OTS Graduation

Graduation day finally came, and thank the Lord with nice weather. It started with our flight commissioning ceremony at 7:00...that was cool because it made everything a little more personal for our families and all of that. Anyway, it was cool how we marched in and up on the stage and went about things through the whole thing. It was very "sharp" looking as my mom said. As each flight member's name was called, they made their way down off of the stage to be commissioned by either our FTO or a guess officer (active duty or retired). It was commissioned by our FTO and then had my gold bars pinned on by my best friend, parents and youngest brother. That was a cool time because we had been through 3 hard months to earn that. It was still hard to believe I would be headed off to pilot training soon...

Next on the schedule was our parade at 10:00. This is basically a time for us to show our families and friends some of the marching stuff we've learned and how a military parade looks. It was very hot, but it felt good to be out there anyway. During the parade the Honor Squadron and Honor Flight are both recognized and the squadron guidon carrier marches up and gets some stuff put on the guidon showing that. Well, our squadron kicked butt as I think I mentioned before, and we ended up getting both of the honor awards.

After the awards were given out, we then marched down the "bomb run" or in front of the crowd for the parade review. My buddy Chapman and I are marching out in front leading the best squadron in the class! At the end of the parade as we threw our hats in the air, we had a C-5 flyover...I know it's not a fighter jet, but it was still pretty cool.

Well, I think that about wraps up this page. I'll be starting on the Casual Status page next, so bare with me until I get some pics of the base and have a chance to get back over here to the library and work on it some more. Hope this OTS stuff have been helpful!

The Dining Out...Family Arrives

I lied, I'll have a couple more posts before this OTS page is done because I wanted to talk a little about what they call in the military a Dining Out. The Dining Out,which has both military members and civilian guests in attendance, is an event built on many years of tradition. All the military members wear their mess dress, and the guests dress up nice as well. For us, it was a good time to celebrate a big step in all of our lives by earning our commission as 2nd Lt.'s in the USAF. It was also cool to have my best friend down for the event.

The whole ceremony started with everyone standing to welcome the official party...for us it was a two star general, two colonels and a lieutenant colonel. Once they were in place, some other formalities took place and then we took our seats for the meal. One of the formalities after sitting down was no one can eat until the highest ranking officer starts to eat...in this case it was the general. After he taunted us a bit to see if anyone to start before him, he dug in and so did we. After our first course, they moderator for the night asked for those providing the entertainment to take their places. I was part of one of the skits, so I headed backstage to get ready. Overall, the skits turned our well...everyone was laughing pretty hard, even the head table.

Another formality to the Grog Bowl. The Grog Bowl in a white porcelain toilet, centered at the middle of the dinning room for everyone to see. It's filled with a bunch of different alcoholic "beverages" so it tastes rather bad. There was also a non-alcoholic bowl. The bowl is kind of like "punishment" for those who screw up while eating during the whole meal. See, there are a list of rules all those in attendance must follow or else they're going to the Bowl...the guests must follow them as well, or their military friend will be sent. I was one of the first privileged ones to try the contents of the Bowl...yeah, that was just great! The rule I broke was that I was clapping with my hands instead of using my spoon and hitting it on the table. Here's how the procedures go for making a trip to the Grog Bowl.

Step 1 - Walk up in front of the Grog Bowl table and face the head table (where the DV's sit).
Step 2 - Salute the "king" of the mess.
Step 3 - Do an about face, and fill your cup.
Step 4 - Do an about face, raise your cup and say, "to the mess." The crowd then replies, "What a mess!"
Step 5 - Drink the contents of the cup in one gulp and then hold the cup over your head to prove you did.
Step 6 - Do an about face, and set the cup back on the table.
Step 7 - Do an about face, and the salute the "king" of the mess before taking your seat.

