Pull Breath, Kick Glide

Pull Breath, Kick Glide. These are the voyages of the 3 degree mandatory swim class. our 8 lesson mission.... to swim lots of laps while a bunch of stubborn swim coaches yell at us repeatedly.  They keep telling me that I can swim faster, but they have yet to prove it to me.

It's a frigid morning. I had hoped to sleep in, but it's my swim go, so I go down to the pool.  I form up in my swimsuit and salute a shirtless lieutenant and say "class reports ready to learn". He responds with "ready to swim". I concede that my terminology will never please AD, I plunge into the water, and immediately my acorns become sesame seeds.  Fortunately, this makes me more streamlined for swimming.  I remark at the lack of shirtless women, only dudes, and then I plunge my gorgeous face into the water.

We begin every class with the 250 meter swim.  It's an amazing opportunity for me to show my teacher that I am not part of any gilled species and there is a reason that we are in the AIR force.  After we proceed to learn and practice the legendary, "life-saving" efficiency strokes.  There are three.  The breathstroke, the elementary backstroke, and the sidestroke.

The breathstroke is a very well known swim maneuver.  The shirtless lieutenant proceeds to demonstrate the moves for the class.  First, he pulls his arms through the water.  Then he breathes as his head breaks the surface of the mini chlorine infected ocean.  Next he kicks his legs in the fashion of a whip kick, and proceeds to end the sequence with a steady glide.  Hence, the 'pull, breathe, kick, glide' was brought to life.  The elementary backstroke is pretty much the same except upside down.  The objective is to drown you while you can still see the light of day above the water.  The sidestroke is again meant to deprive you of comfort and air while you attempt to streamline on your side while your body disobeys and sinks, your ears fill with water, and the living water attempts to take your beating heart once again.

Swim class at the University of the Sciences And the Fine Arts (USAFA) is no joke.  AD takes this course very seriously, just like everything else.  I hope to improve the efficiency of my newly-forming gills and use them to support the greater good of mankind.

I'm excited for the opportunity to increase my warrior ethos through the next USAFA aquatics class I will take called Water Haze.  Check back soon for another aquatic adventure of just 'nother cadet.

Thanks for reading, if you're actually reading this for some odd reason.

Much love.

-Just'nothercadet

Flying towards PROG

It's October at the United States Air Force Academy.  We all know what this means... lots of work and really nothing else to do.  Weather that is cold one day and hot the next.  the return of mandatory A-jackets on the Tzo. Need I go on?

A cadet prepares for PROG

Soon our prog grades will come back disappointing, the dark ages will descend upon us, and Mitches will bring back jerked turkey. Tell then, all we can do is reflect on this extraordinary grind that lead us to this point.

Today, I went to differential equations, where I wrote out high flight and drew a smiley face on my pop quiz. I failed. then, I had a pop quiz in MSS. I got a 40%. I turned in my English sonnet late.  I cost my squadron 11 points in noon meal formation, 10 for not bringing the unit colors and 1 for moving at attention.  I received a C for IP points in the easiest class in existence, MSS.  I spent 2 hours on my matlab regrade, only for it not to be able to publish. I received no points for my efforts. I comprehended no information from ECE.

The cadet wing was also informed we would be restricted by tomorrow if the class crest was not returned by the freshman.  It's a 3 day weekend, and my family flew out.

Despite the failures of this day, I remain focused on one goal: maintaining a prog GPA high enough for my family to include me on the Christmas card, for USAFA to retain me, and to wear around that sweet little star that says you're on the deans list. I also hope to pass the sleep quiz the PEERS sent out earlier. That's important too.

The other extraordinary part about prog is that we get to do midterm feedback. I've already taken the time to destroy my classes and their brutal grading in the feedback links.  I've spammed the squadron and wing google docs with all the sarcastic feedback I can think of.  All that lies ahead is the actual formal feedback procedure.  Let's see how low I get ranked this semester. To put it in perspective, there are fewer 3 digs in my squadron than my ranking last year (some ranked ahead of me quit USAFA), so it will only be better this year.

My MSS (military and strategic studies) teacher just called on me as I was writing this.  I said something about attacking oil.  Works every time.

Valor to Victory,

JustAnotherCadet