Sky dancer

Mission accomplished

Blue Angels pilot John Foley had what it takes to become “the best of the best”

by Bondo Wyszpolski

The Blue Angels, those darlings of jaw-dropping airshows, flew into IMAX theaters last week. The eponymous film, directed by Paul Crowder and produced by J.J. Abrams of “Star Wars” fame, showcases the grace and beauty, both human and technical, that distinguished these pilots and their planes.

Back in 1977, a young man named John Foley graduated from Miraleste High School in Rancho Palos Verdes. Years earlier, at an airshow in Newport, Rhode Island, he turned to his father after watching the Blue Angels flying overhead, and he said, “Dad, I’m gonna do that.”

Foley senior was in the military and the family moved often, never staying long in one place: John Foley says they lived in seven states before coming to California. They did, however, remain long enough on the Peninsula for Foley to spend his high school years at Miraleste, where he participated in wrestling and football.

“Palos Verdes,” he tells me over the telephone from his home in Sun Valley, Idaho, “gave me the background to reach my hopes and dreams.” Formative years, he adds, and foundational years as well.
After high school, Foley attended the University of Colorado for one year before transferring to the Naval Academy.

He steadily ascended the ranks, and a few years later, during the early 1990s, he was one of the few U.S. military pilots — just one-tenth of one percent — who became a Blue Angel pilot and a lead solo pilot on top of that. He says that Blue Angel pilots are generally between the ages of 30 and 33, and that it takes about eight years of experience in order to become one. Despite all that effort and training, one-third of the team is new every year, and so the shelf life of an active Blue Angels pilot is essentially three years. And yet, though their time together is brief, Foley calls it “an elite family.”

During his tenure as a Blue Angel, Foley mentions flying in Moscow with the Russians in 1992. “We left there arm in arm,” he says of the shared camaraderie, something rather hard to envision today. He was also among those piloting jets in “Top Gun,” the Tom Cruise film (the Blue Angels do not do combat missions; they’re sort of the Harlem Globetrotters of trained Navy pilots). Asked how realistic the flying sequences were, Foley replies that “they were a little of both; some are real stories, some are extreme,” with the truth “somewhere more in the middle.”

Early on, Foley was given a nickname, Gucci. When asked where it came from, this is what he told me: “When I was a young naval aviator flying in Fallon, Nevada, we were doing some training and decided to go out on the town that evening and I showed up wearing a thin black leather tie, which wasn’t cool even in the ‘80s. My teammates were wearing jeans and T-shirts, which is what they had Tom Cruise wear in the first movie.” And, after a pause, “I flinched and didn’t like it, and that’s why it stuck.”

Faster than a speeding bullet?

These days, Foley is more of a motivational speaker and a performance coach, probably on the lecture circuit 200 days a year as opposed to the 300 when he was a Blue Angel, but the wisdom he expresses and dispenses when he addresses an audience are of course the ripened fruit of his days in the air, handling a 22-ton F/A-18 Hornet at speeds often close to 500 m.p.h. When Foley says that was living life on the edge, you’ll not about to doubt him. But of course when the half-dozen jets are flying in formation, only inches apart, it’s every bit a team effort. He mentions what’s required beforehand, getting into a state of deep focus, the need for humility and honest communication with the other pilots, and that each pilot has to take responsibility for his own outcome. Perhaps it narrows down to one word Foley often uses: mindset.

He likens the Blue Angels airshows to a ballet in the sky. But whereas a ballerina is unlikely to tumble off the stage and die, a mistake thousands of feet above Earth can be fatal, and an online source mentions that one in 10 Blue Angels pilots have died on the job. Awareness and precision are necessary at every moment, and that’s why Foley calls these pilots “the best of the best.” No one’s texting or checking emails once they leave the ground. It’s kind of like that song by Wilson Pickett, “Ninety-Nine And A Half (Won’t Do)”.

We didn’t speak long enough for me to ask Foley if the Blue Angels can fly faster than Superman or if he can handle L.A. traffic on a Friday evening as gracefully as an airplane, but I did ask what he’d thought he’d be if suddenly he was thrust back into Roman times. He mulls over the question, and says probably a centurion. Or maybe, I’m thinking, he would have been a charioteer, won races, and then become the Marcus Aurelius of self-help at the Roman Forum.

After leaving the Navy, Foley attended the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the result being that he figured out how he could integrate the discipline learned as an elite pilot with the workings of the business world, and from this he segued into conveying his knowledge and acquired wisdom to people looking for motivation and a path to self-fulfillment.

Foley started his Glad To Be Here® foundation in 2011, the purpose of which was to foster “a culture of gratitude, purpose, passion, and presence.” His keynote topics, as they’re listed on his website, are Mindset, Leadership, Culture, Teamwork, Trust, and Innovation. On the phone, as well as in his talks, he speaks of the need to find a quiet place in one’s heart and head, to be present in the moment, to follow one’s dreams and to reach for the stars.

I point out that it must be difficult to stay upbeat when looking at the world news.

Foley agrees that it’s not all sunshine and roses, but says one needs to stay focused on the positive: “It’s a choice we all have to make. How do you want to show up today?” Furthermore, he adds, and he’ll ask himself this each day, “What am I grateful for in the present moment?” This reminds me of what Mickey Spillane once said, “Any day above ground is a good day.”

In short, Foley wants to help us connect to our authentic selves. He has one book published, “Fearless Success,” and another soon ready for lift-off.

Regarding Memorial Day, which is just around the corner, Foley says, “I’m grateful to everybody, to those trying to make the world a better place.” Plenty of gratitude seems due to John Foley as well, a man who wants all of us to be the very best that we can, to reach for the stars and to grab hold of the one with our name on it. PEN