Hi everyone, we attended I-day with our son last June. Wow - I can't believe all this time has gone by so fast. I enjoyed reading these stories so here is ours.
The day before I-day, my son flew out on an AFA ticket, and we were on a different flight. The plan was to meet in Denver. Well, our flights were on schedule. Unfortunately, our son's flight got out of Detroit really late, and he missed a connection flight in Chicago. So we ended up in Denver and he was stuck in Chicago. After several hours of trying to find a way to get him on another flight, he called us and said that USAFA got him and a bunch of other basics to be on another flight into COS. We were hoping to spend a good part of the day together as a family relaxing, but he did not get into COS until about 6:30PM or so. The ironic thing is that we met a host family at the airport waiting for my son's flight to get in to pick up their new basics. Long story short, they are a fantastic family and offered to sponsor our son as well. So I guess the flight dely actually paid off in the long run. My son said almost the entire flight was new basic cadets.
Our son is IC (not football), and we barely got to the end of the team dinner that night at the Academy. Following dinner, we got to our hotel for the last night together.
Next morning at the Embassy Suites, I was up early and had breakfast. The place was full of cadets going to I-day. My son was one of the last ones to have breakfast and get ready to leave. Next thing you know, there is a power failure at the Embassy and the elevators didn't work to get up to our floor. No emergency lights in the stairwell either. The nervous dad in me was worried we were going to be late.
We finally got to AOG. What an experience…all these kids dropping off their bags with instructions from 'nice' cadre. We stood in line and then got into Doolittle Hall. Word of advise, I knew there was a back room area with a library, and a quiet area. Don't go in there as tempting as it is. Away from the crowds, emotions caught up with us. Well 5 minutes later we said our goodbyes as he went up the stairs. We saw him outside walking the Heritage Trail, going over the bridge, and getting on the red (red is bad) bus. Later he told us the bus was not a fun place to be...even though everyone knew that's where it all starts.
After he left, the Colorado parents club had a picnic for anyone who wanted to come. It was on the Academy grounds at a campsite. I am sure they will do that again. It was nice; we were able to talk with other parents.
Someone above said something about the tears and of some of it being pride. I really think it is the pride. It is almost a year later and tears of immense pride can start at any time of the day. I don't think it is sadness; it is the unbelievable pride in my son, what he has accomplished, and what he is doing.
In the afternoon on I-day, we went to the Chapel wall which was filled with parents watching for a glimpse of their basics. We finally saw our son from a distance late in the day. Yeah!
We went to the Swearing In ceremony the next morning. Get there about an hour early because the Chapel wall gets full. More tears (of pride) through that. Recently my son began talking a little about I-processing. He said they were actually sworn in, in a room. He said at that moment he knew he was joining something bigger than he was.
We spent a few days in the Springs after that. We went white water rafting that was really cool. Also note, the Chapel wall will become your place to go to daily when you are in the Springs.
We joined the Webguy and were glued to the computer daily looking for pictures of the Cobras A - and our basic. We found pictures almost every day. I remember thinking we knew more about what he was doing daily than if he went to State U.
My wife and I went to Acceptance Day in early August. If you can make this work, I recommend it. We only had a few hours with our son after the ceremony, but it was fantastic watching the marching, band, and seeing your cadet get their much coveted shoulder boards placed on them. There is a forum on the AOG Webguy site and the parents get to know one another. The parents of the squadrons set up picnic lunches for their squadrons after the ceremony. This was really great. Not all parents could make the trip, so whoever went made sure to buy enough lunches for multiple new C4C cadets. We picked up about a dozen sandwiches from Quiznos to share. The several hours together were short, but very much worth it.
Get to Parents Weekend at all costs. This is over the Labor Day weekend and you should get your hotel reservations now. They will sell out and probably have done so already.
We have been pretty lucky. Even though we live in MI, we got out there for a sport camp the summer before inprocessing, Orientation, I-day, Acceptance Day, and Parents Weekend. My wife went to CA to a sporting event in November. He was home for Thanksgiving and then for Christmas. I just got back from a few days out there last week at a parents week for his team. I got to go have pizza with him at Arnolds Hall on Thursday evening, attended two classes on Friday, dinner on Friday and Saturday, and he stayed over with me at his sponsor's house on Saturday evening. It was a great time.
Well that’s about it. What a fantastic experience this has been so far. Good luck to all of you.
Bill