On the Limit: featuring RADM David Anderson, USN (Ret) | Produced by Ryan Nothhaft

David Anderson is a retired United States Navy rear admiral and former pilot for the Navy’s Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels.

A native of Savannah, Georgia, David “Hollywood'' Anderson knew from the age of seven that he wanted to be an aviator. After a visit with a recruiter while attending the University of Georgia, Anderson joined the Navy and was commissioned as a naval officer in October of 1977.

Selecting the A6 Intruder as his platform of choice, Anderson completed deployments on both sea and shore before acquiring the minimal number of flight hours and submitting an application to join the Blue Angels for the 1984 season. With his initial application declined, Anderson received encouragement from the team’s Narrator, LCDR Mike Gershon, to reapply for the 1985 season. Heeding Gershon’s advice, Anderson was selected to join the 1985 team and follow Gershon’s footsteps as the voice of the Blue Angels.

In the penultimate year of the Blue Angels’ utilization of the A4 Skyhawk, Anderson relished his role as narrator, taking advantage of the opportunity to visit show sites in advance to establish relationships in the local communities and develop a better understanding of how each site operates. As part of the scope of his role, Anderson conducted media and VIP flights to bolster the awareness of the Blue Angels and their mission to inspire excellence.

Through the connections of television producer and former Blue Angel pilot, E. Duke VIncent, Anderson participated in the production of the documentary “Touch the Sky” where he was featured giving “SuperMan” actor Christopher Reeve a ride in the back of the team’s T-A4 Skyhawk.

Before season’s end, the Blue Angels would suffer a terrible tragedy on July 14th,1985 during the Western New York Air Show in Niagara Falls where LCDR Mike Gershon, the team’s Opposing Solo, lost his life in a collision. The team finished the season with five aircraft and with a dilemma as to who would serve as the Lead Solo for the 1986 season.

Curt Watson, who had just finished his third season with the Blue Angels, was selected to fill the Lead Solo role for 1986. This presented a unique challenge as Anderson transitioned to the Opposing Solo role and neither he or Watson had ever flown in the Solo program. Despite their lack of experience, Anderson describes the 1986 season as his best year on the team.

1986 was also notable in that CRD Gil Rud joined as the team’s new flight leader and after 13 years as the Blue Angels’ demonstration aircraft, the A4 Skyhawk flew it’s final demo at the November Homecoming Air Show at NAS Pensacola. The event also marked the debut of the team’s new F/18 Hornet, the platform that would serve the Blue Angels for the next 36 years.

With the team now frozen with the exception of Curt Watson who could not stay for a fifth consecutive year, the Blue Angels began to familiarize themselves with their new F/18 Hornets, of which, none of the pilots had flown in combat or acquired any significant flight time. To accomplish this, the team made a trip to Cecil Field and underwent a rigorous training syllabus over the course of several weeks.

The Blue Angels’ goal for the 1987 season was to put together a safe demo with little focus on innovation related to new maneuvers. It was during Winter Training in El Centro, California that the team started to build their demo one maneuver at a time in an effort to replicate the sequences from the A4 Skyhawk the season prior. Facing a number of challenges, including the absence of an inverted fuel tank and not having full flight clearances to execute a number of maneuvers, the team would lose their first F/18 to an accident on February 12th when Anderson’s jet lost both engines while testing a maneuver with a high degree of difficulty. Despite having to eject at a low altitude, Anderson returned to training just two days later and the Blue Angels performed their first F/18 demonstration at MCAS Yuma Air Show on April 24, 1987 as scheduled.

As a Navy pilot, Anderson accumulated more than 4,500 flight hours and 650 carrier landings. David Anderson retired in 2010 with the rank of rear admiral after 30 years of service to the Navy.

VIDEO CREDITS:

Produced by: Ryan Nothhaft
Video footage from: "Rolling in the Sky" | "Skyhawk to Hornet" | "Touch the Sky"
Air show footage provided by: David Anderson, Wayne Molnar, Curt Watson Ryan Nothhaft

VIDEO TIMESTAMPS

0:00 - Intro
0:30 Journey to join the Blue Angels
1:20 Blue Angels Narrator | 1985
1:41 Flying Christopher Reeve
2:54 Opposing Solo | 1986
5:29 The debut of the Blue Angels F/18 Hornet
6:58 Lead Solo | 1987
8:58 Transition to the F/18 Hornet
10:46 Ejection during Winter Training
13:41 Air show memories