“I saw Top Gun” and that was it. I wanted to fly,” said Greg McWherter.
After watching that iconic movie in 1986 — the same year McWherter graduated high school — not only did he go on to fly, McWherter became the commanding officer of possibly the most well-known aviation corps in the country, the Navy’s flight demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels.
This weekend, the Blue Angels fly into Georgia as headliner of the Wings Over Atlanta Air Show at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta.
This year’s team includes two Atlanta natives, McWherter and lead solo pilot Lieutenant Commander Frank Weisser.
The idea of being a Blue Angel was secondary for McWherter; being a TOPGUN (United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program) fighter pilot was first on the list.
“Like many guys I felt [the Blue Angels] didn’t need a guy like me. I assumed they wanted kind of a picture-perfect poster kind of guy,” he said. “I thought that I was very middle of the road, and it turned out that’s what the Blue Angels look for.”
McWherter, a 20-year Navy veteran, grew up in DeKalb County’s Avondale Estates and graduated from Avondale High School. He was accepted to The Citadel military college in South Carolina and graduated with honors in 1990 with a degree in civil engineering. Flight school followed at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla., and McWherter earned his Wings of Gold in 1992. He went on to graduate TOPGUN in 1995, became an instructor, completed two more Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf deployments and commanded the “World Famous Golden Dragons," a Navy fighter squadron stationed at the Naval Air Station in Lemoore, Calif., before taking command of the Blue Angels in November 2008.
For McWherter traveling the country and sharing the story of his military service and that of the Navy, which the Blue Angels do, is ideal. What he didn’t know was how different the flying was.
“In TOPGUN you do and then talk, in Blue Angels you talk and then do when it comes to maneuvers,” he said. “You’re flying 12 inches apart so you have to be in constant communication.”
At the beginning, becoming a Blue Angel is like applying for any other job: there’s an application that must be completed and a resume that must be submitted. And the similarities with a regular job end there. Team members must pass a personality test to assess their compatibility with the team they will be traveling with more than 300 days a year. Pilots must have a certain number of flight hours and pass agility tests. Team members pick the incoming members, without political or Navy pressure, McWherter said. Most pilots selected for the team have already served between seven and 10 years in the military.
Commanding officers, like McWherter, are chosen by a group of former Blue Angels’ commanders who meet in Pensacola every two years to select the next leader. The demonstration pilots, maintenance officer, events coordinator and flight surgeon serve two-year tours; all other members serve for three years.
Weisser, the squadron’s lead solo pilot, got into the military not specifically to fly, but to serve his country in whatever way he could. After graduating from North Springs High School (now North Springs Charter School of Arts and Sciences), the Sandy Springs native enrolled at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
His mother, Phyllis, remembers when Weisser was first bitten by the military bug.
"When he was in sixth grade he read Lords of Discipline and it was [based on] The Citadel, and after that he wanted to be in some branch of the service," she said. "He chose the Navy and at first he wanted to be a SEAL, and the Navy decided he should be an aviator. He said the first time in the air it was magic to him."
Weisser received his wings of gold in November 2002. He later became an instructor pilot and deployed in 2005 for combat missions over Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Weisser saw the Blue Angels fly at Dobbins at an air show in 1984 and again in 2004. This time he’s in the cockpit.
“Even now we’re only two weeks away and I find it hard to believe that we’re going to Atlanta,” Weisser said. “It’s surreal.”
Like McWherter, this is Weisser’s last year on the Blue Angels squadron, after three years of service, including his first year as the group’s narrator. Before the weekend show, Weisser plans to visit his former high school in North Fulton and talk with members of the junior ROTC.
"My message will be the same as it always is: not necessarily about joining the military," he said. "But about doing a job that you can be proud of, doing something to serve your country."
If you go
The Wings Over Atlanta Air Show at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta runs Oct. 16-17. In addition to the Blue Angels, the show will feature the Canadian Snowbirds and the U.S. Air Force Academy's Wings of Blue parachute team. The show begins at 10 a.m.
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