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I have tickets for the grandstand at Beaufort tomorrow. -PatFlag

Would love to see a report back here on the thread. -Don

I spent a year at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport (MS), and got a chance to go to Pensacola for a practice day for them.

Every week, they spend time around their home field getting ready to go somewhere else for performances. It is open to the public, but a retired former Crew Chief for Fat Albert was living their, also. I was chairman of the MWR for the Resident Committee, and got us an upfront view and tour of the facilities by the current Crew Chief. It was a blast.

Here is one of the retired WW2 women (yes! She was a storekeeper)) that wanted to sit in the cockpit of FA and was granted her wish. That is the "work place"! All I got to do was take pics and step onto a ladder...

Well, they were simply awesome. The last time they flew Beaufort, one was "lost" ... so I think everyone sort of had their fingers crossed. But the show was flawless. As another part of the show, an air force pilot in an F18 demonstrated the maneuverability of the aircraft ... he did a high speed figure 8 OVER the Airfield!! We got a good look at the F35 Raptor ... I didn't realize it was VTOL .. amazing to see it "hanging" there in the air ... able to move sideways, backwards...like it was on a string ... and it can go Mach 2! But the Blue Angels were superb.

As you know, there are 6 of them. We were watching a formation of 4 (delta) come across from left to right. We also were watching another one that flew toward the formation and crossed under it and swooped back up. ...and we were NOT paying attention the the 6th one ... that flew up behind us at about 700 mph, very low and scared the bejesus out of 50,000 people! I personally jumped a foot! (So if you go watch them, keep a count, and if you only see 5 of 'em, look behind you! :-)

It is amazing to see the technology and skill of our military and such a shame to see us being kicked around by a bunch of 5th Century throwbacks riding around in stolen chevys. I guess it is all about leadership ... if you have a weak leader, the strongest military means nothing. What is happening from DC is TOTALLY DISRESPECTFUL of the military's technology and skill! All day as I watched these demonstrations I could only hope for a real leader someday that would know what to do with such awesome power.