The Blue Angels Thunder over New Hampshire airshow took place September 6-7, 2025 over the Pease Air National Guard base. Bad weather may have shortened this year’s performance, but the event brought back memories of my own flight with them. Ten years ago this month, I flew with the Marines on their C130 nicknamed “Fat Albert.” As invited media, I got the wildest ride of my life in the 2015 Blue Angels demonstration show in Maine at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station.
Fat Albert support aircraft
The Blue Angels affectionately call their C130 support plane Fat Albert. It has been part of the Blue Angels shows since 1970. Fat Albert’s primary mission is to transport 35,000 pounds of cargo and some 60 Blue Angels team members to every show site throughout the country. With 18,000 pounds of thrust in each of the 4 Rolls Royce engines this plane delivers. Fat Albert typically opens and ends the performance with its own unique capabilities on full display. For those of us lucky enough to get to come along, they refer to it as Fat Albert Airlines. Transport logistics and speed in a flash. This is the United States Marine Corps at work.
My flight in September 2015 was led by then Marine Captain Katie Higgins. She was the first female Blue Angels pilot training with the team starting in 2014. Her first show with the Blue Angels demonstration team was March 2015 in California. She was 29 years old when we flew with her in September 2015. She was promoted to the rank of Major in 2019 and now in 2025 a Lt. Colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve.
Pre flight preparation
Our morning began by signing off and initialing pages upon pages of disclaimers and release from liability. We then got a pre-flight briefing from the Captain. Once you volunteer to go up on Fat
Albert, you learn that teamwork and precision is paramount to success and
in combat situations, survival. You learn this lesson quickly.
These performances are not about Rock Star pilots. Rather it is about teams who spend nearly 300 days together each year. The 130 active military men and women who volunteer for The Blue
Angels demonstration team build competency and trust. Accuracy and precision delivery
of tasks are completed every time precisely on time. This is the hallmark of the
Blue Angels. They are the best of the best. They are also the
human face and public relations side of what it takes to protect our
people in this technologically advanced era.
Blue Angels Captain Katie Higgins
“You don’t learn to be a good sailor in calm seas” ~ Captain Higgins
I had the opportunity to interview our pilot, Captain Katie Higgins.
On the question of leadership and advice for other women starting
out in any leadership role, she answered most appropriately that
“you don’t learn to be a good sailor in calm seas,” and supported
the need to step up and face adversity and risk to hone your skill set.
The C-130 is operated by an all-marine crew that put us through the
physical range of what Fat Albert can deliver; weightlessness at one
end and 2G’s force at the other end of the spectrum with just seconds
between the extremes.
Plus it was kinda cool to look out my window. Face down and only 150 feet off the runway at a high rate of speed.
As Fat Albert went through its paces, I found my camera starting to float away from me one minute followed by an incredible difficulty to even depress its trigger just seconds later while I was jammed into and immobilized in place at 2G’s.
I could only imagine the stress of many of the maneuvers in a real life threatening combat situation. The Blue Angels fly as close as 18 inches apart and it only takes 72 hours for a Blue Angel jet to be made combat ready.
A Salute to those in uniform
Here is a salute to the men and women in uniform and their
ambassadors who represent them in performance air shows around the country.
Whether it was representing at The Great State of Maine Airshow on Labor Day Weekend 2015 or the Thunder over New Hampshire in 2025, we appreciate those who serve and protect anywhere in the world.
