The Sublime Terror of the Blue Angels

Recently, there was a campaign to stop the Blue Angels, the Navy’s flight demonstration squadron, from their performance at Seattle’s annual “Seafair,” for being “too loud,” causing pollution, and triggering war trauma. Being from Seattle, I have fond memories of watching, but mostly hearing the roar of the F-18’s. While such performances may seem unremarkable, the truth is that they are of incredible importance — not just for the sake of military preparedness, but also as a source of intense psychological terror for our enemies, something illuminated by Book V of Virgil’s Aeneid.