Acceptance Day pictures and Class information

Well, I'm very sorry it's taken me so long to get some better pictures (ones from WebGuy) of the Acceptance Day parade up!

First off, the sad news: Now that the new cadets have finished BCT and started classes (they started on the 5th), WebGuy is not taking any more pictures or blogging any more. He'll be back in March for Recognition though, so you can look forward to that :)

Now that we don't have WebGuy, we aren't able to know much of what's going on over at USAFA. But I would guess it's a bit mundane anyhow.

So here are the WebGuy pictures from Acceptance Day, and also some information from when we saw Nathan on the 4th and from a brief phone call on the 7th.

Marching onto the field for the parade.
The speaker - Retired Maj. General Ron Sega (he's holding a copy of the contrails)
A closer view of the U-2 that flew over.
Nathan during the pass-in-review march around the field - can't you tell how excited he is about the rain? ;-) He said "I literally thought as I was standing there, 'don't rain on my parade!'"
More pass-in-review. When the marchers pass the podium/VIP seating, they do what's called "eyes right" meaning that all the marchers except the ones on the edge look to the right at a 45 degree angle (or something like that).

And, this picture came from a different site - I think a USAFA news story, but I'm not sure. What happened is that people were realizing that the basics were being taken up the ramp, and so all the excited parents/families wanted to get to their cadets! But the canons were about to be fired, and so the security people wouldn't let people walk in front of the canons. So this picture was taken right after they fired the canons, and all the parents started going as fast as they could toward the basics! I'm putting it up because Dad and Mom and I are in it :) Dad's in a grey hoodie with a pink umbrella, about in the middle of the group of people. Mom's in red to his right, and I'm up ahead of them in shorts and a turquoise and blue jacket. I circled us so you can find us :D

Here are a few news stories about Acceptance Day (also known as A-Day):

Two videos from local news stations here and here.

And an official USAFA news story with a few pictures here.

Lastly, WebGuy's series of videos of the parade: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Videos 1 & 2 are of the basics marching on to the field. Warning: 2, 3, and 4 are loud - don't have your volume up too high!!! Anyway, in 1 & 2, Nathan is in the first group closer to the camera. He is in the last row, in the column furthest from the camera (but in the closer group). Hopefully that makes sense! Video 3 is basically just the U-2 flyover. Video 4 skips the ceremonial stuff and shows the basics performing the inverted wedge to go join their new squadrons. Video 5 shows the beginning of the pass-in-review (Nathan's squadron!!! :D) You can see Nathan in the video. He's in the third row from the back, closest to the camera. When the camera zooms in at 30 seconds, you can see him pretty easily.

So here's some of what the four of us talked about during the 2 hours we had him on A-Day:

As we were leaving his dormitory area headed to the van, Nathan made the comment "I haven't really been away from my flight [the group of 30 basics he was in] since the beginning of BCT!"

Since he moved to a new room, he has new roommates - two of them. One is Metzger - he's from Colorado Springs, and the other is Martin - he's from Tennessee.

Each of the 40 Academic Year Squadrons (Mighty Mach 1 is one of the 40) is divided into 3 flights. Nathan is in the C flight. He said there are 9 freshman in each flight, and they have sophomore mentors.

Nathan talked about how in Jacks Valley the basics would know it was about time to get up when the big bus would roll in with its bright headlights, bringing the cadre who had slept on campus. He also said that his favorite part of Jacks Valley was the Confidence Course because it took teamwork with his fellow basics. (He did that on July 23rd - see this post about it) His favorite part of BCT over all, he said, was doing drill - that doesn't surprise me :D

On Saturday August 7th, the newly accepted cadets had what is called "Doolie Day Out" when they get to go off campus to the homes of their sponsor families (families who provide a "home away from home" type thing for short breaks). So that evening Nathan was able to call us and talk for about 20 minutes. He had his first two days of classes on Thursday and Friday (the 5th and 6th), so that's mostly what we talked about.

He said all his classes seemed good - his Tuesday/Thursday classes were harder. He has Basic Chinese five days a week during 3rd period (9:50-10:43). Then on T/Th, he also has Behavioral Science (it sounds a bit like psychology to me - he said it is about people leadership) and Chemistry. On M/W/F, he has AP Calc 2 and Intro to Air Force Engineering. Later he'll also have Physical Development (PE), Intramurals, and an orientation type class.

All of his classes are less than 20 students. Even if the professor is a civilian, one of the students stands up, calls the room to attention, and "reports in" to the professor when they walk in.

He's very glad he doesn't have any classes first period (starting at 7:40). That way, he has plenty of time to eat breakfast and then go back to his room to get whatever he needs for class.

He said meals are a lot more relaxed now, thankfully. Doolies (freshman) still have to sit at attention, but there's no time limit for how long they can eat.

At the point when we talked to him, he still had his cough. He had been back to the clinic the day before and gotten some antibiotics, so hopefully those have helped and his cough is finally gone!!

Well, that's all folks. Thanks for sticking through a long wait and then a long post! I don't know when I might have more news to post.....Nathan probably won't have his phone again until Parents' Weekend (Labor Day - Dad and Mom will get to go see him!), so we may not hear much of anything until then.

Also, please remember to ask if there's anything you're confused about! :D

Oh, and one more thing - here's links to three class of 2014 videos on YouTube:

In-Processing (the first day back in June)

Swearing In (the next day)

Marching out to JV (for BCT 2)