1st Marine Blues pilot remembered

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Every year, millions of people take in the Navy's Blue Angels aviation spectacle. When Jacksonville resident Lynne Kelly sees the Blues, she sees her beloved grandfather, Marine Capt. Chuck Hiett, in the cockpit of the No. 5 plane. He was the first Marine pilot to join the team in 1954. Hiett and the crew made great memories, coming up with a new flight maneuver called the “solo loop to landing.” according to Kelly. “He just told me stories (and) would laugh,” she said. He only performed with the group for one year after that, eventually moving on with his career and achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1967, he was contacted "to be their flight leader,” Kelly told News4 JAX. “Unfortunately, the Marine Corps Commandant ... sent him to Vietnam.” In the 1970s, the Blue Angels sent a request to add a C-130 to the team. Hiett saw it and found the only C-130 that wasn’t planned to be a tanker and approved the request. After that, he thought of himself "as the father of the legendary Fat Albert." For his service and history-making stint with the Blues, which started in Jacksonville in the early 1950s, Kelly said Hiett was awarded the Gray Award. Sadly, he wasn’t able to see it. He died in March at age 93. (Source: News4JAX 05/19/22) Remembering Capt. Chuck Hiett: The Blue Angels’ first Marine Corps pilot (news4jax.com)