Some Pictures

Update - 02 Nov

Hello from USAFA!

I have a nice three day weekend coming up, so I thought that I’d take some time to let everybody back home know how I’m doing and what’s happening around here.

As kind of an overview, school is going alright - I’m really busy, but am mostly able to stay on top. (With the help of the weekends) Athletics – well, Ultimate Frisbee is over. And, for the third part of our three “pillars”, military, it got worse, but its still liveable. Due to the fact that the upperclassmen felt that our class as a whole was slacking on discipline, they moved us back to square one. Now, we have to do 30 pushups whenever we leave or enter the squad (where we live), we still have to walk on the right side of the hallway, can only turn right (yep, to turn left – 3 rights), and have to walk all the way down to the end of the hallway before crossing it. But, it is a game, and I do know that the upperclassmen are, for the most part, proud of us.

We’ve had a couple of interesting weeks the past month. I’ll start with the first snow of the school year. Two weeks ago, we got about an inch and a half of snow. Along with the “first snow” comes the tradition of “first shirt, first snow.” This involves the freshmen somehow getting their first sergeant out into the snow, and getting them in as much snow as possible. So, of course, to follow in tradition, we attempted it. There were a couple problems though. One – our 1^st Sgt is a judo black belt. Two – almost ALL the upperclassmen were waiting for us out in the hallway, ready to defend their classmate. Three – our football ICs (intercollegiate athletes) weren’t back from practice yet. But, we did it anyway. Needless to say, it degenerated into a hall brawl. After about 15 -20 minutes of fighting/wrestling, we still hadn’t even gotten in McGuiness’s (our 1^st Sgt) room. So, he finally came out, so that the tradition could be continued. It took another 10 minutes to get him outside and into the snow, but it was worth it. (Or was it… my neck was sore for days. Their favorite tactic? Chokeholds from behind )

Next up was Commandants Challenge Training. This gave us Friday off school, but consumed both Friday and Saturday, leaving us only Sunday for a weekend. It was pretty fun. You knew it had to be good when they start off with a shooter drill, and everyone goes in their room, locks the doors, and waits for the all clear. We waited for two hours. Some people were able to get some quality nap time in. (here, you take naps when they come… doesn’t matter what time. Just woke up? Oh, that doesn’t matter – we can take naps anytime. ) Over the rest of the “weekend,” we got training in convoy procedures and what to do if you come under fire in a convoy, tactical movement techniques, tent set-up (big tent – metal frame, doors),land navigation (map and compass), using NBC suits (Nuclear, biological, chemical), procedures for IEDs, marching, and battlefield first aid (SABC). I enjoyed it, and I believe that our squadron was ranked as 2^nd in the Wing for the exercise. We do it again for real right before Thanksgiving Break.

Lastly and most recently, this week. The AF vs Army game is tomorrow, (Sat) so this week was “Army Week.” During “Army Week,” the Army exchange students do all sorts of spirit missions – little operations designed to *try* to prove Army superiority. These included: painting the Ranger crest onto the big back windows of Fairchild Hall, hanging up banners with the names of several famous AF generals and their graduation year from WEST POINT, building a model of an airplane crashing into the ground in the middle of the terrazzo, and capturing the cadet wing commander during noon meal formation. (they drove up in a Ford excursion on the tzo, jumped out, grabbed him while he was marching, and drove off!)Those were conducted with all the army guys working together.

However, the west point cadet in our squadron mounted some local spirit missions. It started with us stealing his uniforms last Friday afternoon. Saturday (after a long day of Comms Challenge training) we came back to find ALL our uniforms taken from our closets, our nameplates missing from our doors, and pink shirts on our beds – obviously for us, and decorated with “UAV Pride / Desk Jockey / M-16? Never heard of it… and other references to UAVs, desk jobs, and paper cuts. In retaliation, that afternoon we dismantled his bed and desk, and took them with his chairs out onto the basketball courts way down by the gym, where we put them back together. When he came back to his room the next day, he could look out his window and see his room down on the basketball courts.

Next, he hid our nameplates all over the place, and then gave us a scavenger-hunt type map to find them. He hid them in statues, at the barber shop, in books at the library (about army leaders), with the security guy down at the gate, and two were even taped to a tree up on top of Eagle’s Peak. That last one was particularly good. To try to remedy the problem, a group of us went up Eagle’s Peak, retrieved the name tags, and cut down a tree. We then brought it back and put it in his room! It’s still there too.

I’ll finish up with some stats that we found out recently. Our entering GPA was the highest of any class, and after Prog (midterms) , our grades were the second highest achieved by any class in the past 20 years. Our squadron has(I believe) the highest GPA in the wing, and are 2^nd in the wing on our physical fitness test scores (1.5 mile run, pushups, pull-ups, sit-ups, standing long jump, 600m dash).

