Blue Angels

The Navy's famed Blue Angels aerial demonstration squad has canceled the rest of its 2013 performances, including dates this summer in Ocean City, in San Diego, Navy officials announced earlier this week. "This is one of many steps the Navy is taking to ensure resources are in place to support forces operating forward now and those training to relieve them," the Navy said in an official statement. The move was caused by the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration, officials said.

He saw his first Blue Angels show in Detroit at age 6, and Thomas Frosch says the experience inspired him to want to become a pilot. He saw four more performances while attending the Naval Academy, including one the "Blues" put on before his graduation in 1992. Now commander and flight leader of the Blue Angels, Frosch, a Navy commander, was looking forward to returning to Annapolis this week, where he would have led his team through its traditional jaw-dropping show as part of the Academy's graduation week.

My town, Annapolis, is a special kind of college town. The students at the Naval Academy are distinctive not for their backpacks, ear buds and school T-shirts, but for their crisp summer whites and their somber dress blues. The midshipmen take off their hats - their covers - when they enter a building, and they say "sir" and "ma'am" when you greet them. At this college, you don't pay anything unless you quit or get kicked out. About 1,400 arrive every July, but only about 800 will graduate four years later.

In her column ("An Annapolis tradition, grounded," May 13), Susan Reimer writes that Congress should be ashamed that because of sequestration the Blue Angels will skip the U.S. Naval Academy graduation this year. Really? How about President Barack Obama, shouldn't he be ashamed? After all, sequestration was his idea, and Congress wanted to give him the power to decide where the cuts would take place, which Mr. Obama refused to do. Lets see, if the president agreed to that it would have required him to take responsibility for one of his polices, which he never does.

The Blue Angels, the Navy's flight demonstration squadron, abruptly canceled its practice demonstration and air show scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Annapolis, but officials said the group's planes could still fly at Friday's U.S. Naval Academy graduation ceremony. In a statement, the Pensacola, Fla.-based Blue Angels said it is in a "safety stand-down" after an error during a maneuver during a performance on Sunday at the Lynchburg Regional Air Show in Virginia. A spokesman said planes were doing a "barrel-roll split" in which planes turn 360 degrees and then break apart.

The Blue Angels — the flight demonstration squadron for the Navy and Marine Corp. that has for decades thrilled crowds during the Naval Academy's Commissioning Week festivities in Annapolis, will not perform over the capital city in 2012, officials said. Traditionally, the Blue Angels have performed an hour-long routine, with its C-130 Hercules known as Fat Albert and F/A-18 Hornets wowing crowds in diamond formation and flying just 18 inches apart at times, over downtown Annapolis.

Shrieking children covered their ears and adults flinched as the Blue Angels made a low pass over Fort McHenry, only to stretch their necks and shade their eyes to track the Navy jet fighters as they soared into the sun. At the Inner Harbor, crowds lined the waterfront for unobstructed views of the aerial maneuvers as the Angels ducked behind office buildings and hotel towers, their roar none the quieter. The air show represented a crescendo for the Star-Spangled Sailabration, a weeklong event that also included 19 tall ships and other military vessels moored in Baltimore's harbor to mark the start of a two-year-long remembrance of the War of 1812.

Navy Lt. Mark Tedrow has no problem reconciling an air show with a commemoration of the War of 1812, an era that precedes flight by almost a century. The Blue Angels pilot said he looks forward to flying over the Inner Harbor, Middle River and Fort McHenry - birthplace of the national anthem - during a bicentennial celebration in June. "It will be outstanding to perform multiple maneuvers over Fort McHenry," he said. "It will show just how far we have come. " Tedrow and his co-pilot flew into Martin State Airport in Middle River on Thursday to give a small preview of what the Navy's renowned flight team will do for the bicentennial maritime and air festival that kicks off June 13. "Stake out your places on the waterfront so you don't miss a thing," said Lt. Cmdr.

He saw his first Blue Angels show in Detroit at age 6, and Thomas Frosch says the experience inspired him to want to become a pilot. He saw four more performances while attending the Naval Academy, including one the "Blues" put on before his graduation in 1992. Now commander and flight leader of the Blue Angels, Frosch, a Navy commander, was looking forward to returning to Annapolis this week, where he would have led his team through its traditional jaw-dropping show as part of the Academy's graduation week.

The Blue Angels didn't glide through the skies above Annapolis as scheduled yesterday, disappointing residents who look forward to the yearly event during Naval Academy Commissioning Week. "We had to cancel because the clouds were too low and we didn't have the minimum requirements to do a safe demo," said Navy Lt. Mike Blankenship, a spokesman for the daredevil group of F/A-18s that is one of the highlights of commencement week. Not everyone had to miss the show, though. Hundreds of tourists, residents and families of midshipmen caught the Blue Angels' practice demonstration Tuesday.

