Living, as I do, right outside the back gate of NAS Pensacola, home to the former U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squad now famously known as The Blue Angels, in a town famously known for its fierce attachment to 'our boys' (who include girls flying), any story about the team perks our ears up.
And any scurrilous slander raises our local ire.
A girlfriend sent me the link to this story yesterday, and it's raising clouds of belly laughs all across Pensacola, with most of us wondering how there are still an abundance of animals alive in Escambia County if what this woman claims happened is true.
This lawsuit is getting national attention. A woman in Seattle is suing the Blue Angels claiming the sound of the jets lead to the death of her cat.
Sounds serious. As a person who should be committed because of cats (or is that committed to cats?), whose home has plates rattled off the walls at least two days a week during Blue Angel practices and once on Sunday when they're in the pattern returning from an airshow, it behooves me to investigate.
It's my duty.
Every year, our boys fly off to the great Pacific Northwest to fly in an event held as part of what's known as the Seafair Festival. The squad practices and performs for the Boeing Seafair Air Show, which is held over Lake Washington. It seems this venue is only a few miles from this woman's home.
Her NEW home, as she only moved there in 2023 from the East Coast.
AH. I am sensing a problem already. A whachoo call 'assimilation' issue.
Seattle woman sues Blue Angels, claiming the military jets traumatized her dying cat https://t.co/au3Fmoq1Y1 pic.twitter.com/FJPMaddo1t
— The Independent (@Independent) July 24, 2025
I guess the kitty in question was very old and very ill, in addition to being horribly embarrassed by the choice of clothing. Oh, that's very sad.
A Seattle cat mom accused the US Navy’s Blue Angels of robbing her elderly cat of a peaceful death after their annual practices for a summer fair flyover caused a frequent “sonic barrage” that would terrify the feline she loved like “a daughter,” according to a lawsuit.
Lauren Ann Lombardi’s 14-year-old cat Layla died on Aug. 11, 2024 following a battle with heart disease that was only worsened by the Blue Angels’ frequent overhead flying, she alleged in a federal civil complaint filed this week.
...“I just wanted to share what happened to her. I wanted people to know, and I wanted there to be some sort of accountability for that. That’s the main thing I wanted to get across was Layla’s story,” Lombardi told The Post.
Ms. Lombardi does not care for the Blue Angels or the airshow that has brought them to Seattle every year for the past 53 years, ruining her newly purchased peace and quiet.
...The noise from the flyovers would last for several minutes up to three times a day, she said.
“It’s like what I imagine being in a war zone sounds like. It’s very terrifying, it actually shook our house when they would go by,” Lombardi said.
The Blue Angels typically arrive in Seattle on Wednesday before the weekend show for familiarization and practice sessions. Then they fly their show program Friday through Sunday.
Ms Lombardi's anger with the Navy flight team 'terrorizing' her aged and ill feline, allegedly into an early grave, led her to begin terrorizing whoever ran the Blues' Instagram account and social media with repeated, obscene, and hateful rants about the team killing her poor kitty.
...The cat mom lobbed her first tirade at the air squad in August 2023, her first summer living in the area after moving from the East Coast.
“Stop with your F—king bulls–t you are terrorizing my cat and all the other animals and wildlife. Nobody gives a f–k about your stupid little planes,” Lombardi wrote to the squadron via Instagram.
She seems nice. And stable.
As all the Blues accounts are family-friendly, I'm assuming that's why the media gurus blocked her shortly after her initial salvos, and that's actually what the lawsuit is about.
She wants to be unblocked, says her 1st Amendment rights were violated, wants some sort of acknowledgement of the 'debilitating terror' the roar of the jets causes, and a 1st Amendment refresher course for the Navy social media team.
Luckily for her, should she choose to add anything else to the litany of serious complaints in her federal complaint, her husband is her lawyer.
...Lombardi noted that she “respects and supports” the US military, but still asserted that her feline’s sundowning was “pockmarked by debilitating terror brought on by the actions of the United States Government,” according to the complaint.
