Welcome to the 2023 NAS Pensacola Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show!

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NAS Pensacola is pleased to announce the NAS Pensacola Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show on November 3-4, 2023, with the theme "Celebrating Women In Aviation." The NAS Pensacola Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show is one of Pensacola's largest events, attracting 150,000-180,000 spectators during this two-day event. There is an incredible lineup of aerobatic performers and our very own Blue Angels. 

This event is FREE and open to the public. Gates open at 8:00 AM, and the show begins at 9:30 AM. Spectators are encouraged to bring their own seating, OR paid seating is available for purchase.
 For the most up-to-date information, please call 850-462-7790.

Theme: Celebrating Women In Aviation

“You don’t need legislation to prove anything… you can be whatever you set your heart and head to be, and don’t let nobody tell you can’t be, because 1,078 women pilots did it in World War II.”
–Annelle Henderson Bulecheck (WASP 44 W 2)

In 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States desperately needed trained male pilots. Additionally, the Army was “so desperate for pilots to deliver newly built trainer aircraft” that 28 qualified
civilian female pilots volunteered to ferry the aircraft to their new homes. This was the start of the first female squadron in the summer of 1942.

Between November 1942 and December 1944, “1,074 women were trained to fly in Houston and then moved to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.”
This was the beginning of Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).

Army Air Forces Commanding General “Hap” Arnold found to officially designate WASP in 1944, but it wasn’t until 1977 when President Jimmy Carter signed their military status into law. The “1,102 Women
Airforce Service Pilots flew wingtip to wingtip with their male counterparts and were just as vital to the war effort.” In July 2022, the Navy Flight Demonstration Team, the US Navy Blue Angels, formally announced their new team members, to which they selected their first female F/A 18E/F demonstration pilot, Lt. Amanda Lee.

Lt. Lee, originally from Mounds View, Minnesota, graduated from Old Dominion University in 2013 with a degree in biochemistry. She enlisted in the Navy and served as an aviation electronics technician before applying for Officer Candidate School (OCS), where she became a naval aviator in 2016. 2 She was last assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 106 (VFA 106), the “Gladiators.”
In her tenure as a naval aviator, she participated in her “first all-female flyover in 2019 as part of the funeral service for retired Capt. Rosemary Mariner, the first woman to command a naval aviation
squadron.” Welcome to NAS Pensacola, Lt. Amanda Lee! We look forward to watching you in the skies!

History of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels

This infographic shares the history of the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels.

(U.S Navy graphic by Lisa Manresa/Released and courtesy of the Naval History & Heritage Command)

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