Parrothead Jeff

This is the first of many stories to bear the label “Adventures With Dad.”

As I might have mentioned before, I’m a BIG fan of airshows, airplanes, and aviation in general. I blame Dad for this. Not that I hold it against him, because I don’t. I just hold him responsible.

From the time I was about 9 months old, my parents took me to the (then) NAS Miramar airshow every year. I was absolutely nuts for the Blue Angels (didn’t really get to see the Thunderbirds much, but that’s changed). I’d count the hours until the start of the airshow. This likely comes as no surprise to many who know me.

Fast forward to sometime around 1987 or 1988. Dad was an officer with the California Highway Patrol at the time (he eventually retired with 31 years on the force) and had heard about Law Enforcement Day at NAF El Centro. El Centro, situated about half way between San Diego and Arizona, is the Blue Angels’ winter home due to the great flying weather and sparse population. Law Enforcement day was a special opportunity for members of the law enforcement community and their families to see the Blue Angels on the day before the official start of their show season. Dad kept me out of school for the day and off we went. I couldn’t wait!
We arrived at NAF El Centro sometime fairly early in the morning, followed our printed directions to the appropriate parking spot, and waited for everyone else to show up. We watched some planes take off and land, gawked at some of the planes on poles and some of the planes on the ramp and had a pretty good time just killing time.

Eventually, we (the entire group couldn’t have been more than about 100 people) were met by a nice Navy guy and were led out to the viewing area for the day. I was expecting to go to somewhere at the edge of the ramp as we had the one other time we’d gone to El Centro for this event, but we kept walking…

We walked out past the runway to a set of bleachers set up right about where show center would normally be. This was pretty darn cool! The one part of the show we didn’t see was the ground show with the pilots walking to thier planes and starting engines, but we figured we could live with that.

Not long after we reached the bleachers, the Blues took to the sky and put on what I recall as being a spectacular show! This was a long time ago, but I seem to remember that the Blues actually used us for centerpoint during several formation maneuvers. Already a great day for a young Blue Angels fan, the day got even better! This being the Blues’ final practice day, we were treated to an extended show as they practiced some of thier maneuvers several times in a row prior to landing!

Once the Blues were back on the ground, the nice Navy guy who’d led us out to the bleachers announced that the show was over and that due to the flying schedule calling for several sorties that day, the pilots would sadly not be signing autographs that day, but would be signing tomorrow if we chose to return.

I have to admit that I was a bit bummed, but seeing the Blues fly that day was still great so I didn’t mind all that much.

Dad and I began our slow, wandering trek back to the car, not really paying much attention to anything as we gawked at the base and aircraft around the ramp. Both of us are big fans of military aviation and take any opportunity that comes our way to see it closer than overhead near the base. We’d fallen quite a ways behind the rest of the group and our nice Navy guide and eventually stopped for a couple of minutes to better enjoy the view.

About this time, we both noticed a flight of orange and white TA-4 Skyhawk jet trainers orbiting over the airfield. They kept making circles overhead, not seeming to enter the landing pattern. I had never seen anything like this before and neither had Dad. We were confused to say the least. They just continued to orbit overhead for no apparent reason. What could they possibly be doing that for?

As we craned our necks, a plain white pickup truck pulled up next to us. The driver was ever so polite as he spoke words which I had never heard before, have never heard since, and pray that I never hear again directed at me, especially on a military installation and especially in our post 9/11 world.

“Sirs, would you please step off the active runway?”

I think we both turned about five shades of red as we expressed our deepest apologies. The driver explained that the concrete we were standing on had become the active runway after the Blue Angels had landed and that the orange and white TA-4 Skyhawks were orbiting overhead because they had to wait for us to clear the now active runway.

We made our way rather quickly back to the perimeter of the flightline and back to the car after that, waiting to watch the TA-4s land on the real estate we had just vacated before we hopped in the car for the trip home.

No, it wasn’t really that big a deal, but I can’t help but laugh about it all these years later

Lesson learned - It is highly inadvisable and considered rather poor form to loiter about on foot on the active runway of a military airfield and such activity should not be repeated.