USAFA Summer Fun
During the summer, cadets don't go home and party. Okay, maybe a little bit, but only for 3 weeks and only if no classes were failed (summer school). Luckily, I never failed a class so I would pop home to NH for a quick visit and then back to Colorado for summer programs.
My favorite summer program was freefall (skydiving). It was very demanding physically and we were dirty and tired at the end of each day. We practiced all our maneuvers for the jumps, while laying on our stomachs in the dirt. We ran everywhere -- to get drinks, to change training stations, etc. in the hot, dry Colorado air. But it was WICKED fun! When I finally got to jump, one of the pilots was my Japanese instructor -- he told me I was crazy to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Kneeling in the door was the scariest part, but once out, it was absolutely exhilarating! After exiting the aircraft, we counted to 10 and pulled the ripcord. The instructors were watching everybody through binoculars and we were graded on the whole thing, right down to the landing. My first jump was the most memorable. It went something like this:
(Standing in the door) Wow, that's a long way down.
What? It's time to go? Okay.
(I jump out) I guess I should breathe now. That's better.
Oh shit, I forgot to count! How long have I been falling?
Oh hell, I don't know. I better pull the ripcord.
(I pull and the chute opens up) Ouch, my chin!
What a view!
Where's the dropzone? There it is!
The ground is coming up fast!
CRUNCH!
Woo hoo! What a blast! I want to go again! Woo hoo!
I gathered up my chute and went to get my "grade". My freefall time before pulling ripcord was 6 seconds. I had a small gash on my chin from "opening shock", but otherwise, everything was great! I went back to the dorms at the end of the day and called my mom to tell her what I had done. I loved to freak her out. I ended up with my 5 freefall jumps, enough to earn my jumpwings.
For the last 3 weeks of the summer, I went through SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape). It is the survival program all flightcrew members are required to go through and all Academy cadets do it in the summer between their first 2 years. Rather than send us all to Fairchild AFB, the survival instructors use upperclassmen as assistants, and put us through the program in the Colorado mountains. I won't give all the details of the training, but it involved learning how to survive and evade the enemy after crashing in enemy territory. We "evaded" at night and slept during the day. It was fun.
Here we are with the the rabbit we killed for dinner (I'm second from the left) This was during the survival part of the course.
We named the rabbit "Chestnut" because he would soon be roasting over an open fire...Okay, that doesn't sound very nice but we were hungry!
Here's a picture of my friend Tracy and me after coming back from the week in the woods (I'm on the right):
We were so excited to be back and within 10 minutes of being in a shower. We were quite ripe!
After returning, we were grabbed up on short notice and taken to an "enemy camp", where we were interrogated. I spent a lot of time alone in small boxes. Luckily I'm not claustrophobic so I managed to get some sleep. I also had a bag over my head whenever outside of my cell. Party time!
The following summer, as an upperclassmen, I got to work with the AF Survival instructors. I was an "aggressor". I got to hunt for evading cadets from the class of '89. Here I am at our camp:
Once again, I had a hard time looking tough. Camping was fun, but trying to sleep during the day was kind of difficult. Probably the funniest thing that happened to me was the time I caught an evading group by accident. It was dark and I was climbing down a rock. When I put my hand down for support, my hand fell squarely on top of someone's head! It scared the shit out of me! I gave them kudos for hiding so well and we all had a good laugh. Then back to business...
Each summer was something different, and most programs were a good time. Most were designed to motivate us toward a lifelong career in the Air Force, while learning valuable leadership skills. Others, such as the SERE course mentioned above, satisfied a future AF training requirement. Overall summers were very busy, but a welcome relief from the stresses of the schoolyear!
