Today's Blue Angels ...

I have a coworker retiring today, and we've had a running Teams chat joke about the small group of 6 of us in our department being Top Gun pilots - only we changed it to the Blue Angels because it's Florida. 

We communicate primarily by Teams chat, and one day I said it feels like walkie-talkies or air com to me, and since there are 6 of us,I decided we should all have pilot call names, because that's me, being me 😂 

(The doctors at our hospital already tried it and hated it and stated emphatically they needed human transcriptionists - go BFSH!)

We chose our own call names then - mine is "Cornbread" - because I'm in Kentucky 😂

So our hospital is in Miami, but the retiring coworker's daughter got to fly with the Blue Angels for a news segment (she's an anchor at a Miami news station)!

The Blue Angels are very special to me, after living in Pensacola during the 2004/2005 Hurricane season - they played their song on the radio every day to boost morale and the Blue Angels actually flew over the city after the 1st hurricane that hit us that year, Ivan, and tipped their wings at us!

And I learned something new today, while looking up this video. So I knew that they had actual female pilots on the team now, as carrier pilots since 2015 - but what I didn't know is that in 2022, the first female Blue Angel came aboard the main demonstration fighter-pilot squadron of 6 as #4, flying an F/18 - Amanda Lee. 

Her nickname is "Stalin" because of her leadership approach. (Yikes? Maybe that's what it takes to be a female pilot, but not helping our reputation, ladies!)

She had the typical two-year stint with the Blue Angels and moved on to Navy leadership, which is typical for a BA, but you can see her in their latest video for the song, walking in formation with the fighter squadron for the air show. 

Needless to say, they did not have female fighter pilots 20 years ago, when I lived there ... we've come a long way, baby. 

I love the lyrics of this song, not only because of hurricane memories, but my life/first marriage was essentially my 4th hurricane at the time. 😂

I often play this song when big change is happening, to remind me to stay strong and keep going - and to remind me of how far I've come, since then - I've come a long way, baby 🥲

So without further ado, I give you the latest official song of the Navy's Pensacola Blue Angels - Van Halen's "Dreams" - now featuring #4, Amanda Lee  😍

 

World turns black and white
Pictures in an empty room
Your love starts fallin' down
Better change your tune
Yeah, you reach for the golden ring
Reach for the sky
Baby, just spread your wings ...

And get higher and higher
Straight up we'll climb
We'll get higher and higher
Leave it all behind

Run, run, run away
Like a train runnin' off the track
Got the truth bein' left behind
Fall between the cracks

Standin' on broken dreams
Never losin' sight, ah
Well, just spread your wings ...

We'll get higher and higher
Straight up we'll climb
We'll get higher and higher
Leave it all behind

So baby, dry your eyes
Save all the tears you've cried
Oh, that's what dreams are made of

'Cause we belong
In a world that must be strong
Oh, that's what dreams are made of
Yeah, we'll get higher and higher
Straight up we'll climb
Higher and higher
Leave it all behind
Oh, we'll get higher and higher
Who knows what we'll find?

So baby, dry your eyes
Save all the tears you've cried
Oh, that's what dreams are made of
Oh baby, we belong
In a world that must be strong
Oh, that's what dreams are made of

And in the end
On dreams we will depend
'Cause that's what love is made of ...