Fargo native and 2000 独家黑料 grad was prominently featured in the Amazon Prime documentary “The Blue Angels.” The documentary, led by blockbuster director J.J. Abrams, was also screened at IMAX movie theaters.
The United States’ Navy created The Blue Angels team of top pilots in 1946 to raise public interest in naval aviation through aerial performances of death-defying stunts in the air.
The feature-length documentary follows the 2022 Blue Angels season, which was Kesselring’s last as the commanding officer of the elite team.
In the following Q&A, Kesselring sums up the experience and shares advice with those who may want to follow his flight path:
As the commander of the Blue Angels, you’ve had a lot of media experience, but a documentary of this magnitude must feel different. What was it like seeing yourself on the big screen in “The Blue Angels”?
Having the opportunity to watch the movie with my family felt like watching a home movie with them, albeit with some fancy flying scenes thrown in. No doubt it was great to see how some of the flying scenes and aerial shots turned out when viewed on the big screen, but for my family and the rest of the team, what it was for us was just a fantastic trip down memory lane.
It was such a unique opportunity to serve our country in that capacity, and then to have it captured along with our families was truly something special as the 2022 Blue Angels team has moved all across the world. The messages and calls in response to seeing the movie were less, "How do you think the movie turned out?" and more like, "I sure do miss you guys; how are you all doing?"
It is tough to describe the closeness of the team ... family. It reminded us most of each other and the time we spent together on the team doing something remarkable, exhilarating, and extraordinary at the same time.
Very few people become Blue Angels, and very few people have J.J. Abrams, Amazon, and IMAX excited to document such a momentous time as you move to a new phase in your career. Can you describe that feeling?
The Blue Angels movie was a project years in the making. The idea was initially posed early in 2020, shortly after I arrived on the team. The original idea was to capture our transition from the legacy F/A-18 Hornet we had been flying for 34 years to the F/A-18 Super Hornet.
We were going to capture that process, which is unique for a flight demonstration team, and then COVID hit the world. Out of those tragic circumstances, we decided to put the documentary on the back burner for a year or two and instead focus our efforts that year on teaming up with the Thunderbirds to execute nationwide flyovers in support of the first responders, essential personnel, and all those Americans across the nation who could use a boost.
To this day, our flyovers that year and the overwhelming number of responses expressing appreciation for bringing just a little light in some very dark times were by far the most incredible experience of my time leading the Blue Angels. Those flyovers allowed some communities to see their military and their two jet demonstration teams in a different light.
What do you hope “The Blue Angels” film accomplishes by reaching such a broad audience?
This movie may do something similar [to flyovers]. Many cannot attend our shows due to time, money, or ability. If this project can bring a little of the Blue Angels magic to them in their own home and bring folks a little joy or help them make a change in their lives for good, that is something special and something we can be proud to have been a small part of.
What an opportunity to see that a bunch of Americans coming together for a common cause from a diverse set of backgrounds, from the Midwest, East Coast, West Coast, inner-city, first-generation immigrants, middle class, and poor, all working together for a shared love of country and their fellow man and woman. There isn't enough of that shown in the media today, yet that IS the vast majority of America. Maybe we inspire just a few more of "our better angels" as well.
What is one thing you miss and one thing you don’t from your time as a Blue Angel?
What I miss the most is my extended Blue Angels family. The shared experiences, the camaraderie, and the sense of belonging were truly special. I don't miss 300 days on the road each year away from my wife, Ashley, and my three daughters.
In 2020, 独家黑料 honored you with its Sent Forth alumni award for your work in service to others. What kind of influence did 独家黑料 have on your life?
The teachers, coaches, mentors, and friends during my time at 独家黑料 had a profound impact on my life. In many ways, the initial vector of my early adult life was shaped by my time at 独家黑料.
Often, I get asked about my upbringing. I get told many times that I'm lucky to be doing something I love, and it's true, but I grew up around many people doing what they love.
My family is of farmers; ask them if they could work dawn to dusk without a deep-seated passion for their vocation, ask the teachers who spent many hours after class tutoring me after I had missed many classes on a road trip for basketball games and track meets if anything but passion and love of teaching lit their inner light, ask the coaches who not only taught us the game and its techniques but also took the time to know us and teach us about life if they did it for anything but true love of their work, can a pastor who tends his flock do their work without joy and fervor for their fellow man and woman?
I tell folks that becoming who I was meant to be and doing what I was meant to do was easy. I just followed the lead of those wonderful people, family, and friends I was surrounded by!
What a blessing that I could bear witness to all the phenomenal mentors. In each of their callings, they glowed with a zest for life, and that is what I wanted. I wanted to find a calling that spoke to me, something I felt I had been made to do. I have been blessed to have shown this path. However, each day is a new day, and we must continue to find that calling.
What message would you give to current or future Cobbers or others who may wish to follow in your footsteps?
Follow your heart, don't be afraid to take a leap, put yourself out there, and live each day like it could be your last. That is easy to say but tough to do. Make each day your masterpiece.
Are you planning to attend the for the Blue Angels show?
As fortune would have it, my current air wing is swapping out the aircraft carrier we normally operate from in the Far East out of Japan. We will swap from the USS Ronald Reagan to the USS George Washington this summer, and I may have an opportunity to fly some of our jets for the airshow to show the local public as static displays.
If we can, this would be a unique opportunity for the F-M area to see Navy jets that left the aircraft carrier just days prior.
In the days following, they will find themselves back on the carrier headed back across the Pacific. What an opportunity to show North Dakota and Minnesota "their" Navy aircraft and perhaps inspire the next generation of Naval Aviators from the area. What better backdrop than Blue Angels performance for those aircraft as well?
I look forward to watching the performances with the rest of us as I did back in 1986 at the same airshow.