She doesn’t blame the armed forces for Layla’s death — though the lawsuit is riddled with complaints about the cat’s torment. Instead, she’s looking for the Blue Angels to unblock her Instagram account and repay her expenses, including “reasonable attorneys’ fees,” according to the complaint.
The lawsuit itself was penned by attorney Nacim Bouchtia, Lombardi’s husband and Layla’s human father, according to the cat’s obituary.
What a great team. I'm glad they kept it in the family, and I hope it's not contagious.
I'm sure she's a conscientious 'Thank you for your service' type, too.
GAG
Ms Lombardi says she's not going to back down, either. As I noted, she seems nice.
A woman from Seattle is standing firm on her lawsuit against the U.S. Navy, claiming the noise and disruptions from the Blue Angels caused the death of her cat.
Lauren Ann Lombardi made it clear she isn’t scared to take on the government. During an exclusive interview on “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, she didn’t flinch when KIRO host Spike O’Neill flooded her with questions like, “It’s the federal government,” and “How long can you keep this up? They’ll bleed you dry.”
“They will never be able to wait me out,” she calmly responded. “I’m a very spiteful, vengeful person. I have nothing but time on my hands.”
A woman from Seattle is standing firm on her lawsuit against the U.S. Navy, claiming the noise and disruptions from the Blue Angels caused the death of her cat.
— MyNorthwest (@Mynorthwest) July 25, 2025
More here: https://t.co/XrjUWPRMt8 pic.twitter.com/QhqQaD4Ffy
She also seems to have moved to the right neck of the woods. With her delightful persona and little quirky causes, she'll fit the mold well in Seattle.
Now. About that airshow.
I don't know if they were inspired by the angry cat woman or trying to one-up San Francisco's yearly hissy fit over the Blue Angels performing there, but the local freaks have scraped together the few pennies they have left since the NGO spigot's been turned off and purchased a single anti-Blue Angel billboard that's simply swimming in progressive socialist iconography.
A “No to Blue Angels” billboard just went up in Seattle’s Rainier Valley.
The Blue Angels have been a fixture of Seafair for more than 50 year-- their thunderous roar could is the soundtrack to summer’s in Seattle.
“I miss it more now because I don’t live on this side of town anymore,” said Carolyn Finney.
She says she enjoyed the acrobatic show before moving to SeaTac.
“Just seeing them fly around just close to the house down on, by the beach, that kind of stuff,” Finney said. “Yeah, it was exciting to see that.”
However, a group of activists say the Blue Angels are harming the environment, our health, and traumatizing victims of war.
The Airshow Climate Action coalition of organizations has installed the billboard in the heart of Blue Angels country.
They have been fighting the Blue Angels for years, often picketing outside Seafair.
For the first time this year, they put up a billboard on busy Rainier Avenue South.
I mean, when you've got an Ilhan Omar doppelganger with a raised fist front and center demanding to do away with a traditional visit from the Navy flight team, what can I say?
Well. And the token howling wolf.
A Seattle woman, Lauren Ann Lombardi, is suing the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels, claiming their August flyovers during Seattle’s annual Seafair air show, described as “state-sanctioned acoustic torture,” terrorized her cat, Layla, worsening her heart condition and leading to her… pic.twitter.com/tjS1ZZtrog
— All Things Emerald Coast (@AllEmeraldCoast) July 24, 2025
...and leading to her euthanasia on August 11, 2024. Lombardi called the Blue Angels “thin-skinned triggered little babies” after their Instagram account blocked her for critical posts, according to the lawsuit filed in Washington’s Western District Court...
Serious news. For serious times.
It’s a wonder why no one is watching you with these gripping, meaningful, impactful stories.
— Steve Aylward (@SGATweet) July 25, 2025
We're dying down here.
And, like everyone said in the comments when our mayor posted this drivel, go ahead, Seattle. Cancel. We'll take the slot.
We love our hometown shows.
And all the cats in my neighborhood are just fine.
What the hell's in the water up there?
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