USAFA Day 2 Revisited - Part 1

Hello! I am home again, safe and sound. I ended up running out of time in the day to update not to mention struggling with problems connecting to the internet and downloading pictures the last two days so I wasn't able to post updates during the trip, but still wanted to share. So here is what I would have told you about Day 2 of my trip. :-)

We started out the morning with a presentation by the Commandant of the USAFA
cadets. General Susan Dejardins was a 1980 graduate of the USAFA (and I think that she was one of the first females to graduate from the academy.) She shared information about how the USAFA is structured and the opportunities available to the cadets.

One of the pieces that she (and many others) discussed with the honor code which is a central component of the United States Air Force Academy: "We will not lie, steal, or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does." It was interesting to learn that the cadets run the investigations and make the initial recommendations. In talking to the cadets one of them talked about it being relatively easy to take care of yourself and make sure that you do not lie, steal, or cheat, but when you see it in someone else and have to turn them in (the whole "nor tolerate among us" part) is when it gets really hard because this person is often a friend and someone that has helped you through basic training, etc. I had some very interesting conversations relating to the central foundation that the honor code plays in the formation of the cadets into Air Force Officers.

After listening to the presentation by the Commandant, we were paired with a current cadet at the USAFA. I was honored to meet Brian Campbell, a WKHS graduate who is now a senior at the USAFA.


Brian is majoring in Business Management and minoring in Spanish. He allowed me to attend two classes with him and I had lunch with him and the members of the football team that are at the same assigned table. (Brian is very tall - as you can see - and very kind. He was a football player at the USAFA until blowing out his knee and having reconstructive surgery last spring.) Sitting through classes was very interesting because it is so similar to any other college class with a few exceptions. There are obvious differences (everyone is wearing a uniform) and not so obvious differences (no one is text messaging or has cell phones with them). It was also interesting to learn that you "don't skip classes here!" which is a difference from most colleges where there are some classes people will skip. Their academic courseload and the standard that these individuals are expected to maintain are impressive! Actually, every cadet that I met and spoke to were absolutely impressive and I loved talking to them!

We toured the dorm and saw a freshman dorm room compared to the dorm room of two juniors.














A freshman dorm is very different from an upperclassmen dorm - most freshman have 3 cadets per room instead of 2 as with the older students. They also have to maintain the fitted made bed look all the time (instead of the comforters you see in the room with the juniors.) Also, for the record, the last room is the room next door to the room where the student was showing us his room - so you can see that they really *do* require *all* the freshman to maintain their rooms in this way.

See how much stuff the juniors are allowed to have - refrigerator/ tv etc. One of the speakers (can't recall exactly which one) said that when the cadets arrive at the USAFA they take away all of their freedoms and give them back to them when earned as privileges.














One other huge difference that we saw between the freshman and the rest of the students was obvious during class changes. Freshman are required to run on the marble strips instead of just walking through campus anywhere they want. They are also not allowed to wear their backpacks - they must carry them in their hands. They must greet upperclassmen as they pass them on the sidewalk. There were lots of differences in how formal they must be during meals as well. For example, freshman eat at attention and are not allowed to look at anything other than the seal on their plate unless given permission to be at ease by the person in charge of the table (someone higher ranking in their squadron.) The athletic teams are a bit more flexible in these regulations, but there were not any freshman at my table to ask that question directly - it was just my general impression. This formality during meals is only during breakfast and lunch - dinner is optional so the cadets do not have to eat with their squadron and so the freshman do not have to eat at attention. Here is a picture of freshmen on the marble strips.


Not trying to drag this out, but I have so much more to tell you as this is only half of Day 2 and I know tomorrow morning is going to feel REALLY early (since it feels like it should be 2 hours behind the time here in Ohio...) so I am going to cut this short and post about the afternoon and evening experiences tomorrow.