We had some people over to our house and we went out on my dock to watch the air show. We could see the Blue Angels fly right over our house and all over the sky because we had a great vantage point out on the river; it was clear skies and great temperature and weather for the air show.
We watched the show for about half an hour and they did all their great maneuvers. They fly really low and from my view it looked like they were flying just above the treetops. We were kidding about the B. 1. R. Ds (seagulls and egrets and other birds that were flying around the river), for some of the birds were flying up quite high during the show and we hoped that no bird would get sucked up into the engines. Every once in awhile we'd say "There goes an Angel ...oops, false alarm, it was only a B.1.R.D."
After the last great fly-by maneuver, it looked to me like the Blue Angels were coming together to get into another formation when all of a sudden I saw a thick cloud of black smoke rise above the tree line. I thought, oh no, that's not a part of the show, that's not normal. Nobody is supposed to have any type of smoke or burning going on during an air show when the planes are in the air. We wondered what had happened. Five minutes later my daughter-in-law, who is married to a paramedic, called us with the bad news that an Angel had crashed. I guess our son had first-hand knowledge of the radio communications that went out through dispatch.
CNN news came on with the story about 20 minutes after it happened and I saw news footage that showed the wreckage only a block down from where we own some commercial and residential properties. The Beaufort Gazette also had the story.
This was a sad day for Beaufort, South Carolina. We are a town with three military bases; Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station, Naval Hospital Beaufort, and Parris Island. We love the military presence here. We pray for and mourn the loss of Lieutenant Commander Kevin Davis, the pilot of the #6 aircraft.
Jon J. Miller, Broker and Military Relocation Specialist
United Country-Marshland Realty
;)
Links;)
Tags (Tag Cloud);)
Archives
As neighbors to the United States Naval Academy, we have many occasiions to watch the Blue Angels perform. Always amazing! We feel almost personally connected, and can't imagine witnessing the crash - let alone being truly connected to the "missing man" and the entire organization. Thanks for sharing.