After most of us had finished our meals, the commander of OTS Lt. Col. Davis got up and started explaining he had been watching out for rules infractions during the dinner. He began to call of names and to my surprise I was the second on his list...CRAP!! What the heck did I do this time?! He ended up call about 10 people to stand in front of the Grog Bowl table and perform the little "ceremony." He went of for a bit talking about how bad we had screwed up the rules, when he ended his little speech with,"Class 03-06, I present to you your Distinguished Graduates." These words immediately came to mind, "No freakin' way!" I could not believe that out of the 120 or so classmates in class 03-06 that I was in the top 10%...it completely blind sided me! All I can say was that it's further proof that God has brought me into the military, and He has me right where I need to be. Only a short time ago I was trying my best to get into the program, and then here I am graduating towards the top...it was an awesome feeling. Two others from my flight made DG as well! How awesome is that? It goes to show that those of you looking to come to OTS want to be in the best squadron here...the Cobra Squadron!

Later this afternoon, some of my family will be arriving...it'll be good to see them. We'll have a chance to show them around OTS so they can see where we've been and learn a little about what we've been up to over the past few months. It'll be a good time, and then tomorrow is the commissioning and our graduation parade. The weather's supposed to be nice, so it looks like the C-5 flyover is on! I know it's not a fighter jet, but it's a huge plane and needless to say it'll get the crowds attention. Well, I'll sign off for now and post again after graduation...

One Week Left

The time has flown by and soon Class 03-06 will be graduating! It's kind of hard to believe the time has come, but when you're so busy all the time you don't realize it. It's been a great time and a good experience, but I'm ready to move on to Columbus AFB. I plan to arrive at the base around the 12th of July after spending some time with friends and family. I'm actually doing to be at a wedding in Michigan the day after graduation, but the drive won't be too bad since my best friend Kendall will be heading back with me. Most people (even the bride to be) doesn't know I'll be there, so it'll be a good time.

Last week at MOE was a good time as well. We finally had the chance to get out and "rough" it for awhile in tents without showers for a few days...unless you count using baby wipes to clean off. During our time our there we have different leadership activities throughout the day where we are further evaluated on our leadership skills. As an example, when I had my chance to lead I was given a scenario where I had to organize a rescue team to bring back a downed air crew. We formed up with our fake M-16's, headed out to the "crash site" and brought them back. Overall most of them were pretty fun...at least we all enjoyed the change of being off the OTS campus for awhile.

The most memorable part of our time at MOE was the C-130 ride we were able to take. We were all pretty pumped when we got the word because our upper class wasn't able to take one. Since the MOE site is located pretty close to of the taxiways and runways, it was pretty easy for us to jump in the back and strap in for the ride. Being close to the runway was also cool because we were right there to watch the C-130's here at the base practice some touch-n-go's along with the T-37's and T-38's that did the same thing while we were out there. Pretty cool stuff. Anyway, the ride lasted about 20-30 minutes during which time the pilot took us through some pretty simple banks and turns. We were also allowed to get up and walk around for a part of it, and check out the cockpit as well. Once the load master on board had us take our seats for landing, the pilot brought us in low and fast over the airfield and banked hard to the right about 45 degrees...I would guess about 2-4 g's. It was a good time, especially for those of us heading to pilot training soon!

The last day of MOE we had the chance to do an obstacle/confidence course as a flight...the kind of stuff I had been waiting for. It's called the Vigilant Warrior Course and was made up of 15 different obstacles. They all varied in difficulty, and for the most part everyone was able to make it through. It was also one of the better times during that week, and was a good thing to end on.

Well, the OTS section of my website will be ending pretty soon and I'll be on to Introductory Flight Training at my next duty station (Columbus AFB, MS in case you forgot). I hope those of you who've been able to read my site have enjoyed it and have gotten something out of it...especially those who are looking into OTS alone, or OTS and SUPT. I'll have one more post on this specific page with info from graduation and that will be it for OTS. The journey's just beginning and I'm having a good time so far...I'm excited to see where God's going to take me over the next 10-20 years!

