Blue Eagles

Associated sites:
Army Historic Aircraft Flight | The Museum of Army Flying | Army Air Corps Recruiting

Blue Eagles end of year message.

As the year draws to a close it is appropriate that we draw a line under the events that have befallen the team during 2002.

At a late stage in the run-up to this year’s season the Lynx was withdrawn due to operational pressures brought about by the tragic events of 9/11. This had a major impact on the team, training schedules were changed, a couple of team members were stood down and Major Ray Turner transferred from the Lynx to the lead Gazelle slot.

That this years’ display was so dynamic is a credit to all of the team members and in particular to the Team Leader who had to completely re-design the display at very short notice.

Our display season was shortened by two months and the number of displays reduced to just half of those performed in 2001. This impacted severely on the amount of exposure that we were able to achieve with the public and in consequence reduced the number of you that we were able to meet this year.

Throughout all of these trying times we have been heartened by the reaction of all of our supporters around the world. Letters and e-mails have continued to pour in, expressing interest in all of our activities and support for the changes that we were forced to make.

Another area that has caused us great disappointment is our means of communicating with you, our friends. With the loss of the Lynx from the team it reduced our ability to carry our dedicated support crew from our webmasters – DeltaWeb. As most of you have probably noticed, the frequency of website updates has reduced drastically from that of 2001.

It is far too early to know for certain the shape the team will be in for our 35th Anniversary year. We are planning for the best eventuality; the return to the Blue Eagles of it’s ever popular star performer – the Lynx. We are also hopeful that we will return to the full display season comprising approximately 45 displays all over the UK and who knows, maybe even a return to some European venues.

So, in closing I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a very merry Christmas and all luck and success for 2003.

Colin Dunscombe
Maj AAC
Officer Commanding and Manager
The Blue Eagles

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