- Joined
- Jul 20, 2006
- Messages
- 3,940
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
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