The Home Stretch
Happy Monday Families!
Hope y'all had a good weekend and enjoyed all the Summary Sunday videos. I'm from California and we don't say "y'all" alot, but I just like the way it sounds.
Jacks Valley is starting to wind down. I'm out of courses to describe. Well almost out. Today and tomorrow are the last of them for the Basics with a big culminating event on Wednesday morning (more about that tomorrow), and of course the Big Bad Basic competition on Wednesday afternoon. Here was the breakdown of our coverage from today.
Demons: CBRNE
Flying Tigers: Assault Course
Guts: Confidence Course
Hellcats: Assault Course
The fact that we don't have new photos of Aggressors, Cobras, & Executioners today doesn't mean they weren't doing anything or we somehow missed them. It just means that they were either doing something we don't cover like Self Aid and Buddy Care or we have already covered them on a course they are repeating. I know there may be some Basics with unique circumstances that get missed that way, but hopefully we were able to get them on another course on another day. It is really about schedule and available manpower for us. You have all been incredibly patient and positive with your comments, questions, and requests and we really appreciate it. We feel like we are all in this together. If we have missed your basic somewhere along the line, it hasn't been for lack of trying. As I have said many times, we really do know how important those glimpses are to you. All we ask is that you understand that we are also covering jump, soaring, powered flight, RPAs, ESET, & Prep BMT, along with BCT at the same time and we are doing it all with 6 total photographers. It's really amazing when you think about it. Actually we try not to think about it, we just do it, LOL.
Our coverage tomorrow will feature most of the squadrons we didn't see today. The exception is Cobras. Their Jacks Valley course coverage is finished unless we catch them somewhere unexpected. Actually that is a good thing, because also finished is Demons, Flying Tigers & Guts. It means we're actually running out of BCT. It is really almost over. There is still more "Wine and Webguying" ahead of you, (actually there is an entire academy year of coverage ahead), but soon this volume of the USAFA book will end. As with the end all good books it will leave a bit of a void. What will we all do with our evenings next week? It will be back to "Game of Thrones"? I personally will miss this little chat we have every day. But, I get ahead of myself.
As I said, tomorrow will finish the courses. Wednesday is the Big Bad Basic Competition! One of the parts of the Assault Course that we didn't cover much of were the pugil stick fights. At the beginning of the 2nd Assault Course, before all the awesome water shower photos were the pugil stick fights. If you remember back to my A-Course blog, I mentioned that during the first A-Course run through the Basics learned combat techniques. The second run through they got to try them out on another Basic. (See below)
At the end of Jacks Valley the top male and female fighters from each squadron pair off in a tournament to determine the Big Bad female and male Basic. Rather than try to describe it further, a video is worth a thousand words. Here is a video from 2014 produced by USAFA PA. We will have our own pictures and video from this year's competition on Wednesday. Here's a preview.
Tomorrow's blog entry will have March Out info and a preview of the the rest of the week.
Enjoy