ACCEPTANCE DAY!!!!!!!!!! (4th)

August 4th, 2010 (Wednesday)

Nathan Carey is now a Cadet Fourth Class at USAFA! He is no longer a basic - he beat the Beast of Basic Cadet Training! I'm super proud of him, in case you can't tell :)

Ok, so here's the scoop: I'm much too tired tonight to go through the 131 pages (5,240 pictures) that WebGuy posted. So instead I'll give you a written description with pictures that I took. Then, hopefully tomorrow, I will look at the WebGuy pictures and add some of those.

We (Dad, Mom and I) were able to stay at the campgrounds on the USAFA base Tuesday night, so that made it convenient. We arrived at the bleachers overlooking the parade grounds at about 7:15 in the morning because we had heard they filled up quickly. At first it was rather chilly, but it warmed up and was beautiful weather when the parade started. Before it actually started though, a cadet brought out one of the Academy's live mascots - a gyr-falcon.

Here is a picture of Destiny, a 17-year-old female, and one of several falcons that serve as the school mascots. I was able to go pet her! (Mom took a picture of it for me)
In the shot below, you can see the mountains behind the buildings. You can also see a glimpse of the chapel to the right of the buildings. The basics were lined up along the field (that long line is the 1000+ basics!) and the upperclassmen were waiting up the ramp.
The parade started right on time - the upperclassmen squadrons marched onto one side of the field while the basics marched onto the other side. Below is a picture of Nathan marching on. He's in the back row (on the right), furthest from the camera. He still had a bit of a smile on his face :)
Once they got into position, they stood at attention for a little while...
and then they switched to parade rest for most of the ceremony.
The ceremony included a fly-over of a U2 plane from California, flown by a USAFA grad. (plane pictured below...)
There was also a general from the class of 1974 (who had been an astronaut!) who made a few remarks, and members of the 1974 class presented contrails (books filled with all sorts of facts that the cadets have to know) to representatives of the 2014 class.

The basics raised their right hands and repeated the honor code ("We Will Not Lie, Steal Or Cheat, Nor Tolerate Among Us Anyone Who Does"), and I think it was about then that it started to rain :/ The rain picked up steadily as the National Anthem played, the basics were accepted into the cadet wing and marched to join their new squadrons, all of the cadets repeated the Airman's Creed (read it here), and the cadets marched around the field in a pass-in-review.

Below is a picture of Nathan's new squadron (Mighty Mach 1) passing by where we were sitting. As you can see, it was raining a good bit.
The rain caused a change in plans. The cadets were supposed to march all the way around the field and return to where they had been. Then the families were going to join their cadet as he had his shoulder boards put on. Instead, the squadrons all did different things. It seemed like most were headed up the ramp you saw in the earlier picture. We basically had no idea where Nathan was - we spent several minutes searching for him among all the milling people - but we didn't know where to look! Finally he was able to borrow a phone and call us.

Each squadron is a bit different - something we found out right away! Nathan is in the first squadron - Mighty Mach 1. Since they are the first squadron, they like to be the toughest. The reason that we couldn't find Nathan is because his squadron's Military Training Officer marched all the newly accepted cadets up to their squadron room (in the dormitory building) and made them stand at attention while he just walked around and looked at them. Then he told them "You are in Mighty Mach 1. We are considered the toughest squadron, and we want to keep it that way." I don't know this for sure, but I would guess Nathan called us as soon as he could...which was at least 10-15 minutes after most of the new cadets had been able to meet up with their families.

Well, we did finally find him. And he got his shoulder boards pinned on. The shoulder boards indicate what rank he is (in this case, that he is a freshman).
Below is Nathan with his two BCT flight commanders. Hoyt, his flight commander from 1st BCT is on the right. Wise, his commander from 2nd BCT is on the left. (both are seniors) Hoyt is the one who is pinning on his shoulder boards in the picture above.
As Hoyt was pinning on Nathan's boards, he said something along the lines of "congratulations Cadet Carey - you did very well during BCT 1 [and Wise added "and during BCT 2"]. I know you will continue to do well during your time here. You will make a great officer. You [I think he was referencing Dad, Mom and I] should be very proud of him."

So once Nathan had that done, we were finally able to get him away from the cadet area and go out to our camp site at the campground on the USAFA base. We had about two hours to eat lunch and do some talking before we had to get him back to his room.

[I will add more about what he talked about tomorrow - I'm too tired tonight]

Here's a picture Dad took right quick before we had to leave (this is in Nathan's new dorm room - a couple doors down from his old one). I'm super proud of my brother :)