Thunder Over the Blue Ridge

Will travels for work fairly often, and sometimes he brings the boys a present.  He recently brought them each a model airplane - an F-16 (I know this because it is written on the tail) fighter jet.  They loved their jets!  For a while now, John has wanted to be a pilot 'when he grows up.'  This got us thinking that we should take the boys to see the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds, next time they were in the area.

Will and I saw the Blue Angels years ago, at Andrews Air Force Base Open House and Air Show (in Northern Virginia) and loved it - we knew the boys would, too.  We looked up the schedules of both of them (they do airshows all over the US - 70+ shows for the Thunderbirds this year).

The Thunderbirds were performing at an air show the coming weekend in Martinsburg, West Virginia - about 1.5 hours north of Harrisonburg!  The problem was, we had commitments on both Saturday morning and Sunday morning and afternoon already.  We decided to go for it and leave after lunch on Saturday.  We got to the show about 2:00 and stayed until 5:00.  The Thunderbirds show started about 3:30 and was an awesome display of precision and speed!  If you ever have the opportunity to see them, I highly recommend it.  Everything (parking, admission, souvenir program) is free!  They accept donations at the door for a local charity (United Way this time) and have vendors selling food, toys, etc.  There are airplanes, helicopters, and other military vehicles on display - many of which the kids can climb in and explore.  The gates were open at 9:00 and everyone was pretty much filing out by 5:00 - the airshow started at 10:30...we obviously only saw a small piece of what was there!  It was just the right amount for the boys, though - I'm sure they thought they could have stayed longer, but they were exhausted when we left.

This is all 6 of the Thunderbirds in a Delta formation.  Typically, Thunderbirds #1-4 fly in formation and #5 and #6 do solo maneuvers.

Here are the four in Diamond formation.

He flew all the way down the flight line inverted!

At the end, they came towards the crowd in a Cross formation and then peeled off in different directions.

From the souvenir program the kids received...The Thunderbirds' goal:  When Airmen, the public and children see the team around the world - on the ground or in the air - each person will be captivated and overwhelmed with a powerful sense of pride in America and its Air Force.  Well said.  God Bless America!