Time for COT Fun and Games

After the brutally late night studying for CWT #2, we were subjected to, in my opinion, the worst pain of the entire month. Yes, we had one session of strength-training PT (the previous one having been rained out) the morning after we had gotten only 4 hours of sleep. Strength training is normally a fun challenge, but not this strength training. We did multiple sets of all different types of push-ups, sit-ups, and other exercises that required the use of our vile, ringworm-harboring PT mats. The worst was partner push-ups: Both partners did push-ups at the same time, but one partner rested her legs across the other partner's back. Luckily, my partner was about the same size and ability as me. I heard of many comically mismatched pair-ups and thanked my lucky stars the kind woman from Romeo Flight was willing to pair up with me. The best part of all of this was the guys behind us who would shout, gasping in pain, study questions for the upcoming test in the midst of the most painful exercises. "Ahhh - what is - gasp - a contribution of...General - owww - LeMay...to early - pant - Air Force - uhhh - capabilities?" Despite the pain, it was hard not to laugh.

Sunrise or sunset? Doesn't matter. We saw both every day.

The next morning, we all ran a 5K. For me, it was no problem since I love to run. I can officially say now that I've run a race entirely before sunrise. Everyone else wasn't quite as thrilled as I was, but it was nice to run somewhere different than the track. We wove through part of the golf course, and the lake was beautiful with its mist in the moonlight and the pre-dawn glow of the horizon. Since it was a down-and-back course, I was able to cheer for my fellow Sidewinders as we passed each other on the path.

After the 5K, the rest of the week was fun and games, as far as many of us were concerned. On Tuesday evening, we all were bused to the AEF (Air Expeditionary Force) site, where we would spend the next two days and nights in a mock deployment. Beginning with dinner that night, 5 of our next 6 meals would be MREs -- lucky us. I can't even complain about the MREs, though, because the mealtimes were very fun and relaxed. Also, another reason Sidewinders are so awesome: instead of bartering and using fortunate finds (e.g. Skittles) as a bargaining tool, we all decided to share our good fortunes with one another. Many times, there would be a bag of M&M's, a pouch of patriotic cookies, and a bag of chocolate-covered espresso beans all being passed around the circle at the same time. It was beautiful.

What tasty treats will we find in our MREs today?

On Wednesday morning, after being awakened by reveille at 0445 and eating a relaxed breakfast, Griffin Squadron headed over to the challenge course, which consisted of rock climbing, rappelling, and a ropes course. We definitely started off our AEF experience the right way! Rock climbing was challenging in our big, clunky boots, especially since many of the rocks were loose and would spin unless you held them carefully.

It's lonely up on the wall, but the cheers of flightmates below provided encouragement.

Next we each did the "toothpick" -- we walked down and back across a log suspended 60 feet in the air. I thought it was easiest just to walk quickly and give myself no time to think or lose my balance. The toughest part was probably turning around and going back -- I knew I had made it that far already, but the tower looked a heck of a lot farther away than I remembered walking. We all encouraged each other, though, and everyone was able to succeed.

Capt van Hofwegen shows some serious balancing skills.

The final part of our morning was the ropes course, which was one of my highlights. I love stuff like this! We learned another rope-crawling technique on the ground (crawling on top of the rope rather than hanging down below it), and then we were ready for the course. We climbed cargo nets, crawled over and under ropes, jumped between planks, swung Tarzan-style from a platform to a cargo rope, and ended by zooming down the zipline, with fellow Sidewinders waiting to catch us.

I found a new skill...

...and a new fear of heights. Well, not really, but those planks are a lot more intimidating when you're looking down at a ground that's over 50 feet away.

During the downtime between challenge course events, our flight decided to become even more awesome and get matching "tattoos." That's right: Capt Frandsen gave each of us a Sidewinder tattoo on our left arms with a Sharpie marker. At first when some of the higher-ups noticed, they thought that we were up to some sort of mischief. When we pointed out that we all had the same tattoo -- that we were standardized within the flight -- they could only laugh and shake their heads in defeat. Sidewinders claimed their victory.

Ssssssidewinder sssssspirit

The other cool part of the AEF was the EMEDS exercise. This is another acronym I can't remember, but basically it was a field hospital exercise. Everyone was assigned specific jobs -- security, emergency department, med/surg, operating room, etc. I was given the fun and very messy task of being a patient. Why messy? Well, in the first scenario, I had been near a car bomb explosion and had gotten a knife lodged in my face. That's right, I had a plastic knife handle sticking out near my eye, and blood dripping down my shirt. (All of this was makeup, of course, but the woman in charge of the moulage did a damn good job making things look as realistic as possible.) In the second scenario, a mass casualty scenario, we all had blood and burns all over our arms, faces, shirts...it was awesome. It was really impressive to be a patient and just observe how seriously my classmates in hospital roles took the exercise, and how well they worked as a team under so much pressure. They are going to be some mighty fine officers.

The stellar emergency department team kept their cool even when they were flooded with mass casualty victims while under attack themselves.

On Friday morning, back on campus, we had the first half of the LRC (Leadership Reaction Course) exercise. It built on the concepts from Project X and WELPS, and it was meant to be the culmination and capstone of our leadership training. Every member of the flight had the opportunity to lead teams of 5 other flight members through 20-minute obstacles. In mine, all 6 of us had to get across a room filled with extremely toxic acid using nothing but two cans, a heavy pole, and strategically placed platforms. Oh yeah, and we also weren't allowed to make any noise because the guards were looking for us and would execute us if we were found.

That night, all 330 of us were carted over to the Officer's Club for an orientation. There we learned that you never call an RMO (round metallic object) a coin, never ring a bell, never set your hat down, and never go anywhere without your RMOs unless you want to buy a lot of drinks for people. We had a great time hanging out as a flight, especially since the flight commanders were all there as well. It was fun to get to know them in an environment outside of the classroom, or, in the case of Maj Donat, in an environment other than one in which he was yelling at us about our hats and our clearly faulty process that had not been standardized.

Taking a much-needed rest from dancing at the Officer's Club

We spent the rest of the weekend enjoying our freedom from tests, since CWT #2 had been the last academic task of COT. On Saturday night, we unknowingly joined 5 other COT flights and 1 BOT flight at the Montgomery Brew Pub for dinner, which was a raucously good time. We then joined 2 other flights (unscheduled, again) at a club nearby for some drinks and dancing. Being good officers, we were all back at the dorms before the midnight curfew. On Sunday afternoon, a few of us spent a long, relaxing afternoon at the base pool. After writing our last morale letters that night, we prepared ourselves for our final week of COT.

Chillin' at the Brew Pub with the rest of the Sidewinders. I could already tell it would be a sad day when we all left COT to go to our new homes.