ENJJPT Selection

We got the drop from the ENJJPT board today, and I didn't get selected. I was really hoping to get picked up, but it's still all good. I have NO room at all to complain since I've been totally blessed to get a pilot slot in the first place! Before I talked to my FTO I told the guys I was sitting with that if God wants me in ENJJPT then I'll be there, and if not I won't...end of discussion. So, it's obvious where He wants me to be. The cups always half full in my life because it makes things a whole lot better!

I'm looking at it this way...since I'm gunning for the fighter/bomber track, I'll be flying the upgraded T-38C at Columbus which is the only base at this point that has them. It's got the new "glass" (LCD's and the whole 9 yards) cockpit along with some upgrades to the intakes and engines. I'm not complaining at all. I still have a slight chance the I may get into Moody AFB to fly the new T-6 for pilot training since the guy who was the ENJJPT select had orders there...we'll see what happens. Anyway, I wanted to let everyone know the latest from down here. I'm down a bit just because I like to kick butt and do my best, but everything is in His hands...right where it should be.

Oh, I wanted to mention that I saw a couple guys down here that I went to college with. One is here in the OTS Commissioned Officer Training (COT) School, which is for the medical and lawyer types, and the other I saw at the Cadet pool yesterday afternoon. He works at Wright Patterson AFB where I came from, and is down here for Aerospace Basic Course (ABC). And yes, I said the pool. They have a really nice pool here on base that we can use on the weekends...it helps get ride of the nice farmer's tan most of us have going on these days. It was good to see a couple guys from home to catch up on what I had been missing while away.

WE'RE ALMOST DONE!

Finally, we're done with all the stuff that we have to pass in order to graduate...what a load off! I passed my final PFT with a 447 (90 push-ups, 90 sit-ups, and 9:16 1.5 mile run), a satisfactory on my final briefing and a 96% on the CWT. Overall, not a bad week. To celebrate, a bunch of us are going off base to Smokey Bones Grillhouse to relax and enjoy some time together without the academic stress of this place on our shoulders...yeah baby!

I forgot to mention one thing we had this week that makes for one of the better times here at OTS. It's called Leadership Reaction Course. It's basically a bunch of different obstacles that we as a flight have to make it through in 20 minutes with someone in the group as the designated leader. In each obstacle there are a limited amount of supplies (ropes, boards, etc.) and there are also certain areas of the obstacles you can't touch...these are designated by being painted red. Anyway, it's a good time to be outside and it usually takes three days for everyone to get the chance to lead once. We kicked butt on most of them, and I was able to get my team through when leading. I came out of it with a high satisfactory grade, so I'm good to go. To clarify the grading system...it goes unsat, low sat, sat, high sat, outstanding.

This coming week we're going to have an awesome time at our Mobility Operations Exercise (MOE). It's a simulation of what it takes to get ready for deployment and then what it's kind of like during deployment. We'll end up packing our ruck sacks full of stuff for 3-4 days and then hike however far it is out to the Blue Thunder site...a mock tent city much like you'd see out in the desert or somewhere like that. While there we'll be participating in more leadership stuff and different exercises. Finally we'll be getting dirty for a few days...what I've been wanting to do the whole time I've been here. The classroom gets old after awhile. The first evening of the exercise we get to take a C-130 ride (HOOAH!!), which is going to rock. Then towards the end we get to do a confidence course (ropes/obstacle course) before heading back here to campus. It should be a good time to relax, let our "hair" down a bit and meet some other classmates we don't really know yet.

It's very hard to believe that our graduation is only a few weeks away because it seems like yesterday that I was pulling in all nervous about OTS. Now we're almost out of here and on to bigger and better things...for some of us that's FLYING!! My FTO told me yesterday that the ENJJPT board met this past Tuesday and I should know before I head out to MOE...man, I'm anxiously awaiting. I'll be so blessed if God allows me to get into that program. I'll be sure to let everyone know as soon as I find out what the deal is. Keep it real, and I'll be back soon...