My favorite summer program was freefall (skydiving). It was very demanding physically and we were dirty and tired at the end of each day. We practiced all our maneuvers for the jumps, while laying on our stomachs in the dirt. We ran everywhere -- to get drinks, to change training stations, etc. in the hot, dry Colorado air. But it was WICKED fun! When I finally got to jump, one of the pilots was my Japanese instructor -- he told me I was crazy to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Kneeling in the door was the scariest part, but once out, it was absolutely exhilarating! After exiting the aircraft, we counted to 10 and pulled the ripcord. The instructors were watching everybody through binoculars and we were graded on the whole thing, right down to the landing. My first jump was the most memorable. It went something like this:
(Standing in the door) Wow, that's a long way down.
What? It's time to go? Okay.
(I jump out) I guess I should breathe now. That's better.
Oh shit, I forgot to count! How long have I been falling?
Oh hell, I don't know. I better pull the ripcord.
(I pull and the chute opens up) Ouch, my chin!
What a view!
Where's the dropzone? There it is!
The ground is coming up fast!
CRUNCH!
Woo hoo! What a blast! I want to go again! Woo hoo!
I gathered up my chute and went to get my "grade". My freefall time before pulling ripcord was 6 seconds. I had a small gash on my chin from "opening shock", but otherwise, everything was great! I went back to the dorms at the end of the day and called my mom to tell her what I had done. I loved to freak her out. I ended up with my 5 freefall jumps, enough to earn my jumpwings.
For the last 3 weeks of the summer, I went through SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape). It is the survival program all flightcrew members are required to go through and all Academy cadets do it in the summer between their first 2 years. Rather than send us all to Fairchild AFB, the survival instructors use upperclassmen as assistants, and put us through the program in the Colorado mountains. I won't give all the details of the training, but it involved learning how to survive and evade the enemy after crashing in enemy territory. We "evaded" at night and slept during the day. It was fun.
Here we are with the the rabbit we killed for dinner (I'm second from the left) This was during the survival part of the course.
We named the rabbit "Chestnut" because he would soon be roasting over an open fire...Okay, that doesn't sound very nice but we were hungry!
Here's a picture of my friend Tracy and me after coming back from the week in the woods (I'm on the right):
We were so excited to be back and within 10 minutes of being in a shower. We were quite ripe!
After returning, we were grabbed up on short notice and taken to an "enemy camp", where we were interrogated. I spent a lot of time alone in small boxes. Luckily I'm not claustrophobic so I managed to get some sleep. I also had a bag over my head whenever outside of my cell. Party time!
The following summer, as an upperclassmen, I got to work with the AF Survival instructors. I was an "aggressor". I got to hunt for evading cadets from the class of '89. Here I am at our camp:
Once again, I had a hard time looking tough. Camping was fun, but trying to sleep during the day was kind of difficult. Probably the funniest thing that happened to me was the time I caught an evading group by accident. It was dark and I was climbing down a rock. When I put my hand down for support, my hand fell squarely on top of someone's head! It scared the shit out of me! I gave them kudos for hiding so well and we all had a good laugh. Then back to business...
Each summer was something different, and most programs were a good time. Most were designed to motivate us toward a lifelong career in the Air Force, while learning valuable leadership skills. Others, such as the SERE course mentioned above, satisfied a future AF training requirement. Overall summers were very busy, but a welcome relief from the stresses of the schoolyear!
posted by Notsocranky Yankee at 12:30 PM
3 Comments:
SKYDIVING! I would love to do this but I doubt I ever will. That whole jumping out of a perfectly good airplane thing. I'll just stick to getting bucked off of perfectly good horses, haha!
I bet I'd forget to pull the ripcord.
And don't you look cute with your rifle, wearing that little smirk!
Do your kids know how fearless and fun you are?
the Skydiving sounds like a blast! Have you done it recreationally since?
Skyboy did SERE somewhere near Ft Lewis. He came back looking pretty "rough" and like you, does not talk about it. I can only imagine
Heidi: My kids think I'm an old boring mom. *sigh*
Mallory: I have not gone skydiving since then. Just didn't seem to have the time!
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