and grin ear to ear,
And say, ‘Welcome shipmate, I’m pleased that you’re here!’
For this is the place where Naval Aviators come
When the battles are over, and the wars have been won.
They’ve come here at last to be safe and afar
From the government clerk and the management czar,
Politicians and lawyers, the feds and the noise,
Where all hours are happy, and these good old boys
Can relax with a cool one, and a well-deserved rest!
This is Heaven, my son, you’ve passed your last test!”
God speed LCDR Davis.
[...] this tragedy and producing anything appropriate in Kevin’s honor so I’ll send you to Lex who managed to get through [...]
I concur with what all of the previous folks have written, but can’t you find a better picture of the guy, wearing a uniform of some dignity instead of a jumpsuit with logotypes splashed across it?
I think the picture of Admiral Thach on Wikipedia shows him wearing a necktie and an old-fashioned soft aviator helmet. (what he wore to go to war)
Please, the man has just died; don’t show him in silly clothing. Surely you can find a picture of him in Summer Dress Whites (choker).
Sorry, I reckon I’m just old-fashioned; I mostly dress like a slob, but I think one should dress his best to go to church, to court, or to war.
(Dons flame-resistant suit.
Let me explain. I would be cool with a pic of him with friends and family, or a pic of him all dripping with sweat, having just climbed out of the aircraft after a strenuous performance. That pic is the official PR pic. I reckon that was the one you found first.
No offense, it was the easiest to find I’m sure, I just don’t think it does him justice.
Blue Angels’ crash @ MCAS Beaufort…
You need to head over to Lex’s place for his take on the loss of an exceptional aviator……
Clear skies and God speed.
I owe LCDR Davis. Took my little boy to the Armed Forces Day airshow last spring and he picked out Blue Angel #6, specifically, as what he planned to do when he grew up. Has been a good motivating factor for playing hard, cooperating, doing well in school. Rest in peace.
The whole thing has made me sick. What a loss… he was so young. I have been praying for his family that they one day find peace… or rather that peace finds them.
Almost every year since I was four years old they have performed their death defying aerial acrobatics as they flew over my house. It has always been one of my yearly pleasures to see them perform. My thanks to those men and women who strap it on and fly on the edge.
God’s speed LCDR davis.
T1
“He was a brave man,
we will mis his sword”.
Godspeed LCdr Davis!
You’re right about grieving in private, Lex. I’m loosely linked to Kojak, from shipmates through friends to my family. That link enabled me to receive the writings of ‘Lucky’ who is on cruise with the Nimitz. Lucky related a story involving his and Kojak’s participation in the 2004 World Series and displayed a lot about the fun-loving, approachable person who was Kojak.
It included a picture of the gang on the field in St Louis. Yes, he, and all the others, are wearing their 30-inch zippers standing on the field. Being an Air Force officer myself, I think of aviators and pilots in that uniform and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Kojak, I’m sorry we never got to meet.
I’m sure it would have been an honor.