THE SECONDCLASS SUMMER 

In the summer going into your secondclass year, you have to take Operations Air Force and some type of leadership activity.

Operations Air Force

Ops AF is a program designed to help show cadets all the different jobs available in the Air Force. Everyone is randomly sent to an operational Air Force Base, where they will see some of the different opportunities available. I was sent to Kirtland Air Force Base, NM. Kitrland is primarily a research base, housing the Phillips Laboratory, AFOTEC, and the Airborne Laser. In addition, Kirtland has an Air National Guard wing of F-16 Falcons (the Taco's), is home to the 505th Special Operations Wing, and is the primary training base for Pararescue Special Forces. 

BELOW: this is a virtual reality simulator for the MH-53J Pave Low helicopter, used by the special forces detachment. The system allows for a tail gunner and two window gunners. Each person has the ability to move about the cabin, and the virtual reality will allow them to look out other windows, out the cockpit, or even at the other gunners! The miniguns also mimic wind resistance against the barrels of the window gunners. The whole simulator can move freely on hydraulics to make the simulation that much more realistic. It can even be linked with other simulators to make a complete mission with multiple aircraft!

During Ops we visited many different jobs available in the AF - from maintenance to the medical staff. But the highlight of Ops without a doubt was courtesy of the Taco's. All eight of us on Ops got an F-16 ride! This wasn't a joy-ride, mind you. The wing had four D models (2 seaters). Usually, these aircraft are used for training, checkrides, or just simply fly with an empty back seat. So the Taco's were nice enough to let us jump in the back whenever there was an F-16 that was otherwise going to fly with an empty back seat. My flight involved flying out to the bombing range and liking up with a flight of B-52 bombers from Barksdale AFB, LA. The bombers would make a bombing run with live laser guided bombs at about 25,000 feet. My plane, at 12,000 feet, would then designate the target with a laser. After each run, while waiting for the B-52s to circle around, the pilot let me have the stick. The F-16 is a Fly-by-wire aircraft.  In a normal aircraft,  when you move the stick it causes hydraulics to move which in turn cause the different control surfaces on the plane to move.  In a fly-by-wire aircraft, however, moving the stick tells the computer what to do, and then the computer make the appropriate adjustments. The advantage to this is that it allowed the F-16 to be a lot more maneuverable than it would otherwise have been. The stick in the F-16 only moves 1/8 of an inch in each direction. It strictly senses how hard you are pushing against it to determine how much of an adjustment to make. I loved every minute of it! I was immediately impressed with how responsive it was to my stick inputs. I did a couple 360 rolls, and did a little follow-the-leader with our wingman.

A F-16C Falcon (single seater) 

that's me getting in for one heck of a ride!

On the last bombing run, the pilot did a high angle of attack lase, which basically means that once the bomb was dropped, he dove almost straight down to the target. While waiting for the bomb to hit, the little computer voice was going "Altitude...Altitude...Altitude.." We pulled out of there at about 500 feet, and pulled 6 G's to go vertical. That was awesome, to say the least. Then on the way back we did a little low-level flying - 300 feet and 500 knots of speed. Once we got back to the airfield, we did a simulated engine failure landing, doing a touch-and-go, and then screaming back out on full afterburner. Full afterburner provides so much thrust that you basically have a 2.5 G push, sticking you in your seat. What a flight! What made it even better is that I didn't get airsick... all the other cadets got sick on their rides. But that flight is definitely something that I will never forget. 

Leadership Activities

Now that you are entering the final two years of the Academy, it is time to start taking on leadership roles that will help you learn valuable experience for when you graduate. There are a variety of activities to choose from: you can be a cadre for basic training, run Combat Survival Training, be a Soaring Instructor Pilot, teach Free Fall Parachuting, or teach Combat Arms. I chose to be a Combat Arms instructor for basic training. So after a few weeks of training, we were expected to be able to teach the new freshmen how to use the weapons safely, as well as instruct them well enough so that they shoot well enough to qualify with that weapon. All the Combat Arms instructors were broken into two groups, those teaching M-16 rifles, and those teaching M-9 handguns. Since I had a lot of experience with handguns from the Combat Pistol Team, I decided to teach M-9's. The days were rather long - my group of 3 would instruct about 50 people a day for two weeks. 

The Secondclass (Junior) Year

 This is the year that you really start getting into you major's classes. The previous two are taken up by core classes. The core requirements here are much more demanding than at most Colleges, because the Academy wants extremely well-rounded officers. So for example, I am a Biology major, but because of core classes I have taken everything from History and English to Thermodynamics and Engineering Mechanics. This is also the year when you start taking on a lot of leadership roles within your squadron. The first class cadets (seniors) are in charge, but you are their #2. So a lot of things might get delegated to you. I was the Information Management NCO in the fall, which means that basically anything computer related was my responsibility. In the Spring, I was the Standardization/Evaluation NCO, which along with the Stan/Eval Officer, does all of the inspecting. 

The really big event that happens at the end of this year is Ring Dance. You can think of it as kind of like a prom, though it takes on much more importance to the secondclass cadets. This is where they are awarded their class rings, the symbol of all of the hard work that they have put into the Academy. The ring always consists of certain items: on one side, the class crest, which is designed by each class. On the other side goes the Air Force Academy Crest. The top of the ring has a chain in a circle of 59 links to symbolize the connection with the first class, the class of 1959. The stone in the center can be one of many choices. Rings can range anywhere in price from $200 to several thousand, depending on the features.  Each ring for the class of 2000 came with a certificate of authenticity. This is because the sheet of nickel that is added (you can't make a ring out of pure gold because it will be too soft) was divided into 8 segments. Each one of the first seven was flown to a different continent on the Earth. The 8th piece was launched on board the space shuttle and spent a few days on the Russian Space Station Mir. Then all the pieces were brought back and put into all of our rings. So you can say that my ring has been to all seven continents and a space station.

This is the Class Crest for the Class of 2000.  Each class designs their unique crest.

Here are two examples of the many different ring features available

Last Updated: May 18, 2003