Blue Angels ready to soar over 'iconic' SF

The Blue Angels have returned to soar over the skies of San Francisco this weekend as part of The City’s annual Fleet Week celebration .

Of the more than 330,000 men and women serving in the Navy, 160 members of the Flight Demonstration Squadron tour 32 cities throughout the year, dazzling spectators from below with dazzling aerial maneuvers and other flight demonstrations. Prior to air shows scheduled for the weekend , The Examiner spoke with Lt. Ben Bushong, a Blue Angels public affairs officer and crew member for this season’s tour. The former helicopter pilot chatted about what goes into putting these death-defying shows together and what makes San Francisco stand out in comparison to other cities.

This conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

How long have you been involved with the U.S. Navy, and what got you started? I’ve been on the team for a little over a year now. I have a bit of a unique background. I actually started off as a helicopter pilot, so I flew helicopters for the Navy for about five years. After a couple injuries, I had to figure out something else to do if I still wanted to stay in the Navy. I picked up public affairs. I’ve been a PAO for going on four years now. I was a public affairs officer for an aircraft carrier in the Nimitz, and now I’m just over a full year I’ve been here with the Blue Angels.

What’s it like bringing the aircraft from city to city and getting to be involved in the shows? It’s an incredible experience. It’s one of the few jobs in the fleet that you apply to go to, because everybody here wants to be a part of it. We are made up of 160 personnel and what’s really cool is all of us come from the fleet. We come here for two to three years, get to experience this and then we all go back to the fleet.

We travel to 32 cities a year. Some of us are on the road 250 to 300 days a year. Essentially, we get to showcase the teamwork and professionalism of the Navy and the Marine Corps to the American public. It’s a lot of fun and it’s very rewarding.

How does it feel to not only come to San Francisco and perform an air show, but also come be part of The City’s Fleet Week celebration? What’s it like to fly above the water and see the vessels docked? San Francisco’s awesome. There are a couple of shows we get to go to every year and San Francisco is one of them — it always lines up with Fleet Week. It’s very cool, the reception and warm welcome we always get from The City. I was telling somebody earlier, San Francisco is one of the few shows where it’s such an iconic city that you can see any pictures or video from the air show and know exactly what city it’s happening in. With the Golden Gate Bridge ; with downtown, with Alcatraz; it’s just really neat to see and to fly over.

When the Blue Angels are putting the shows together, what is the process like? Are you guys brainstorming the kinds of maneuvers you can pull off to come to a routine? It all depends on cloud coverage. We have about four different shows we do. Our show starts off with our C-130, affectionately known as “Fat Albert.” They fly about a 10-minute demonstration showing the high-performance capabilities of the C-130. Then you have our six F/A-18. Nos. 1 and 2 — the diamond — they kind of showcase the precision and tight flying of naval aviation. Then our two solo pilots, Nos. 5 and 6, they kind of demonstrate the high intensity, tight turns and high-performance capabilities of the jet.

If there’s no clouds, it’s about a 45-minute show and you’ll see more of the loops and rolls. If a little bit of cloud coverage comes in, it’s a little bit more flatter maneuvers. If Karl the Fog rolls in, it becomes a little more difficult. Fog is tough since they fly so close. The ability to see each other becomes a little more difficult. We’ll hope he stays away this week.

Is there anything that you look forward to with these shows in terms of a personal highlight or something that you want the audience to experience? We are just very thankful for the cities that allow us to come and put on these flight shows. It’s not lost on us how much work goes into this , how much work goes on behind the scenes. It’s cool to just get to experience the different cultures, go to different parts of the country.

San Francisco, especially, has just been so inviting and so welcoming. We’re just really glad to be here and they keep having us back.

How has anticipation been building up for you? You’re finally out on the tarmac watching the finishing touches and other maintenance performed on these jets in preparation for taking to the sky. It’s a lot of fun. It’s fun being here in such an iconic city. For a lot of us, our families come to this show because everybody wants to come out to San Francisco .

To be able to put on a safe and effective flight demonstration while getting our families and the public to watch us perform and basically representing the 800,000 men and women of the active duty serving the Navy and Marine Corps, showcasing that professionalism here in San Francisco is a lot of fun.