Into The Wild Blue Yonder

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless falls of air...Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, nor eer eagle flew – And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod

The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

In Memory Of Our Lost Blue Angel!!!!!

Pilot dies in Blue Angel crash

The Associated Press
April 21, 2007

BEAUFORT, S.C. — A Navy Blue Angel jet crashed during an air show today, plunging into a neighborhood of small homes and trailers and killing the pilot, the county coroner said.
Witnesses said the planes were flying in formation during the show at the Marine Corps Air Station and one dropped below the trees and crashed, sending up clouds of smoke. At least one home was on fire.Raymond Voegeli, a plumber, was backing out of a driveway when the plane ripped through a grove of pine trees, dousing his truck in flames and debris. He said wreckage hit “plenty of houses and mobile homes.”“It was just a big fireball coming at me,” said Voegeli, 37. “It was just taking pine trees and just clipping them.”County Coroner Curt Copeland said the pilot was killed, but did not release an identification. Copeland said there was a lot of debris at the crash site and described the scene as horrific.John Sauls, who lives near the crash site, said the planes were banking back and forth before one disappeared, and a plume of smoke shot up.“It’s one of those surreal moments when you go, 'No, I didn’t just see what I saw,”’ Sauls said.At the Blue Angels command headquarters at Pensacola Naval Air Station the petty officer on duty said he “had no comment at this time.” The phone rang unanswered at the Marine base.The Blue Angels fly F/A-18 Hornets at high speeds in close formations, and their pilots are considered the Navy’s elite. They don’t wear the traditional G-suits that most jet pilots use to avoid blacking out during maneuvers. The suits inflate around the lower body to keep blood in the brain, but which could cause a pilot to bump the control stick — a potentially deadly move when flying inches from other planes.Instead, Blue Angels manage G-forces by tensing their abdominal muscles.Saturday’s show was at the beginning of the team’s flight season, and more than 100,000 people were expected to attend. The elite team, which is based at Pensacola Naval Air Station, recently celebrated its 60th anniversary.Beaufort is about 35 miles northwest of Hilton Head Island.