Prep In Processing Day

Prep School Cadet Candidates In-Processed today marking the beginning of their Prep year with the hopes of receiving a nomination to the Air Force Academy next year.

Each year approximately 240 young men and women are chosen to attend the U.S Air Force Preparatory School, which was established in 1961 under the Command of Colonel Lee Charles Black.  Today's Prep School Cadet Candidates (also know as Preppies or CC's) were dropped off at Black Field which is named after Colonel Black. 

  

  

The Prepartory School offers a select group of enlisted personnel and civilians, a pathway to join the Air Force Academy. The school provides the academic, leadership and physical skills to prepare them for success as future officers.  While cadet canidates are not guaranteed an appointment to the Academy, they earn consideration and a recommendation from the Preparatory School Commander if they successfully complete the 10 month program (information from USAFA.edu).

After being dropped off they proceeded to the tent where they received their ballcaps The ballcaps are different colors to distinguish between the three Prep School Squadrons.  

    Alpha Squadron-RED                                                                                    Bravo Squadron-GREEN  

  

Charlie Squadron-BLUE

 

The Prep CC's then proceeded to take the Oath of Enlistment, acknowledging that they are "all in" at which point they became members of the Air Force, as an enlisted member, and were placed on active duty for training. The Oath of Enlistment represents a commitment to our country and service to the Air Force.

   

  

Today's blog and uploaded photos will be of Drop Off and Oath. The information below is for you to learn a little bit about how their day went and the photos from those events will be edited and posted later tomorrow.

They were also photographed going to their squardron for the first time and being met there by the Cadre and MTI's.  The cadre are Cadets at the Academy helping run BMT (basic military training) and several of them were once Prep CC's themselves. MTI's are military training instructors that are assigned to the USAF Prep School from Lackland AFB, San Antonio for the duration of BMT.  The MTI's help train the Cadre on drill, ceremony, standardization, evaluation, and military protocol.  The Cadre then train the Prep CC's on all of these aspects keeping the training for Prep CC's as well as Basic Cadets uniform within the Air Force military training standards.

The final location that you will see your Prep CC is when they were getting issued several uniforms such as physical training (PT) gear, winter jackets, hats and the Airman Battle Uniform (ABU-camouflage uniform).

We hope you enjoy the photos and enjoy the new game of "Where's my Preppie?"  It will get easier as BMT moves forward because there will be times when WebGuy will be able to separate some activities by squardron.  Some activities will be posted as one group when we are unable to separate them into individual squadrons.  In those instances the colored hats will definitely help you at least narrow down your search. Most of the photos today and tomorrow will be loaded in order of squadron within each catagory.  For those looking for their prior enlisted Prep Cadet Candidate, they are mostly in their squadron, but some photos were taken as they moved about the campus since they were in-processed first. So you might find them if you look through all the photos and not just in the squadron you were told they would be in.

To view photos, go to CLASSES > PREP SCHOOL > Inprocessing.  Set your photo order at the top of the page OLDEST to NEWEST. Select your start page. Or click on the links below.

*Reminder that the second half of In-processing photos will be edited and uploaded tomorrow.

*** Photo order must be set OLDEST to NEWEST for links below to take you to the correct start page.

Pages. 1-38  Drop Off and Squadron Hat

Pages 38 (middle of page)-49  Oath