One weekend a month, I drive up to SLAB- Salt Lake Air Base- to spend the day in student flight. A flight simply refers to a group within the Air National Guard. My typical weekend on base goes like this:
I wake up at 5 am Saturday morning so I can make it to the base at 7. I blast the radio to keep myself awake as I drive by myself in the dark. When I arrive at the gate to the base I am stopped by an armed guard who asks for my military ID. Despite looking intimidating, the guards always greet me with a friendly smile.
I park my car in front of the building where the classroom is and go inside. The student flight classroom is similar to a classroom one would find at a high school. The purpose of student flight is to simply be something to do for enlisted people who have not been to training yet. None of us have official uniforms yet since those are issued at basic training, but we have been given blue Air Force tee shirts and black caps. We treat this outfit as if it were a uniform: tucked in shirt, hat on outside, hat off inside.
We begin class by standing and reciting the Airman's Creed:
I am an American Airman
I am a warrior
I have answered my nation's call
I am an American Airman
My mission is to fly, fight, and win
I am faithful to a proud heritage
a tradition of honor
and a legacy of valor
I am an American Airman
Guardian of freedom and justice
My nation's sword and shield
its sentry and avenger
I defend my country with my life
I am an American Airman
Wingman, leader, warrior
I will never leave an Airman behind
I will never falter
and I will not fail
Our instructor, Staff Sergent Mayer, then proceeds to make sure that everyone is getting the help that they need to finish paperwork, get an ID, or anything else they need to do be fully received into the system. Then everyone changes into PT clothes and we stand out side to go do physical training. We fall in to two elements, or lines. Sgt. Mayer calls us to attention and we march over the building where we work out.
Sgt. Mayer works as a group instructor at a gym when he is not a drill, so he always has a number of creative activities for us to do that works just about every muscle in existence. We cycle through different stations for a full exhausting hour, then we line up and march back to shower and change into our "uniforms."
When we are nice and clean we march over to the chow hall to eat around 11. By this time it has been about five hours since I last ate, so I pile my plate high and finish all of it. Us students spend lunch getting to know each other. Our ages range from 17 to 30, and we all have very different personalities and beliefs. It is interesting to see how easily we get along despite our different backgrounds.
After lunch we go back to the classroom and will either watch informational videos on YouTube or someone will come talk to us. Yesterday while at drill someone came to talk to us about tuition assistance and the GI bill. After he left we watched a video in which a choir sang the Air Force song so that we could learn it. We then came across this video that we could not help but watch. It actually ends up being pretty funny at the end, and we made fun of how overly dramatic it was.
We talked about various things such as basic training, tech school, recognizing ranks, and anything else we may need to know to be successful in the military, then practice marching. At about 2:30 we are released to go home.
On Sunday we come back at the same time and do pretty much the same thing, except for our exercise we do a practice PT (physical training) test. We have to do push ups, sit ups, and run for a mile and a half. We will have to be able to pass PT tests in basic training to graduate, so this is especially useful.
After lunch we are released to go to our units. Each person in student flight has a certain job that he or she will begin when they return from training, whether it be personnel, finance, pilot, crew chief, services, etc. When I return from training, I will begin working as a Spanish linguist. We each go to our units to meet the people we will be working with, become familiar with the workplace, and sometimes perform small tasks.
Once I am free to go, I rush home as soon as possible to sleep for several more hours to make up for sleep lost from waking up so early and in preparation for the next few days of extremely sore muscles.
After lunch we go back to the classroom and will either watch informational videos on YouTube or someone will come talk to us. Yesterday while at drill someone came to talk to us about tuition assistance and the GI bill. After he left we watched a video in which a choir sang the Air Force song so that we could learn it. We then came across this video that we could not help but watch. It actually ends up being pretty funny at the end, and we made fun of how overly dramatic it was.
We talked about various things such as basic training, tech school, recognizing ranks, and anything else we may need to know to be successful in the military, then practice marching. At about 2:30 we are released to go home.
On Sunday we come back at the same time and do pretty much the same thing, except for our exercise we do a practice PT (physical training) test. We have to do push ups, sit ups, and run for a mile and a half. We will have to be able to pass PT tests in basic training to graduate, so this is especially useful.
After lunch we are released to go to our units. Each person in student flight has a certain job that he or she will begin when they return from training, whether it be personnel, finance, pilot, crew chief, services, etc. When I return from training, I will begin working as a Spanish linguist. We each go to our units to meet the people we will be working with, become familiar with the workplace, and sometimes perform small tasks.
Once I am free to go, I rush home as soon as possible to sleep for several more hours to make up for sleep lost from waking up so early and in preparation for the next few days of extremely sore muscles.
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