The people of Pensacola love to watch the Blue Angels practice and 'Breakfast with the Blues' occurs annually to herald the start of the air show season.
Many of them go to the beach to watch the show.
People there know that low level passes will often give them a dusting of sand and that a few tents will overturn and towels may be lifted. That's pretty much a given AND a part of the show.
Enter a story starved media. The same media that decided to not air the President's recent speech which would have been a good story.
Yet they decided to create a story out of a total non story and outright lie and say that the crowd was terrified of the low level pass they made.
Of course had I (and a lot of others) been there we would have shouted "Lower! Faster! Louder!" because that's what air show spectators are expected to do.
Some wag said "Two little boys cried and 2000 others decided then and there that they want to be pilots when they grow up." This sounds about right.
Of course had the Secretary of War been any typical political hack other than Pete Hegseth there would have been a major investigation, pilots would have been fired to say the least and the Blues would probably be ordered to fly no lower than 5000 feet at future airshows, basically eliminating the program as they would not draw much of a crowd.
Pete brushed it off by saying "The flyovers will continue until morale improves." Gotta love that answer. Few appointed officials would have the moxie to give an answer like that to the public.
It actually speaks highly of Pete because he stands behind his people and backs them up if they have committed no wrongdoing.
The Blues were just doing what they were supposed to do and I'm fairly sure the 'non-investigation' most likely consisted of a phone call.
Back in March 2026 a pair of Apache helicopters hovered over Kid Rock's estate in Tennessee and the organization names CREW blubbered a bit over it. CREW is an oversight group consisting of Obama people. In short a nuisance group. Upon landing both pilots were grounded pending investigation. Pete ungrounded them a few hours later.
When you think about it for a minute hovering over a place is actually pretty good training. It's a much needed helicopter skill. In fact just about all flying is good training for pilots. It takes hours and hours to train a pilot and the more hours they accumulate the better pilots they become.
Personally I think the Blues should be allowed to buzz the beach 25 feet off the deck at supersonic speeds if they so desire but if they decide to do this they probably should recommend hearing protection.
I was at an airshow years ago and got to watch most people jump out of their skins as the Blues pulled the 'tactical sneak' on the crowd.
Four of the Blues were putting on a fascinating show and just as the crowd was paying rapt attention the other two came out of nowhere and buzzed the crowd about fifty feet off the deck.
It was a pretty good surprise.
Still, if all the media can do is complain about an air show they ought to take a long, hard look at themselves and try reporting the actual no spin news for a very welcome change.
What the Blues ought to do is aerial refuel 100 feet off the deck and REALLY give somebody something to complain about.
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