Memories of the Academy

These must bring up other memories

From a variety of sources:

The blue bunny suits the first year
Standing in line for an ice cream stick
Growling in ranks because we were all tigers
Latrine report during shower formations
The visit from President Eisenhower -- and his heart attack a few days later

Dance classes that included Mrs. Mac's imports from CWC and Loretta Heights
1955, in the original Arnold Hall, Lt Gen Harmon introduced Cadet Reeves to a guy named Omar Bradley. It was a thrill. When asked by the General what I thought about being there, I replied inanely that 'I miss my girlfriend." (From John Reeves)
Not going home the first Christmas
Spit-shining the cactus needles in the toes of the combat boots after bivouac
Golfing uniform
yellow shirts with grey flannel pants
Radio Free Academy, built by Jim Vance and operated using the dormitory wiring
The "March on Denver" before the D.U. football game
Ben Cassiday turning the march around from his Austin-Healey
Flights in the B-36 and the visit by the XC-99
Rings flown through the Mach
The ring dance and engagements
Form 10s
Form 10As
Getting the first car and all of the details that came with it
selecting the model, arranging the loan, getting the insurance, and protecting it from the high winds in Venturi Valley
4% car loans
Driving to Denver in a snow storm
Speeding tickets in Castle Rock
ATO Jerome O'Malley, who stood head-and-shoulders above most of his counterparts and was a model of excellence for all the cadets
ATO Joe Yeager and his fanatic approach to building spirit
And (insert your best remembered ATO name here)
because every ATO was important in building the initial structure of the Academy traditions
The night our first class year when my roomie, Bob Beckel, scored 50 points against Arizona (from Ed Montgomery)
Standing during entire football games
The Jozwiak curve
The football game our doolie year down at the Springs played on the dirt of the old Penrose Stadium built and used primarily for rodeos (also from Ed Montgomery)
Do you remember the Wyoming football game -away? On the way home in a very desolate spot all of the busses pulled to the side of the road- p call. The entire wing disembarked to answer the call of nature. I think I was one of the last to get back on the bus thinking all the time-hurry, the bus will leave and it's a long hike to home base. (From Brian Parker)
The Iowa game and the group spirit it displayed, about which an entire story could be written
Moving aircraft from the Lowry flight line to the quadrangle
The Cotton Bowl game and Dallas
Team trips in a C-47
Maintaining aerial supremacy over Ponca City
Driftmeters
The "unique" odor on board a T-29
Woody Herman concert during first summer
World Premier of "The Hunters", a film about F-86 pilots during the Korean War, with a cast that included (if memory serves) Dick Powell, Mae Britt and June Allison

REMINISCENSES

PRESIDENT IKE

On hand for one of the Academy's first formal reviews

From left to right: Mrs. Sprague, Brig General Robert M. Stillman, Maj General John Sprague, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lt General Hubert R. Harmon, Brig General Don Zimmerman, and Mrs. Harmon

Photo from Pete Todd's article on the Air Force Academy in the first issue of the Talon, February 1956

Eglin AFB, First Stop - Civil Engineering, the sewage treatment plant
Slow flights in C-124s
Fire power demonstrations
The summer field trip to Norfolk where we spent a day aboard the Ranger, and to Fort Benning where we jumped out of the 35-foot towers.
The "Pig Pool" at the de rigeur Maxwell AFB Officers' Wives Club-hosted Dance
At an air show in our honor, watching an F-86 crash on final turn while at Wright Patterson AFB, then seeing the pilot's wife who had been sitting with us in shock ask the briefer what's happened – a reminder to us all of the perils to self and family of our chosen profession

US FIELD TRIPS

ANOTHER VIEW

We haven’t done badly in a bare four years," says a high-ranking faculty member. "I’d say 50% of the first graduating class are the well-balanced men we wanted to produce, 25% are lacking except in scientific and engineering skills, and the rest should not be graduated."

Quoted from Time Magazine, June 1, 1959

Warm beer in the wee morning hours at Cranwell
"Horsey" and "Are You There, Moriarity"
Capt. Braswell jousting on a bicycle with a garbage can lid and mop
The nurses' school across the street from the Columbia House (where we were billeted)
Hyde Park and the speech-making
Continental Breakfasts at the hotel in Paris, when we were all broke
Brandenberg Gate

THE EUROPEAN TRIP

THE FAR EAST TRIP

Flying the entire route in a USN Constellation
Flying in a TF-102 in Alaska
Shemya refueling stop, with a girl behind every tree (no trees on the entire island)
Canceling the Yokosuka briefing so we could go shopping in the Ship's Store
400 yen to the dollar
Almost destroying the door frame of a small tailor shop when I forgot to duck through the low door when leaving
The Queen Bee in Tokyo, and Papagayo's Bar, a dimly lit cave under the Simbashi Street subway station, where the classiest thing in the place was the sign to the men's room, which said "4-U-2-P"
The Grand Hotel in Taiwan, with enormous bright red columns
The airshow by Taiwan's demonstration team. Normally a nine-ship formation, but only five flew that day, "because the others were flying combat missions"
The Peak in Hong Kong, where at least one cadet decided that someday, he would return for a tour of duty there and did
A two-hour bus ride from Clark AFB into Quezon City, with no time for sight-seeing, and an equally rapid trip back to the base without ever spending time to sight see Manila
Island stops in the Pacific for refueling
R&R from the trip in Honolulu