Fleet Week 2007: A Thank You Note to the US Navy

As we write to you now, the skies above our Global Headquarters are rumbling with the unmistakable sound of F-18s ripping through the air. It's Fleet Week here in San Francisco, which means the Blue Angels precision aerobatic team is making its annual Bay Area appearance.

We recognize that the Blue Angels' performances over the city are the source of some controversy.  But Telstar Logistics is not afraid to look controversy right in the eye, grab it by the lapels, and give it a piece of our mind.  Frankly, we frikkin' LOVE IT when the Blue Angels come to town, and the noise they make is like music to our ears.

Moreover, despite whatever various right-wing propagandists might lead you to believe, we would wager that (gulp!) a silent majority of mainstream San Franciscans get the same thrill we do watching the Navy's jets streak across the sky. Blue Angels airshows are a seasonal tradition here, and that thundering sound we hear outside right now always signifies the arrival of autumn and the passing of another summer.

Sure, some complain. This year, Supervisor Chris Daly introduced a motion to the city's Board of Supervisors (the local civic council) seeking to ban the Blue Angels, ostensibly on public safety grounds.  But for non-San Franciscans, some context may be in order:

Supervisor Chris Daly is a buffoon and a local laughingstock. And though he certainly speaks for some segment of the city's population, it would be a shame if his antics were viewed as being indicative of the area consensus. (Note well that his measure was defeated in a 2-1 committee vote before it ever reached the full Board of Supes.) It's sort of like the stigma some Texans may now feel as they ponder the failures of George W. Bush: the gentleman may be a shameless incompetent, but it probably grows tiresome that the entire state has been stigmatized by the calamities wrought by one flunky from Midland. Every village has an idiot, so let us not judge one another based on the antics of our local fools, lest ye yourself be so judged.

So with all that out of the way, we can get to the matter at hand: Telstar Logistics would like to extend our gratitude to the the US Navy for again making Fleet Week a gearhead highlight of the local year.  Special thanks also to the pilots of the Blue Angels, for treating us to a great show, and to the sailors aboard the USS Shoup and the USS Vandegrift, for kindly paying us a visit. And lastly, an extra-special thanks to the families of these sailors and aviators for their patience and forbearance while their loved ones are away from home.

We believe we speak for many citizens of the City and County of San Francisco when we say: We can't wait to see you all again next October.

PREVIOUSLY:
Blue Angels Over San Francisco

Telstar Logistics Visits the USS Nimitz or: How We Learned to Stop Whining and Love Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carriers

(PHOTOS: Top: Blue Angel 6 and the Golden Gate Bridge, by Photo 101. Bottom, USS Shoup passes under the Golden Gate Bridge, by Telstar Logistics)

Comments

[Jon Haeber]

Wow. That's a nice shot of the F18 with the Golden Gate.

I too enjoyed the roar of the jets overhead via a friend's rooftop on Van Ness. The guys put their lives on the line for the show (10% fatality rate for Blue Angels fliers).

Bleeding heart patriotic or not, it was a thrilling show.

[Andy]

"We believe we speak for many citizens of the City and Country of San Francisco..."

Oh sure, so typical of you megalomaniacal Friscans to consider yourself an independent country :-).

Those right wing attacks are nuts. Who *are* those people? Does one person write the story, and then send it out to each of them? Sometimes I think the Daily Show orchestrates the whole thing to ensure they have enough material for Jon Stewart.

[Telstar Logistics]

Ha! Freudian typo fixed. Thanks for the catch, and thanks for supporting the Blue Angels.

[Doodaddy]

As much as you may enjoy preaching to the choir, there are plenty of legitimate reasons we don't like these jets streaking over our houses for a week every fall. If you want air shows, put them in the desert where they won't bother -- or potentially endanger -- anyone.

I love the ships. I love the Navy. I am a patriot.

Simulated bombing runs over our heads, waking babies, scaring children, distracting drivers, threatening birds in the middle of their fall migration for five days running?

I don't care where you stand politically: That's just rude.

[Telstar Logistics]

But watching it all in the context of our city is precisely what makes it so wonderful -- for the rest of the year, when I walk down Mission Street, I'll continue to savor the view I had of the Blue Angels racing toward downtown. The desert is for Burning Man. The Blue Angels are an urban tradition.

Meanwhile, our 10 week-old baby loved the sound -- she cooed as we watched the Angels from Bernal Hill. But that might well be a genetic predisposition.

[obLiterate]

Damn it's a bugger living in the wrong hemisphere. Seeing that kind of a show over where you live/work/play would be beyond awesome. Admittedly, the whole F-111 dump and burn thing with accompanying fireworks is pretty good too, but there's only one or two of them....

[Austin]

With all the press it received, I thought the Daly proposal had actually gotten somewhere. It says something that it died in committee, when so many other crazy things reach the full board.

I still don't know why some people are soo concerned about the safety of this once a year event. I'd be much more worried about the hundreds of planes flying over every day of the year, many of which likely have pilots with far less training than the Navy folks.

It's too bad I missed this year's Fleet Week, particularly with the addition of A380 flybys. Maybe the Blue Angels can stop by Interior Alaska next year?

[bill]

as a somewhat intelligent left-wing SFer, i'd like to ask you to consider a more nuanced view of fleet week. while i sat outside and marveled at the scalar incongruity of fighter jets soaring around suddenly defenseless skyscrapers, i was awestruck.

i was also scared. in many parts of the world, for many years, these same jets, pilots and same loud sounds destroy lives and property. what you see as a marvel of technology, others see as a harbinger of death. really.

not to belabor the point, but i thought that of all US cities, SF (and its citizens) would have more sophisticated opinions on the military rally that is fleet week. it shouldn't be denounced because its loud or distracting, it should be denounced because it is a vulgar display of power, and a reminder of our nation's (not-so-proud) legacy...

[Telstar Logistics]

Bill, thank you for your thoughtful comment.

However, we are most definitely not left-wing, nor liberal. Nor are we right-wing, or conservative. We lie somewhere between those two extremes.

We do believe that America's armed forces are a necessary component of our survival on the global stage. And that being the case, we also believe that if we must have an armed forces, it behooves us to have a good one. Thankfully we do, and the Blue Angels embody that tradition of excellence.

More fundamentally, we also believe there is an important distinction to be made between the tools and symbols of our armed forces, and the political uses to which they are applied. We can confidently say that the Iraq War is the greatest strategic blunder in American history, and the moral stain that the United States has accrued because of it may take decades to purge.

Yet the F-18 would be a necessary piece of equipment, with or without the criminally incompetent Bush Administration, just as the Swedes need their Saab Gripens, and the French need their Mirage 2000sand the Indians need their Mig-29s -- as well as the skilled pilots to fly them.

And all that being the case, we do not find it difficult to maintain a distinction between an airshow by the Blue Angels and ill-conceived American military interventions elsewhere in the world. To confuse the two is to confuse ends with means. It is to become obsessed with symbols, when the problems at hand are substantive, more direct, and in no way abstract.

Whether any of this renders us somewhat intelligent, or not, we humbly leave it for you to decide.

[Sanandreas]

Nicley posted, and well put.
I consider myself a pacifist, but I really enjoy watching an airshow. I believe we can draw the distinction between marveling at our technological achievements and glorifying warmaking.