It’s all over the news this April 2017 week in New Orleans. The Navy’s Blue Angels return, after a six year hiatus, to Belle Chasse for another air show. Along with all the attendant stories of G-force, incredible speeds, and death-defying stunts.
And watching the news coverage I couldn’t help but flashback to my radio days, (cue the harp music interlude) ~ it was the spring of 1984, Belle Chasse Naval Air Base. As Q-93 Radio afternoon air personality Mike McCann, I was invited to take part in promoting the upcoming airshow at the base.
This proved to be one of the more remarkable days of my entire life. Picture yourself, if you can, hurtling through the skies over the Gulf of Mexico at over 500 mph UPSIDE down in the cockpit of an A-4 Skyhawk jet!
My co-pilot? Lieutenant Commander Mike Gershon. Square-jawed, clear-eyed, Bond-like, heroic, courageous, fearless… and dead way before his time. Little did either of us realize the day we flew together that the very next year at an airshow in Niagara Falls he would make history.
Mike Gershon became one of the few Blue Angels to ever perish in action. The crash was fiery, frightening and unforgettable. And today, courtesy of the you tube crowd, you can bear witness to the tragedy – as well as meet Mike & his widow, Sherri, here …
Lieutenant Commander Gershon – together with his #7 jet pictured – now belong to the ages. But today, I’d just like to say…’ Mike, thanks ever so for this incredible memory, sir. For the laughs, jokes, stories, and this fantastically joyous ride-of-a-lifetime!’
And for the 21st century reminder that not all heroes die in battle.
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