In her column "An Annapolis tradition, grounded" (May 13) Susan Reimer laments the fact that the Blue Angels flyover at the graduation ceremonies for cadets was canceled, and she thinks Congress should be ashamed for cutting funds for such a trivial "carnival act. " Meanwhile, the Obama administration has apparently sicced the IRS on tea party groups for political reasons, the very groups who are fighting to keep such frivolous expenditures off...

My town, Annapolis, is a special kind of college town. The students at the Naval Academy are distinctive not for their backpacks, ear buds and school T-shirts, but for their crisp summer whites and their somber dress blues. The midshipmen take off their hats - their covers - when they enter a building, and they say "sir" and "ma'am" when you greet them. At this college, you don't pay anything unless you quit or get kicked out. About 1,400 arrive every July, but only about 800 will graduate four years later.

The Navy's famed Blue Angels aerial demonstration squad has canceled the rest of its 2013 performances, including dates this summer in Ocean City, in San Diego, Navy officials announced earlier this week. "This is one of many steps the Navy is taking to ensure resources are in place to support forces operating forward now and those training to relieve them," the Navy said in an official statement. The move was caused by the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration, officials said.

The sales pitch to 46 uniformed men was simple: Welcome to Baltimore. Next time, bring a tall ship. City and state officials and the nautical community have begun a marketing drive aimed at filling the Inner Harbor with majestic sailing vessels and gray-hulled warships for the War of 1812 commemoration finale, Sept. 6-14, 2014. On Wednesday, they pitched military attaches from 40 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Turkey and Sri Lanka. Navies begin planning their sea exercises and courtesy calls about a year in advance, and there's a lot of jockeying among East Coast seaports to secure the biggest and best ships for summer events.

The Navy's Blue Angels precision flying team announced Tuesday that it will perform in the skies over Baltimore for the finale of the War of 1812 commemoration in the fall of 2014. Star-Spangled Spectacular will be held Sept. 6-15, 2014, and also will include the return of tall ships, Navy gray hulls, and land-based activities. The Star-Spangled Sailabration, which featured the Blue Angels, kicked off Maryland's festivities last June. Open fields and parking lots and the grounds at Fort McHenry were filled with thousands of spectators who craned their necks to watch a practice session and two performances.

My heart burst with pride in Baltimore over the week of celebration commemorating the bicentennial of the War of 1812. It has been said that while the American Revolution achieved our independence, the War of 1812 secured our liberties. The celebration of these liberties could not have been more spectacularly proclaimed than through this past week's living history experience of all that is great about our country, from the grand parade of tall ships, to the awe-inspiring precision of the Blue Angels and more.

ANNAPOLIS -- All through a damp, gray afternoon, the crowds gathered yesterday on the banks of the Severn River to watch the Blue Angels, the Navy's precision flying team, in its annual salute to the graduating class at the U.S. Naval Academy.But the picnic atmosphere turned to disappointment. The squadron swept past Dewey Field only twice, canceling the rest of the show because of low clouds and occasional drizzle."I know it's real disappointing," apologized Lt. Cmdr. Chuck Franklin, a spokesman for the team of F/A-18 Hornets.

A single-engine Cessna 172 airplane flew into restricted airspace above the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis yesterday afternoon and disrupted a rehearsal by the Navy's team of precision jet fighters, the Blue Angels.A Naval Academy spokesman said the midafternoon incident occurred in the skies above Dewey Field as the six-fighter squadron was about to begin a rehearsal for its 20- to 25-minute show scheduled at 2 p.m. today as part of the academy's Commissioning Week graduation festivities.

Leslie Starr of Baltimore complains about your paper's misuse of the word "crescendo" regarding the performance of the Blue Angels, during Sailabration ("A crescendo of complaint over a misused word," June 20). The writer takes particular offense because you did this in a headline and writes that crescendo is a process by which a peak is reached and you should have called the performance of the Blue Angels a climax. Wrong. Crescendo is indeed a process by which a peak is reached and if that's all it is your headline would be erroneous.

It has become common to see the word "crescendo" misused, but it is especially disappointing when it is misused in the newspaper, which was once a standard-bearer for proper language. I am referring to your front page article about Sailabration, which said the air show represented a "crescendo" for the event and repeated the error by describing it as "a potent crescendo of Angels" ("Blue Angels add awe to Sailabration festivities," June 16). A crescendo is a process, not a result.