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August 7, 2010
Terror from the skies.
Back in our Seattle days, each August brought Seafair—a massive orgy of petroleum consumption via hydroplane races on Lake Washington and flyovers by the Blue Angels overhead.
When a McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet passes a hundred feet or so above you, there's an explosively pants-soiling blast that shakes windows, terrifies pets, and triggers every fight-or-flight hormone available. And for anyone living on the perimeter of downtown Seattle during Seafair, there's virtually no warning of the blasts that recur throughout the day, because these marvels of American technology are flying so god damned fast and low to the ground.
But I'd never thought about how that insane roar might affect people who've been exposed to something far more real:
Last Seafair, I was assigned to work the inpatient psych unit at the Seattle VA. The Blue Angels tastefully used the VA building as a landmark on their strafing aerobatic runs over I-90. The psych unit is on the top floor. My ambivalence about the Angels was spent by the end of the long weekend of close passes...A typical patient on that weekend had gone camping—deep into the woods if possible—on the preceding July 4th weekend. Combat memories and fireworks don't mix. But, you're new to Seattle. You don't know of the Blue Angels and Seafair. This is one trigger of the memories you didn't plan for. The horror starts to rise. You panic.
This sounds wishy-washy; it isn't. There is real neuroscience behind shell shock. The sound of the F/A-18's F404 engines is more than enough trigger for those struggling to put away their demons. So, no, I'm not the biggest fan of the Blue Angels.
Working Inpatient Psych at the VA with the Blue Angels (Jonathan Golob on Slog)
