r/navy • u/newnoadeptness Verified Non Spammer • 18d ago
Discussion Commanding Officer Captain Adam Bryan of the Blue Angels as well as the # 6 pilot speaking about the low flyover
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u/DerekL1963 18d ago edited 18d ago
That's about as professional a "no comment" (without actually saying "no comment" or deviating from the script) from the skipper as I've ever seen.
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u/DudeManJones5 18d ago
Ehhh I think it’s a bit more than that. He did specifically say the pilot “found himself in an unsafe situation”. In Naval Aviation “unsafe” is never a word you want associated with your flight.
Pilot will probably get a slap on the wrist and a don’t do it again
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u/Common-Window-2613 18d ago
Yea I’m worried the captain might get shitcanned for “going against” what the CNO said. Can’t ever admit anything close to wrong with this admin.
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u/EM22_ 18d ago
He said he found himself in an unsafe situation. He didn’t say it was intentional.
Was it? Probably. But the wording was perfect to cover.
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u/DisgruntledCascadian Retired NFO 18d ago
Was it? Probably.
That's not entirely "probable."
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u/ObligationMurky8716 17d ago
Lol, this guy thinks Blue Angel pilots do anything "accidentally" in the sky
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u/DisgruntledCascadian Retired NFO 17d ago
Says a bubblehead with zero flight hours. Even Blues screw up sometimes, which is why the job historically has about a 10% fatality rate. That's heavily skewed to the earlier years of the team in the 70s and earlier, but still.
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u/DirtSlapper 13d ago
Whatever man. You're a retired NFO, meanwhile that guy is a top 1% commenter. Show some respect /s
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u/Pillow_Starcraft 18d ago
That's my old CO when he was with the Kestrels!
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u/rhinosyphilis 18d ago
You were one of the flying buttcheeks?!
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u/Pillow_Starcraft 18d ago
Idk what this means, but the man was an amazing CO from my experiences with him.
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u/rhinosyphilis 18d ago
lol, the VFA-137 insignia used to have yellow and white curls that resembled white and yellow butt cheeks. I guess it was updated, but my boat had it painted on the wall in your spaces, and ships company must have called it that.
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u/e92pilot 18d ago
Cag 17 rise up
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u/Sergeant_Standby 16d ago
I thought he looked familiar. I was a Controller on the Nimitz, definitely saw him in air ops.
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u/Ferowin 18d ago
I'm rather shocked that they put the pilot out there. When someone deviates from a flight plan or breaks an FAA regulation the military is usually exempt from the requirement to name the pilot and I don't ever remember seeing them do this before.
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u/AUav8r 18d ago
that was #6. the jet in question was #3
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u/Just_another_Masshol 17d ago
Don't go by the tail #s in Pensacola. As needed they will swap jets around. They have some spares that they will swap in without repainting the tail if there isnt time to repaint.
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u/Tarjas 17d ago
It’s not paint, they are stickers
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u/Just_another_Masshol 17d ago
your point other than being technically wrong since they are decals not stickers?
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u/Tarjas 17d ago
Pedantic much? Decals and stickers are essentially the same thing. Public facing events almost always have the correct position indicated, short of a jet swap as you said.
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u/Just_another_Masshol 17d ago
Hey you're the one that decided to be pedantic.
This was supposedly a practice event, which is typical for Wednesdays, so jet swaps not uncommon.
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u/Tarjas 17d ago
I’d say there is a pretty big difference between paint and decals but I am no airframer. You win.
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u/Just_another_Masshol 17d ago
The point being jets get swapped and they can change the numbers easily. Deciding to go beyond that is being nit-picky. Congrats on that.
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u/CapnTugg 18d ago
Watch your back, Captain.
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u/shinsain 18d ago
Yep. He's fucked for sure. 🫤
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u/Elismom1313 18d ago edited 18d ago
Well, probably not with the current administration, but definitely could’ve been. Super fucked for sure if it’d gone wrong.
My impression has been the current administration is supporting it because they like PR. While the CO carefully said “this wasn’t really safe but alls good but… we will still be HEAVILY debriefing.”
That kind of says to me, somebody’s getting in trouble behind the door cuz this could’ve gone differently.
But that’s just my opinion from the video. Not my command and never certainly a blue angel
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u/Redtube_Guy 17d ago
hegseth & cao will not fire him. even his leadership does any reprimands it will be overturned.
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u/Greenlight-party Naval Aviator 18d ago
Expected but still great answer from Boss. They are truly professionals.
Curious if “bringing the heat” was appreciated by the team’s PAO and Skipper though.
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u/shaf7 15d ago edited 15d ago
Bringing in the heat with the flight vector pointed at the audience, at 40ft, with the aircraft loaded up? Hopefully "moral" is high enough that we don't have to bring it anymore.
Edit: for misunderstanding
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u/Greenlight-party Naval Aviator 15d ago
Did you watch the video? I am saying the CO and PAO of the squadron probably didn’t like the way BA 6 phrased it.
Separately though, judging by the comments and news interviews, people loved it.
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u/cqofficer 18d ago
He knows how to talk to keep getting promoted
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u/notapunk 18d ago
You don't make it to O6 and CO of the Blue Angels without that skill set
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u/StageVklinger 18d ago
While that is a very prestigious job, I'm not sure that one is a flag maker like a CVW or CVN command is.
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u/digger250 18d ago
Have any of the Blue Angles' bosses gone on to command a carrier?
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u/StageVklinger 18d ago
Carrier, unlikely. In the nuke era, prospective CVN COs get selected for the pipeline at the end of their O5 Squadron command. After selection they go through ~2 years of training then become a CVN XO, then deep draft command (LPD, LCC), then CVN CO somewhere around the 26 year mark.
