Reminds me of my time in the MN Air National Guard. I was part of the technical crew for a mobile Air Traffic unit so we'd set up our mobile tower and hook up communications at the beginning of an event, then have nothing to do until the end. Any time the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds were at a show they would require Military Air Traffic control if possible so we'd do a bunch of air shows each summer. After we were done setting up the tower, usually right out on the air field, we'd set up a little camo for some shade, pull out the lawn chairs and sit watching the show with the best seats in the house. You could actually see the pilots faces as they flew by on low runs, often times they'd give us a salute as they went by.
One time we even got in good with the maintenance crew for the Blue Angels and I got to ride along in their C-130 when they did their short runway JATO take off. We pulled like 3.5+ G's or more, they wouldn't give us an official number because they weren't supposed to go over 3g's(I think it was 3) when they had non-team members in the plane. So we got the official "Yep, we did 3g's" with a wink and a nod. We actually were lifted out of our seats, they told us ahead of time to keep our seat belts nice and loose, and then on the rotation over the top it was hard to lift your arms as it pushed you down in your seat.
Was one of my top military time highlights.
