Blue Angels honor fellow ‘frontline warriors’ – with flyover for grateful doctors and nurses

Woooooo!

They jumped, screamed, waved — and some cried.

It was an emotional moment of release for dozens of doctors and nurses who gathered atop a parking garage attached to Rush University Hospital to watch the Blue Angels roar overhead Tuesday — one of dozens of perches health care workers across the city took up to view the famed jets.

“This is for show, but they are our military, they’re our frontline warriors, such as ourselves these days, and just to see those guys think of us and put on that show is very touching and it makes you want to go back in the hospital and work even harder,” said Melissa Carey, a nurse who oversees anesthesia operations that are necessary to intubate —the medical term for inserting a tube into an airway — COVID-19 patients.

The Blue Angels — a group of precision-flying Navy jets that is regularly featured in air shows across the country — performed a flyby in Chicago Tuesday to honor health care and other essential workers.

The jets flew almost directly over Rush University Medical Center near Harrison and Ashland as they looped around the city.

Patients battling COVID-19 could be seen at their hospital room windows across from the parking garage.

“It’s just nice to be recognized and be able to take a step away and enjoy this for five minutes. It doesn’t even seem real,” said Kydie Schriver, a nurse who works with COVID-19 patients. “It was emotional. I teared up. But I’m a crier,” she said with a laugh.

The jets flew in a Delta triangle formation, about six feet apart from each other, as they passed over Chicago, Navy Chief Petty Officer Chad Pratt told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Health care workers at Rush University Medical Center watch from the roof of the hospital’s parking structure as the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in their honor, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Melissa Arroyo (left), an occupational therapist, and nurse Michelle Byjos, who both work at Rush University Medical Center, get emotional while watching from the roof of the hospital’s parking structure as the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in honor of health care workers, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Health care workers at Rush University Medical Center watch from the roof of the hospital’s parking structure as the Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in their honor, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Health care workers at Stroger Hospital watch in front of the hospital’s main entrance as the Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in their honor, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Annie Costabile/Sun-Times

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Health care workers at Stroger Hospital watch in front of the hospital’s main entrance as the Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in their honor, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Annie Costabile/Sun-Times

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Health care workers at Stroger Hospital watch in front of the hospital’s main entrance as the Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in their honor, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Annie Costabile/Sun-Times

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Health care workers at Stroger Hospital watch in front of the hospital’s main entrance as the Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in their honor, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Annie Costabile/Sun-Times

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Health care workers at Stroger Hospital watch in front of the hospital’s main entrance as the Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in their honor, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Annie Costabile/Sun-Times

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Health care workers at Stroger Hospital watch in front of the hospital’s main entrance as the Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in their honor, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Annie Costabile/Sun-Times

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Health care workers at Stroger Hospital watch in front of the hospital’s main entrance as the Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in their honor, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Annie Costabile/Sun-Times

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Health care workers at Rush University Medical Center watch from the roof of the hospital’s parking structure as the Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in their honor, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Health care workers at Rush University Medical Center watch from the roof of the hospital’s parking structure as the Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in their honor, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Health care workers at Rush University Medical Center watch from the roof of the hospital’s parking structure as the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in their honor, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Health care workers at Rush University Medical Center watch from the roof of the hospital’s parking structure as the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in their honor, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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A doctor at Rush University Medical Center looks out a window and waits for the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels to fly over Chicago in honor of health care workers, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Health care workers at Rush University Medical Center watch from the roof of the hospital’s parking structure as the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in their honor, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Health care workers walk back into Rush University Medical Center after watching from the roof of the hospital’s parking structure as the Navy’s Blue Angels fly over Chicago in their honor, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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A doctor at Rush University Medical Center looks out a window and waits for the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels to fly over Chicago in honor of health care workers, Tuesday morning, May 12, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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People watch and take pictures as the Blue Angels fly along Chicago’s Lakefront, Tuesday, May 12, 2020. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

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A group of people including medical professionals from Northwestern Hospital gather at Lake Shore Park at 808 North Lake Shore Dr. to watch the Blue Angels flyover of Chicago, Tuesday, May 12, 2020. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

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They looped around the city at 400 miles an hour as low as 1,500 feet, Pratt said.

They took off from their home base in Pensacola, Fla., Tuesday morning and headed north to roar over Detroit, then Chicago and finally Indianapolis before heading home.

The jets — F/A-18 Hornets — didn’t make any landings in order to limit the pilots’ exposure to COVID-19. During the six and half hour flight the jets refueled in midair as many as five or six times, Pratt said.

There were six jets flying in formation over Chicago. A seventh jet with a pilot and a photographer trailed the group to capture images of the flyby.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times