Well, I’ll wrap up now. Hopefully you get a little bit of an idea of what goes on here, and that there are some fun spots too.

Lord bless, and thank you for all your prayers.

-Alex

The return of the ... cadet.

Well, its been over 2 months since I've done anything here, but for good reason. USAFA Basic Cadet Training was a little over a month, and school has been going for three weeks now. I'm really busy. :)
I have 5 classes, and enjoy 3 of them, so I think that I'm better off than most of the other people who I have talked to. Its a really nice place here, (except for the upperclassmen) and I actually do enjoy it somewhat.
I'm in Cadet Squadron 3, "Dogs of War" for my freshman year, and it has a reputation for toughness. On the bright side, if I go through a tough squadron my first year, I'll have it easier for the rest of my time here.

Two of my best friends from OR came out last weekend, and spent a couple hours walking around and talking with me. It was wonderful! And now, this weekend is Parents Weekend! My dad, mom, and Elisa are coming out. I am really excited!

Goodbye... until August

Well, I'm leaving tomorrow morning.
I guess everyone who goes to an Academy must reallllly want to do it, because I am telling you, it is gut-wrenching leaving people... :(
My flight departs at 11 and arrives in Colorado Springs at 4:46. I'll be staying the night with some family friends, the Steiningers, and then carpooling with them and another cadet up to the Academy.
I should have access to the internet again by August 3rd, and then school will start August 7th.

-Alex

It's coming too fast...

Well, the countdown is at 7 1/2 days. I'm excited, but also nervous. I have waited for so long to get to this point, and now that I'm finally here, I'm a little overwhelmed. But, I am sure that it is the Lord's will, and like I said in my graduation "speech", I know that I can trust Him to do what is best.
I am going to miss a lot of people very much, and some even more. But the great thing about so many of my friends is that they understand what I am doing and why I am doing it, and are supportive and encouraging. To all my friends (if any :) ) who read this, thank you. Write me, tell me how life in the outside world is, but most of all, I would ask that you remember me in your prayers. This next year (keep focused on short term goals...) is going to be the hardest thing I have ever done, and I am going to need the Lord's help - both to succeed, and to make sure that I set aside the time to stay in fellowship with Him.

This feels too much like a goodbye, but then, it really is. Once I leave, I won't be back home until Christmas when I have my amazing two weeks of vacation (Dec 19 - Jan 4).
On the subject of goodbye, it has really started to sink in more this past week. Playing Ultimate Frisbee with my best friends for the last time in a very long time; unsubscribing from e-mail notices; change of command at CAP; figuring out what to do with my bank account; wrapping up my account at the library; packing away the stuff in my room... It's for real.

This may very well have been my longest post, (out of 4?) and feels rambly, but I've noticed that many people become "rambly" when they are about to leave. So, the next time that any real news will be posted here will most likely be in August, once I am finished with basic training.
If you want to find out how I am doing at USAFA, here may be your best bet - even though I am going to be sporadic. However, the sporadicity will be with good reason. If I don't do well in classes, vacation starts dissapearing. That is the LAST thing that I would want to have happen... be forced to stay at the academy over my precious three week summer leave because of poor academic performance.

One final remark in closing. Would you like to know a bit of trivia? Freshmen at USAFA are called "Doolies"... derived from the Greek word doolus, a slave. (And to think that not only did I volunteer to go there, but I also worked really hard to get in!...) :)

The LORD bless you, and keep you: The LORD make his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you: The LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

-Alex

Recap of past couple weeks...

Well, track is finally over. Districts was two weeks ago, and State was last week. Congratulations to Jack Hippler on winning first in the Pole Vault!

Now I have extra time on my hands, which has dissappeared into workouts, homework time, and working on my sermon. I've been doing more running, usually 3 miles 3 times a week, along with lots of pushups and pullups.

And for my sermon, I've been listening to a series by Jamie Hull on the Names of God. I think that its going to help, but still, I need more help than I can get in this area... why oh why did I ever say that I would do this?!

Anyway, there's a brief recap of my past couple weeks. Kind of random, but oh well. Oh, one more thing. I want to play Ultimate Frisbee!

East County Classic track meet

It was a long, chilly day. We got to the track at about 2:15, and I didn't run until almost 8! Plus, I forgot to bring my homework, so I was really bored. However, there were a few good things: I saw the steeplechase (lol!), I PR'd in the 300 hurdles by over a second, and our team got 2nd place out of about 9 teams.

Track meet tomorrow

Well, suprisingly, I was picked to run varsity for the 300m intermediate hurdles at the East County Classic Invitational tomorrow at Mt. Hood CC! Plus, they are running the steeplechase too... 3000m run with hurdles and water obstacles. :) Should be fun to watch.

A photo of our first beautiful track meet of the season, vs Lakeridge.