Bad Day

Today was the first bad day I’ve had here.
I’m surprised it’s taken this long.
As I explained earlier,
There are M days and T days.
Each have a different set of classes and they alternate.
I thought today was an M day.
(It’s really a T day)
On M days I have Wrestling at 0930 in the gym.
On T days I have Chemistry at 0930 in Faichild Hall.
That’s on the other side of the Cadet Area.
So…Thinking it’s an M day,
I spent the morning preparing for M day classes.
I go to the gym for Wrestling at 0930.
Gym classes start 15 min into the period to give everyone a chance to get down the and change.
As I’m sitting there, I’m thinking…
“How can today be an M day if Friday is a T day?
I KNOW Friday is a T day because I have Chemistry on Parent’s Weekend Friday.”
Then some cadet walks up to me that I don’t recognize and says,
“Are you making up class?”
“No”
“Have you always been in this class the whole semester?”
“Of course!”
Then the instructor walks in and we all fall in.
Some guy reports for the class that I’ve never seen before.
They call role.
I don’t recognize any of the names, and my name isn’t called.

It clicks.
I talk to the instructor just to double check.
I then run the locker room to change back into my uniform.
By the time I get to class,
I’m 45 min late.
The Instructor asks to speak with me after class.
I explained what happened.
He didn’t make a big deal out of it.
He said running up from the gym was punishment enough,
So he’d let it go.

Sound bad?
I’m not done yet.
Because I went straight to class,
I didn’t have any of my books or papers.
For that class, or the rest of the day.
So I went to every class and had to explain why I didn’t have my computer or my books.
My Instructors are all really cool,
So they didn’t have a problem with that.
But it meant that I didn’t know what was going on for the rest of the day.
There are always last minute E-Mails that we need to know about.

Oh Well…
I lived.

Eagle's Peak Again

I went again this morning with some friends.
We left at about 0500 so we could make it in time for the sunrise.
That was really cool.

Eagle's Peak

My squad hiked to the top of Eagles peak today.
It 9,368 ft high.
more than 2,000 ft higher than the cadet area
We made it up in about an hour and a half.
That was fun.

Survey

We took a survey today after lunch.
They herded us all into a room and handed us bubble grids and grunted "Take!"
That happens a lot out here.
We get surveyed all the time.
This one was to compare USAFA with other colleges.
I can't wait to see the results.
I'm willing to bet that the entire wing put the same answer on certain questions.
My favorite was...
"Should we increase federal military spending?"
I will hunt down anyone who said no.

The Sky

I went into my first class and the sky was crystal clear.
I go to my second class and look out the window.
I was in the south hall way, so I was looking out over COS.
The sky was really dark.
Then I heard thunder rolling.
They have an announcement that goes over the base speaker when lightning is around.
We've al memorized it.
It goes...
"Attention in the area, Attention in the area.
Lightning has been spotted in the area.
All personal should use the stairwells and hallways as much as possible.
I say again...
Lightning has been spotted in the area.
Command Center out."
Just after I heard the thunder I begin to recite it.
Just as I got to the first "Lightning has been spotted..."
The entire sky lights up.
It was awesome.
The split second I saw of it was absolutely gorgeous.
Why am I so fascinated with the sky?

Triple Threat

It happened today.
I haven't slept since yesterday morning.
I've been cleaning and ironing all night.
You could perform surgery in here with no risk of infection.
My room got a 95.
The Class of 09 for Bulldogs got a 94.
We beat all the other classes.
ORI went good.
Really good.
My Flight Commander is very pleased with our score,
even though we don't have the numbers yet.
The parade went well too.
The upperclassmen are so pleased with our performance,
They're letting us watch all the TV we want and order all the pizza we want until 7:00pm Sunday.
Normally, we can't do these things at all.
They're also setting up a movie night for us.

