Late Night Thoughts On Going Fast

LOVE the Blue Angels. When I was a kid- in the '60's -they would occasionally practice out of Los Alamitos Naval Air Base off Katella. We lived on the border of OC in Long Beach and by the time those guys were up, they were out over our house. Don't know if it was because we grew up on El Dorado Golf Course and there was plenty of open space, but somedays they'd fly all day long, working on routine after routine to the great delight of every kid for miles around. We'd climb up on the garage roof and howl each time they broke the sound barrier- every house in the neighborhood had cracks in the plaster walls and it wasn't all that uncommon for a window to break. Vietnam was in full gear- 500,000 young Americans at war -body counts beyond heartbreak... Skip from around the corner was killed... nobody was worried about keeping the Blue Angels in check. They were artists at work.

Now I live not too many miles from March Air Base in Riverside, CA. We've watched the Stealth fly in and out, seen Air Force 1 sit on the tarmac, caught the Thunderbirds numerous times and were even buzzed by the B-1 once, pilot tipped his wings just as they fell back and he exploded from what seemed to be a couple hundred feet off the ground into orbit... all very cool. But nothing to compare to summer days with a bunch of kids coming into our yard, onto our garage roof- no houses to block the view over the park - and standing in awe as the Blue Angels went by in formation... I swear we could see the pilots waving... it was huge when they'd tip their wings down toward us kids... each of us imagining we were in the jet. When the sound barrier would shatter the skies we'd cover our ears and cheer. May be one reason I've got such lousy hearing.

When I fly it's in the comfort of a comercial jet: bad food, movies and my laptop are expected. The only time I flew out of Los Alamitos Naval Air Station was with a friend who took me soaring. We were powerless, silently sailing in the wind for less than ten minutes before touch down. It was sweet... but it sure wasn't the Blue Angels. Last time I remember hearing the sound barrier being shattered, I was with my family at Edwards Air Force Base for a shuttle landing. It's two signature booms shattered high thin clouds, leaving ripples in the sky like a stone in a pond. An image that's always stuck.

Kids, hanging out in the summer, we never equated the Blue Angels with the war. It didn't occur to us that the smog that filled the skies of Long Beach and burned our lungs on bike rides might be filled with jet exhaust. And the impact of shattered sound barriers- well that was just cooler than cool -who cared if it knocked down a house or two. We weren't exactly environmentalist... we were dreaming of going fast, flying high, wing tip to wing tip in tight formation with our friends. Hopefully we've matured a bit in the last four decades. But watching this video that crossed my laptop, old memories flooded through me like cleansing rain and the kid inside me wanted to go fast again... or at least stand on the roof and howl with my buddies at the guys living and flying our dreams.

Late night thoughts on going fast... on looking backwards... on glory days... The guys flying the jets were probably just ten or twelve years older than me, if that. Somewhere, if any of them are awake tonight, they're looking back on that summer with a view from the skies and I can't help but wonder if they smile, or even remember the kids who looked up in wonder from the old garage roof and cheered them on. Thanks guys. We were wishing it was us. Sometimes I still do.