page_title: Roy Marlin Voris
section_title: Blue Angels 1st tour (1946–1947)
hierarchical_section_title: Roy Marlin Voris / Military career / Blue Angels 1st tour (1946–1947)
caption_attribution_description: On 25 August 1946, the Blue Angels transitioned to the Grumman F8F-1 Bearcat and introduced the famous "diamond" formation.
context_page_description: Captain Roy Marlin "Butch" Voris was an aviator in the United States Navy, a World War II flying ace, and the founder of the Navy's flight demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels. During his 22-year naval career Voris flew everything from biplanes to modern jets, and afterward was instrumental in the development of the Navy's F-14 Tomcat strike fighter and NASA's Apollo Lunar Module, both produced by the Grumman Aerospace Corporation.
  Often called a "fighter pilot's fighter pilot" and ranked with other better-known American military aviation greats such as Gregory "Pappy" Boyington and Chuck Yeager, Voris was a big man with close-cropped hair, known for his even-temperedness and coolness in the cockpit. Owing to his superb piloting skills, he survived numerous accidents and emergency situations. Voris was nearly killed by a Japanese Zero that attacked his aircraft during the defense of Guadalcanal in what he later described as his first "real" dog fight.
context_section_description: In 1946, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Chester Nimitz ordered the formation of a flight exhibition team to boost Navy morale, demonstrate naval air power, and maintain public interest in naval aviation. However, an underlying mission was to help the Navy generate public and political support for a larger allocation of the shrinking defense budget. Another reason was to show potential recruits that aviation was inherently safe once pilots were trained. Being able to perform 3-dimensional close proximity manoeuvring would also be awe inspiring. In April of that year, Rear Admiral Ralph Davison personally selected Voris to assemble and train a flight demonstration squadron, naming him Officer-in-Charge and Flight Leader. Voris selected two fellow instructors to join him (Lt. Maurice "Wick" Wickendoll and Lt. Mel Cassidy, both veterans of the War in the Pacific), and the three spent countless hours developing the show. The group perfected their initial maneuvers in secret over the Florida Everglades so that, in Voris' words, "...if anything happened, just the alligators would know." Another significant driving factor for Voris (and the secrecy) was the fact that Army Air Corps aeronautical genius, hero and legend, Jimmy Doolittle, now a general in the newly created U.S. Air Force, might just create a similar aerial demonstration team and beat the Navy in going public. Their first demonstration before Navy officials took place on May 10, 1946 and was met with enthusiastic approval.
  On June 15 Voris led a trio of Grumman F6F-5 Hellcats, specially modified to reduce weight and painted sea blue with gold leaf trim, through their inaugural 15-minute-long performance at the Southern Air Show at Jacksonville, Florida's Craig Field. The group, known simply as the "Navy Flight Exhibition Team", thrilled spectators with low-flying maneuvers performed in tight formations, and (according to Voris) by "...keeping something in front of the crowds at all times. My objective was to beat the Army Air Corps. If we did that, we'd get all the other side issues. I felt that if we weren't the best, it would be my naval career." The Blue Angels' first public demonstration also netted the team its first trophy, which sits on display at the team's current home in Naval Air Station Pensacola.
  The team soon became known worldwide for its spectacular aerobatic stunts. During a trip to the "Big Apple", Lt. Wickendoll came across an advertisement in The New Yorker for the city's popular "Blue Angel" nightclub. Voris liked the name and on July 19 officially made it the team's moniker. On August 25 the squadron upgraded their aircraft to the F8F-1 Bearcat. Though Voris left the team on May 30, 1947 the "Blues" continued to perform nationwide until the start of the Korean War in 1950, when (due to a shortage of pilots)  the team was disbanded and its members were ordered to combat duty. Once aboard the aircraft carrier USS Princeton the group formed the core of VF-191, Satan's Kittens.
caption: On August 25, 1946 the Blue Angels transitioned to the Grumman F8F-1 Bearcat and introduced the famous "diamond" formation.
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