My life as I know it: September 2009

Falcon Heritage is Homecoming for certain classes where they come back and talk to the Cadets about life in the Air Force. One guy that talked to us, a Major, spoke of his time as a tanker pilot. He had some cool stories I'm not really allowed to release, but overall, the stories were typical war stories, where we all found it amazing that someone in our spot just 15 years ago could go and do such great things. Along with Alumni talking to us, flyovers have been non stop.

Monday there were 2 A10’s that flew over during french. I didn't see them, but they shook the building. Tuesday there was a C130 during lunch, didn't see that one either. Thursday during practice 3 f16’s were in close formation at about 150 feet,they flew over the dorms and went into full afterburners straight up for about 15 seconds, into an inverted s, then a 180 roll, then took off. Most impressive thing I've seen live. Friday around 11 in the morning, 4 f15’s close formation low, like 200 feet slowly passed over the school, going into the missing man formation, with one flying straight up until we lost site of it. The others stayed low until couldn’t see them anymore. Around an hour later during lunch, an A10, P51, and an F15 flew over in formation. Didn't see those but could feel them. About a half hour later, a C-17 made 2 low passes, not very loud, but cool too see. About 5 still on Friday, 2 F-15's with an F-22 few by low and fast. Pretty cool to see the F22 up close.

Saturday, today was the football game. We played San Diego State and won 26-9 I believe. Pretty boring game, no real action. The flyover was first a huge C-5, biggest plane made, over 250 feet long, it doesn't look like it could fly(it's the fat one in the picture). Later, the same P51 A10 and F15 combo flew over, showing the progression of flight for the US. The P51, more commonly referred to as the Mustang, was a WWII fighter, with the A-10 and F15 both coming out during Vietnam, both quite powerful aircraft. Attached is the video of the flyover, they were too high, not great that great of a video.

Jumping is still nonexistent, but the training is going really well. We're running a lot, and doing different sprint and pole vault run drills. We'll start really jumping in about 3 weeks. Prog, grade progression, is here next week, and good news, unlike a lot of people I know, I will not be on restriction and will still have my weekend's open. School is getting harder, but I'm really trying to stay on top of everything whenever I have the chance.

We had our first snow Monday, none of it really stuck down here, but the mountain was a nice blanket of white for a few days. The wind gusted to over 50 sometimes, and had a windchill reading of below 20*. However, just 3 days later, it was 70 and sunny, the weather is quite strange here. Only 8 weeks until I come back for Thanksgiving, can't wait to be home. Hope all is well with everyone. Take Care. -Matt

Well I haven't posted in a few weeks and my fans are getting upset, sorry Mom... But I'm back, and wow I've been busy. My birthday came and went, thank you to everyone who sent me Happy Birthday wishes, I had a great one. I received a shout out from the Squadron First Officer in formation. I had an amazing cake waiting for me in Arnold Hall courtesies of my parents, thank you :) and I had many cards and wishes waiting for me in my mail box. Just 4 days later, Parent's weekend started. Best weekend at the Academy so far, it was great to get out and just relax.

I met my parents early Friday morning, and showed them around the academic building a little before my first class. We went to engineering, followed by the parade, boring. At least I thought it was, but of course I was the one in full service dress standing at attention for over an hour. To make the parade more interesting however, about 15 freshman from my squad went down to the parade field with 12 cans of spray paint, to make a little banner, ▲TII, our squad nickname, delta tau deuce. We took about 2 hours in the middle of the night to make it look as good as possible. We had a full sketch and even come stencils to make sure it looked top notch, we think it did. We also received praise all of the way up the chain of command, into the Permanent party including various officers. The Parade carried on, only a few people passed out from the heat, but much less than everyone was predicting. I then met my parents on the field, and together we walked up to the dining hall, Mitchell Hall. We had make your own sandwiches, with sun chips, and an apple pie, a disappointing meal, other than the pie.

I then showed my parents around the Chapel, and Arnold Hall. We sat in the air conditioned lecture hall, while we watched a video from Basic, the good ol' times. After a little relaxation we were off to my French class. Another hour passed, and school was done for the day, we walked around the gym, hall of fame, and then we hauled my new TV and printer up the hill.

My first real meal off base was TGI fridays, which was pretty good, cant go wrong with a hamburger. We also at ate Fantastic Daves, a BBQ restaurant, along with Qdoba which is better than Chipole. We went to the Air Force football game Saturday, and spent that night at the theaters watching Inglorious Basterds. We drove though Garden of the Gods and took a little walk in the giant rock garden. The weekend came to a quick end, and I was stuck in my room, studying for my first Math Test.

This past week has been packed with different tests and reviews, but school is still going pretty well. The work load is piling up, but everything here is still pretty good. Our whole squad passed our knowledge tests today, which means it will be a good week. Track is going well, and the cold is coming. It never hit 50* here this past Saturday. I'm excited for the snow, but I'm not excited for the 10 degree temperatures that come with it. I hope everyone is doing well, I get to come home in 71 short days, but who's counting. Can't wait to hear from everyone. Have a great day,

Matt

The preliminary drawings