Mechanical engineer, material scientist. Loves to run, play billiards, swim, and be outdoors.
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Friday, February 06, 2004
Don't got much to do, so I'm going to inanely babble stuff right now, if you don't mind...oh right! It's my blog! I can do what I want!
So, this is a story of...well...ummm...oh, yes, Aviation Challenge, where I got to be a fighter pilot for a week. Due to that, I can technically fly an F/A-18 Hornet, if there was an emergency that called for it...sorta like in Independence Day.
And I just fubared my computer...excellent.
Anyways. Upon arrival, I had no idea how intense this program would be. Reveille at 0600 every morning. Physical training [PT] was scheduled at 0610. In those ten minutes, we were expected to wake up, shake the last dredges of sleep from conciousness, make our beds [military style...if you dropped a quarter on it, it'd bounce off and hit the ceiling]...if there was a single TINY wrinkle, it was worth 50 pushups [yeah...that sucked], dress into PT gear, and sprint out to the assembly area under the tarp.
PT was brutal. 25 pushups [3 count pushups though, so it's actually 50 of them], what felt like 300 sit ups, followed by more pushups, then more situps, etc., and then 50 POW lunges with each leg [OUCH!]. Then it was time for the water portion. Line up on the angled beach, sprint into the water, then back out, 30 times. Once that was over, had to crawl 25 yards over open ground like you do in the barbed wire obstacle. And then, we'd be absolutely exhausted, just in time for the mile "fun" run, which was done at a 6:00 minute mile pace.
So, by 0710, we're physically exhausted. We're given five minutes to sprint back to our barracks, shower, change into BDUs [Battle Dress Uniforms], and meet up for chow call.
We were required to drink a minimum of a quart of water with every meal, and drinking more was highly encouraged [almost 100 degrees with high humidity, while being physically active all day].
And it was buffet style [w00t!!!]...and I can't EVER remember eating so much as I did at Aviation Challenge. But that's getting ahead of myself. I need to inform you of how they woke us up every morning.
First morning: Nate sprints into the room shouting shit at us and flicking the lights. The most peaceful-wake up of the entire week.
Second morning: Three or four of them come into the barracks, wielding billy clubs. If you weren't out of bed within the first second of them being there, you got beaten with them. Thank goodness I was in the corner, and avoided being hit.
Third morning: Anyone who slept through the billy club routine has his mattress picked up and thrown out the door [while the person was still in it, trying to sleep]. Needless to say, after today, people didn't have a problem about getting up at all.
Fourth morning: That morning was freaky as all hell. Link comes in and gently wakes us all, "Uhhhhh...guys? It's 0600. Time to wake up. If you don't mind, I'm going to turn on the light, is that okay with you, fellas? Oh, and we'd really appreciate if you made it outside for PT this morning, we'd love to have you! Ok, hopefully I'll see you in a few, guys. Please wake up.". So he turns on the light and leaves...and we're wondering when the men with billy clubs are to be turned loose on us again. They didn't show up. But PT was a living hell that day.
Fifth morning: Fucking assholes. Mission flying time. Briefed extensively for two hours on our objectives, our ROE [Rules of Engagement], and all that other stuff you need to know for a mission. So they sneak in before ANYONE is up, and set up an air raid siren, a military grade, air raid siren. The ones you can hear over a mile away. At 0600, it goes off. And we are blown away, we sprint for our flight suits and BDUs and mission notes and suit up for the mission. Then the billy clubs started flying, and we're like "FUCK! LETS GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!". And we kick the enemy's ass and take names [2 aerial gunnery kills by yours truly in a single mission...our plane racked up 10 aerial kills total...we were aces, man!].
Ok, sorry, I'm always highly amused by what happened at Aviation Challenge. You had to be there for much of it.
I'm sorry to bore you, but I was bored and needed something to do.
So, this is a story of...well...ummm...oh, yes, Aviation Challenge, where I got to be a fighter pilot for a week. Due to that, I can technically fly an F/A-18 Hornet, if there was an emergency that called for it...sorta like in Independence Day.
And I just fubared my computer...excellent.
Anyways. Upon arrival, I had no idea how intense this program would be. Reveille at 0600 every morning. Physical training [PT] was scheduled at 0610. In those ten minutes, we were expected to wake up, shake the last dredges of sleep from conciousness, make our beds [military style...if you dropped a quarter on it, it'd bounce off and hit the ceiling]...if there was a single TINY wrinkle, it was worth 50 pushups [yeah...that sucked], dress into PT gear, and sprint out to the assembly area under the tarp.
PT was brutal. 25 pushups [3 count pushups though, so it's actually 50 of them], what felt like 300 sit ups, followed by more pushups, then more situps, etc., and then 50 POW lunges with each leg [OUCH!]. Then it was time for the water portion. Line up on the angled beach, sprint into the water, then back out, 30 times. Once that was over, had to crawl 25 yards over open ground like you do in the barbed wire obstacle. And then, we'd be absolutely exhausted, just in time for the mile "fun" run, which was done at a 6:00 minute mile pace.
So, by 0710, we're physically exhausted. We're given five minutes to sprint back to our barracks, shower, change into BDUs [Battle Dress Uniforms], and meet up for chow call.
We were required to drink a minimum of a quart of water with every meal, and drinking more was highly encouraged [almost 100 degrees with high humidity, while being physically active all day].
And it was buffet style [w00t!!!]...and I can't EVER remember eating so much as I did at Aviation Challenge. But that's getting ahead of myself. I need to inform you of how they woke us up every morning.
First morning: Nate sprints into the room shouting shit at us and flicking the lights. The most peaceful-wake up of the entire week.
Second morning: Three or four of them come into the barracks, wielding billy clubs. If you weren't out of bed within the first second of them being there, you got beaten with them. Thank goodness I was in the corner, and avoided being hit.
Third morning: Anyone who slept through the billy club routine has his mattress picked up and thrown out the door [while the person was still in it, trying to sleep]. Needless to say, after today, people didn't have a problem about getting up at all.
Fourth morning: That morning was freaky as all hell. Link comes in and gently wakes us all, "Uhhhhh...guys? It's 0600. Time to wake up. If you don't mind, I'm going to turn on the light, is that okay with you, fellas? Oh, and we'd really appreciate if you made it outside for PT this morning, we'd love to have you! Ok, hopefully I'll see you in a few, guys. Please wake up.". So he turns on the light and leaves...and we're wondering when the men with billy clubs are to be turned loose on us again. They didn't show up. But PT was a living hell that day.
Fifth morning: Fucking assholes. Mission flying time. Briefed extensively for two hours on our objectives, our ROE [Rules of Engagement], and all that other stuff you need to know for a mission. So they sneak in before ANYONE is up, and set up an air raid siren, a military grade, air raid siren. The ones you can hear over a mile away. At 0600, it goes off. And we are blown away, we sprint for our flight suits and BDUs and mission notes and suit up for the mission. Then the billy clubs started flying, and we're like "FUCK! LETS GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!". And we kick the enemy's ass and take names [2 aerial gunnery kills by yours truly in a single mission...our plane racked up 10 aerial kills total...we were aces, man!].
Ok, sorry, I'm always highly amused by what happened at Aviation Challenge. You had to be there for much of it.
I'm sorry to bore you, but I was bored and needed something to do.
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