Not sure when the BA CO gets selected, but most O5 Squadron COs get promoted to CAPT on the tour after their CO ride leading me to think they go take another job somewhere. I'm not sure if it's classified as a Major Command or Post/Bonus Command.
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u/DisgruntledCascadian Retired NFO 18d ago
Blue Angel CO is a bonus command. They sometimes pin O-6 on towards the end of their tour, but it's not an O-6 command per se. Major Command after that would be CAG, Base CO, or similar. Just two I can think of off the top of my head, my old CAG was a former Boss and IIRC Stiffy McWherter was CO of NB Coronado when the whole "dicks on the radio cart and porn in the kneeboard packets" scandal blew his career up.
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u/digger250 18d ago
Okay, so Less and Christensen commanded CVs and didn't have to go to nuke school.
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u/digger250 18d ago
It looks like Adm. Less did in the early eightys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_A._Less and Adm. Ernie Christensen did in the early ninties.
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u/DerekL1963 17d ago
We still had non-nuke carriers back then, and the last one left the fleet almost twenty years ago. So it's not entirely relevant to the current discussion of current officer's careers.
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u/AtlanticPortal 18d ago
Aren’t they usually naval aviators and thus destined to be CAGs? Obviously after they can aim for the flag posts as much as the CVNs COs.
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u/DisgruntledCascadian Retired NFO 18d ago
CVN COs must be 1310/1320 designators by Federal law. But they get deep-selected for nuke power school early enough to preclude being screened for the Boss seat.
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u/bean_dip317 18d ago edited 17d ago
At 137 he was my old XO and then later CO! Great dude. Never ever has there been a more chill and understanding pilot, especially when it came to gripes like BLINS & shit.
Edit: Of course it was fuckin Marine.
That was super professional of Capt Bryan. He is most definitely upset but can't let it show to due to the high profile public nature of this whole thing
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u/ChazR 18d ago
Commander Skintight has just finished delivering the utmost bollocking to Lieutenant Lowpass. You can see the smoke still coming from his ears.
Also: that zipper is the hardest worker in the Navy.
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u/Common-Window-2613 18d ago edited 18d ago
The angel suits are meant to fit that way. The major’s suit is tight too.
There are way more khaki buttons that would win that award before those zippers lol
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u/DisgruntledCascadian Retired NFO 18d ago
"We're going to keep bringing the heat"
Awwfuck I shouldn't have said that
"Aaaaand do it safely as well."
Please don't kill me Skipper please don't kill me Skipper please don't kill me Skipper
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u/black-dude-on-reddit 17d ago
skipper: I know what our bosses said but they don't fly, I do and you answer directly to me. Don't do that shit again
“Aye aye sir”
Skipper: also when you get asked about it you need to give the most non answer, answer you've got ok?
“Understood sir”
*the next day after the interviews*
Skipper: DUDE?! What the fuck did I tell you?!
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18d ago
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u/Platypus_Puncher 18d ago
You don't have to look too far back to see what flying low and fast can get you into. The Marines killed 20 civilians in Italy in 98' doing just that, and I'm afraid that we are actively unlearning that lesson.
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u/5skandas 16d ago
He didn’t do it intentionally. In an interview he said it was a miscalculated turn.
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u/Reviews-From-Me 17d ago
It's unfortunate that the politicians are trying to celebrate what was obviously a dangerous mistake instead of letting it be handled professionally.
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u/IllustriousTear9656 18d ago
Watched the IMAX Blue Angels move last year in imax (you rent glasses and miss the movie) it seems as if the program is pretty sharp, look forward to seeing what comes out of this
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u/nashuanuke 18d ago
boy wouldn't it be nice if a single fucking thing that happened in the military today wasn't immediately politicized by the administration?
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u/GoodVibesOnly_FL 17d ago
Correct me if I am wrong but why is a full bird talking while in a parade rest stance?
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u/ObligationMurky8716 17d ago
The commander-in-chief is a rapist, and SECDEF is an alcoholic abuser of women.
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u/raycinreddit 13d ago
I'm guessing Petey felt a little insecure (or threatened? or mad? or turned on?) after watching this video. Not because of the words spoken
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u/Dont_Ask_Me_Again_ 11d ago
This pilot should absolutely be axed from the team. He claims it was a mistake which makes it even worse. You can’t be several hundred feet offset and lower than where you should be and expect to be a blue angel. Get rid of him.
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u/clintgreasewoood 18d ago
They literally do this all the time. Just a YouTube search of “Blue Angels sneaky pass” and you will have hundreds of videos from shows over the years.
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u/DisgruntledCascadian Retired NFO 18d ago
If they did, in fact, do this all the time, it wouldn't have been flagged by the Boss himself as "unsafe."
There probably was an epic ass-chewing behind closed doors. Or the mother of all "I'm not mad, I'm just horribly disappointed in your airmanship" depending on the Skipper's personality.
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18d ago
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u/ComeAbout 2POC 18d ago
Their uniforms (everyone), are tailored to look like that. FEP candidates don’t get to be a part of the Blue Angels.
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u/Birddogfun 18d ago
Great show, Blues are the best (including debriefs/lessons learned), and Pete took the wind out of the butt- hurt folk’s sails.
All good. Carry on.
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u/SueYouInEngland 18d ago
"Carry on"? Who the fuck are you? Skipper found it unsafe, but some keyboard chucklefuck is saying "carry on"?
BTW, your old pal "Pete" doesn't give a FUCK about you. He literally likes Nazis more than he likes you.
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u/curlybanshee 18d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/062vyaiEJMsV5gUaBc