Los Angeles Times: Air Show Is Infused With Newfound Spirit

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RESPONSE TO TERROR
Air Show Is Infused With Newfound Spirit
Military: The crowds at the massive event in Florida feel a special connection
with the nation's defenders after the turbulent events of the last eight months.
By JOHN-THOR DAHLBURG
TIMES STAFF WRITER

May 5 2002

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- It bills itself as the nation's biggest thank you note
to the military, and this year, Americans clearly had reasons to be grateful.

This weekend, the skies and seas off this South Florida resort city are filled
with some of the latest in U.S. military hardware, including the Navy's most
recently commissioned aircraft carrier, the Harry S. Truman, and the bat-winged
B-2 Stealth bomber.

On Saturday afternoon, Marines in full combat gear rode on P7 amphibious assault
vehicles and crashed onto the sandy beach in a mock landing, and the Navy's Blue
Angels performed high-speed aerobatics. The spectacle brought tears to the eyes
of Carol Kilroy, a 54-year-old sales representative from Windermere, Fla.

"It's totally awesome and I'm totally proud of all of them," the Huntington
Beach native said. "It gives you a clear eye as to what's really going on and
what they have to go through, being on the front lines and all that."

In the 1990s, Fort Lauderdale was casting around for an event to prolong its
tourist season and replace spring break, the student bacchanalia that had given
the city the unwelcome nickname of "Fort Liquordale," said Elaine Fitzgerald, a
spokeswoman for the Air & Sea Show.

In 1995, an impresario from Chicago named Mickey Markoff organized the first
display of American military might here, with corporate sponsors helping
underwrite expenses.

An estimated 800,000 people turned out that first year. This weekend, if
organizers' estimates are correct, as many as 3 million people could attend
what's considered the biggest air show in the world and the most lavish display
of the contemporary equipment and talents of the Army, Navy, Air Force and
Marines, according to Gordon Bowman-Jones, a professional air show announcer.

For the military, the show even has become a prime occasion to troll for new
talent. On Saturday, Army recruiters set up an artificial rock-climbing wall
near the A1A beachfront highway and encouraged visitors to try to scale it.

"This show is the biggest event as far as recruiting goes for the U.S. Army,"
said Staff Sgt. Phillip Woolsey, 24. "People can see us, and see what the Army
has to offer."

-- continued --

Recruiters were taking the names and phone numbers of climbers, Woolsey said,
and will call to see whether they're interested in enlisting.

This is the third year that Staff Sgt. Allen Murphy, 31, has pulled duty at the
Air & Sea Show, and the veteran said he detected a distinct change in visitors'
attitudes toward the military this year.

"It's been more positive," Murphy said. "People paying us compliments, wanting
to take their pictures with us. We've been getting noticed."

Saturday's crowds, which gathered in sweltering sunshine along a four-mile
stretch of oceanfront, clapped and cheered especially loudly for the hardware
that has been used during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, including
the B-52 bomber, the F/A-18 Hornet fighter/attack aircraft and the F-14 Tomcat
fighter. Streaking by at an ear-splitting 500 mph, six Blue Angels in their
F-18s dedicated one maneuver to all American forces deployed to track down those
responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

"In my 10 years with the Navy, I've always felt we had a strong relationship
with the community, but since Sept. 11, it's grown stronger," said Lt. Chris
Loundermon, a Navy spokesman.

"We were attacked in our own backyard and have been fighting for our very
freedom."

Split-second coordination is required at the event, which also features civilian
stunt fliers and vintage aircraft, including a PBY flying boat, B-25 bomber and
F-86F Sabre fighter. Military aircraft converge on Fort Lauderdale from numerous
bases, with the B-2 flying from its home field at Whiteman Air Force Base in
Missouri.

"The pilots have to be within six seconds of the schedule," Fitzgerald said.

Some participants sounded as enthusiastic as the crowd.

Two miles above the crowd, Staff Sgt. Calvin Fredlake, a member of the Army's
Golden Knights parachute team, jumped out of an aircraft and rocketed earthward
at up to 170 mph. Trailing an American flag, the 31-year-old from Guttenberg,
Iowa, landed precisely on a small X placed on the sand. Fred- lake said he had
felt that millions of eyes were upon him.

"It's so great to jump by the ocean with a crowd that you can see forever, up
and down the beach," he said. "I feel like a movie star right now--that's what's
going through my mind."

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