Concert

Tonight, Tops In Blue came and performed in Arnold Hall.
They are a singing and dancing entertainment group that the Air Force sends around the world to boost moral.
Attendance was mandatory.
This was very bad timing.
Tomorrow we have what is called a Triple Threat.
That means a SAMI (Saturday Morning Inspection, the toughest room inspection there is),
An ORI (Open Ranks Inspection, uniforms inspection),
and a parade (they grade our marching).
We would all much rather be cleaning our rooms to get ready for the SAMI.

The Sky

As I was coming back from breakfast I covertly looked up at the sky.
There's not a single cloud up there.
I thought it was so beautiful.
Then I thought back to the weekend when the sky was covered in clouds.
I thought that was beautiful too.
The mountains mold the air currents so that the clouds always look neat.
Why is it that no matter what the weather,
I always stare at this sky with wonder?
Maybe it's because my subconscious mind has realized that I'm here, I've made it in.
My conscious mind hasn't quite realized that.
It's been focused on survival.
What has to be done next.
but My subconscious knows where I am.
and it sees the beauty in everything up here.
even the upperclassmen. ;-)

First Day of Classes

They have M days and T Days.
Today is an M Day, so tomorrow is a T Day.
They continue alternating.
On M Days I have...
Physical Education (Wrestling)
Study Skills (an optional class. I never studied in high school)
Military Strategic Studies
English 111
On T Days I have...
Chemistry 141
History 100
Math 141 (Calc 1)

Acceptence

It's official now.
We are Cadets
We are now Fourth Classmen.
No longer are we Basics.

That feels nice.
We wear shoulder boards now.
It signifies that we are aloud to think for ourselves now.

The big guy in front is C1C Hocking.

The smaller on is C2C Wilson.

They're the ones that pined me on.

USAFA Computers

Just got them today.
I have contact with the Outside world.
more soon.
Jason

Doolie's Day Out

Today was Doolie's Day Out.
We all went to our sponsor family's house for the day.
(Sponsor Families are our adopted families while we're up here, we go to their house when we can get off base)
I talked on the phone for over an hour.
That was great.
After lunch I played LEGOs with Justin and Ryan.
They couldn't believe how fast I was able to build things.
"Years, and Years of experience"

After that we got on their computer and looked at pictures from Basic.
Then we outside to play football.
Fun stuff.

Day 38

Day 38 Sat 06-AUG-2005
It's the Last day of Basic!
Yeah!!!

We moved to our academic squadrons today.
I'm in CS-13.
The Bulldogs.
A few of our cadre form first and second BCT are in this squad.
This should be interesting.

Day 37

Day 37 Fri 05-AUG-2005
Tonight was the Doolie Fair.
That was boring.
There was absolutely nothing worth doing there.
The DJ was funny though.

Day 36

Day 36 Thur 04-AUG-2005
They canceled the Warrior Run because of rain.
Everyone is really disappointed.
We all wanted to do it.
It was supposed to be a 36 mile relay.
Supposedly it will be rescheduled.
I wouldn't count on it though.
Our schedule are so crammed, there's no room for anything else.

Day 35

Day 35 Wed 03-AUG-2005
Today is Field Day.
Our squad took second.
Our guy should have won the Pugil Stick fight.
He had at least four good obvious hits that weren't counted.
If they had, he would have won.
Then we would have won Field Day and Outstanding Squadron for all of basic.
That's how close we were.
Everyone started booing when they announced the other guy as the winner.
The whole Wing knew our guy should have won.
Oh Well...

Cadre were bored again.
Had another beat session in the afternoon.
Then it started raining, so they left us alone.

Day 34

Day 34 Tue 02-AUG-2005
We had a wonderful beat session this morning.
Apparrently the cadre know about the Chaplin's Picnic this afternoon.
We can't have too much fun in one day.
That's against the rules.

Chaplin's Picnic was fun.
The food was good.

Day 33

Day 33 Mon 01-AUG-2005
We did the Obstacle Course again this morning.
Just for fun.
I did a lot better this time.
I only skimmed the water with the toe of my boot on the rope swing.

Nothing fun in the afternoon.
The cadre had nothing better to do,
so we had a nice beat session.