Why The USAFA??

I wasn’t going to post, but I realized that with all of the new people in the last few years there may be a lot who do not know my son, or even why I am on here for that matter. I would love for my son to write this but I know he will not join the forum, so I will have to do it.

Our son did not decide on USAFA until about his junior year in HS, although he was always aware of it from family members who went there. He was planning on being an engineer but he said he couldn’t see himself ever spending all day behind a desk. He also watched the F-16s fly over at our local 4th of July parade every year and thought that would be a cool job. One person in particular that he talked to was my uncle who is a 1963 USAFA grad. My uncle went to USMAPS (because there was no USAFA prep school back then) and then on to UPT after USAFA where he was assigned the F-100 and subsequently failed out of training because he couldn’t land the darn thing. He was reassigned as a navigator and served 24 years as a B-52 Nav. Our son had many conversations with my uncle and he decided that he was going to go to USAFA and fly fighters.

Son took total control of the application process, went to Summer Seminar, and ended up with an LOA in September of his senior year. He applied and interviewed for both senatorial and our representative’s nominations and ended up on all three slates. By the end of November he had already accepted his appointment. Because of the stories that he had heard about things being so hard at USAFA and the tales from my uncle, he was ready for the worst when he got to COS. In the end he felt that BCT was not all that hard and he expected worse.

His freshman year he was knocked down a bit when he ended up with a 2.9 GPA for first semester. He had never expected to get those grades and it made him kick it into higher gear and he ended up graduating with a 3.5 in 2011. He did all that he could at USAFA to learn flying. He did Soaring his first summer, and then took Jump and Powered Flight as a Firstie so that he had exposure to as much airmanship as he could. From there he went to UPT and was determined to be #1 in his UPT class so that he had the best shot at getting a fighter. He did get #1 and got assigned to the F-16 which is what he is flying right now.


Stealth_81
 
I wish there was a "LOVE" button in addition to the "like" button because some of these posts are AMAZING! Thank you all for sharing! I love to see what happens when people don't get in the first time but keep trying and trying. As someone who has not been accepted yet, it's great to see that you can try again and succeed.
 
I wish there was a "LOVE" button in addition to the "like" button because some of these posts are AMAZING! Thank you all for sharing! I love to see what happens when people don't get in the first time but keep trying and trying. As someone who has not been accepted yet, it's great to see that you can try again and succeed.
Agreed!
 
Did he have any trouble with requirements for the academy since he decided later on? I chose AFA about that same time and I felt like I was behind.

I'll let Stealth speak for himself but I think that feeling comes from the perception built from what I call the No-Brainer category. A lot of the things you read on this forum is to get candidates into that category but that's like what 10% (anecdotal number pulled from where the sun don't shine) of the class. People like CC's DS, Fencer's Twins, Hornet himself reach that small category. The rest are "fighting" for it, not that the ones I've mentioned didn't fight for it trust me they did, remember I'm talking perceptions.

You see the stats, how long and hard those no-brainers were at it and you come in your junior or senior year and that feeling starts welling up that you're way behind. You're not; as you can see from this wonderful thread not everyone decides at the age of 12 this is their dream and some of those that knew at that age didn't make it the first time around.

Just be you and work on the best package that you can put forward and you'll be fine. I'm not saying don't work for it put everything you have into it. Always remember at the end of the day if you can stand up and say I've done everything I could to put the best package forward you should be proud of that whether you get accepted or not.

Now with that out of the way what made you decide your junior year to make this your path. Lets hear the story!
 
Did he have any trouble with requirements for the academy since he decided later on? I chose AFA about that same time and I felt like I was behind.

I don't think he had any trouble with the requirements. He was already doing the things that the Academy was looking for since he was in athletics, student government, and had taken AP classes and got good grades. He was doing the right things without even knowing it! :D

Stealth_81
 
Stealth, I think our sons have a couple of things in common. Mine decided relatively late that his primary goal was to become an officer in the military, but he seemed to have done the right things without knowing it. He also expressed several times that he didn't want a job that required sitting at a desk all day.
 
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