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Starstruck reporter tours the Onion Festival
The DAV helps the thousands of disabled vets face real needs that government programs can't meet. They provide caring support, free transportation for sick and disabled veterans to and from VA medical facilities (not in Panchito, of course!) and provide representation before the Department of Veterans Affairs. During the Air Show, Panchito took to the sky to remind those in attendance that it wasn't always supersonic jets. The rattling, coughing, sputtering twin engines took one back to the World War II era, and watching the B-25's silver exterior shine in the sun definitely evoked feelings of pride, not just for the past, but for how far we've come. And speaking of how far we've come, my other interview of the Onion Festival was LCDR Paul Brantuas, pilot of the number 2 jet with the Blue Angels. I was admittedly a little starstruck, as I've been watching the Blue Angels fly for years, but he was new to the team and understood. According to Brantuas, to become a Blue Angel pilot, you have to be an officer in the Navy in tactical jet avation and have 1250 hours of tactical jet flying. He graduated from San Deigo State and applied to the Navy, where he was selected for officer candidate school with a pilot slot, meaning he was guaranteed to be a pilot when he finished officer candidate school. He did his flight training in Pensacola on a T-34 (the standard aircraft for a Navy pilot, which has since been upgraded). After 6-7 months of flying, flight students are placed in one of three places: jets, propelor aircraft, or helicopters. Brantuas went to Meridian, Miss., and Kingsville, Tx. To complete his intermediate and advanced jet training and selected the F-14 Tomcat. He accumulated enough hours to apply for the Blue Angels after completing a C-tour, which is three years, and a land tour where he transferred from the F-14 Tomcat to an F-18 Hornet and became a flight instructor. He sent in a letter of recommendation and his application packet and was accepted. After that, he "rushed the team," meaning he went to 3 or 4 shows in early March through early June of the performance season. During this time, the 30- 40 applicants to the Blue Angels were whittled down to around 15-20. In July, the remaining candidates were taken to Pensacola for formal interviews, which last for four days. To become a Blue Angel, you not only have to be qualified, but you have to have the social interaction skills needed to be in the public eye at all times, as well as to travel with the team for 300 days out of the year. The purpose of the Blue Angels is to represent the showmanship, professionalism, and excellence of the Navy and Marine Corps, but also to recruit new members for both branches. They don't actively recruit, but honestly, after seeing one show, who would believe they had to? Brantuas didn't make the team his first try, but came back the next year, determined to make it. "When someone says no, you keep going, so I tried again and got selected." He will be with the 116-member team for the 2008 and 2009 show seasons. Since the Blue Angels are such a prestigious team, there is a limited amount of time that one can be on the team. Each position has a rotation cycle. The pilot of the number 7 jet, which arrives first at locations and does media rides, announces the show for the first year, then moves to the number 6 jet and flies opposing solo, then moves to the number 5 jet for his final year. Every other year, the team picks up a new commanding officer for the number 1 jet, and it is the responsibility of the pilot of the number 2 jet (that's Brantuas) to teach the demo to the number 1 jet. The number 3 pilot rotates to the number 4 jet for his second year, while the number 2 pilot stays in his position for both years. When I asked why there were no women Blue Angel pilots, I not only got a minor history lesson, but was also privy to one of the secrets of the Blue Angels' magic. Women have only been allowed in combat since the early 90s, which means that those in the tactical aviation field (there are very few) are still accumulating hours. They have had a few women applicants, but the most important part of being a Blue Angel pilot is strength. "There's a lot of men that can't do it," Brantuas says of the strength requirements. These come from the way the control stick is configured. In a normal stick there is a little play, allowing the plane to wiggle slightly. The Blue Angels have 40 pound springs pulling the sticks forward so that there is absolutely no play whatsoever in the stick, allowing them to fly in their tight formations. Having the strength to pull the stick is something one can't mess around with. "If someone gets accepted and their arm gives out halfway through, then the team is set back by so much," Brantuas explains. And when pilots have a limited amount of time to be a part of the Blue Angels, every moment counts. It was a completely magical experience to be able to meet all of the pilots and personnel that I did during the Vidalia Onion Festival, and I am definitely able to say I learned an awful lot from talking to them, both about the good deeds they do and the ways they go about doing them.
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