Essays

Two great air shows

Post & Courier, April 24, 2022

I was lucky enough to watch the recent Joint Base Charleston air show featuring the Blue Angels from the comfort of my driveway.

Three jets swooped and veered above my neighborhood pond, crossing the blue bowl of Sunday sky in unison, a feat that caused me to marvel at both the bravery and skill of the pilots, and the cleverness of the planes’ designers.

Impressed as I was by this example of man’s technical superiority over beast, my pride in our accomplishments was given pause on a recent afternoon by three Canada geese.

Observed in flight, they swooped and veered through the sky. They circled the pond in V-formation, mere inches between their wingtips.

They changed direction in unison, as if by magical intuition. I was awestruck and not a little impressed.

There is much we can learn from birds in flight, but I imagine that this is something aeronautical pioneers like the Wright brothers well knew, and that the Navy’s stellar Blue Angels certainly understand far better than I.

So I doff my hat to both man and beast.

JOCELYN CHABOT

Charleston