We went to a briefing today and I do believe it was the absolute most worthless briefing I have ever had the honor of attending. The guy who did it just read the pre-made script verbatim from a notebook. This was supposed to be a briefing on Acquisitions and what an officer in Acquisitions does. Instead of learning about the career of an officer in that department, we got the most generic Air Force briefing ever. At the end the entire group was looking around at each other in confusion. After we had left, one of the guys in the group said that when the presenter asked if we had any questions, he wanted to ask, “Yes. What is Acquisitions?” It was that bad. Basically all he managed to tell us was that Wright-Patterson Air Force base is big and a lot of people work there. Other than that, I am not so sure I know any more now about the field of Acquisitions than I did when I first went up there. All I know is that that is not the kind of person I want to be. Hearing about all the different career fields though, I might choose Intel or try for a pilot spot and aim for helos. I think that jets would be cool, but you have to keep all options open. After all, I have to get through college first before I start worrying about all that nonsense.
nrfirth | 
31 October 2004 0147 | 
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Well, ten hours on a bus could not have been better spent. I got all my homework done, I got to laugh a lot, and we watched a couple really good movies. When we rolled into the base hotel parking lot, I am sure everyone winced at the prospect of a bus load of kids unloading and crashing the hotel. We could almost hear their sigh of relief when they realized that the enormous bus only had ten people and a bus driver on it. The bus drivers name was Curly, and when he introduced himself to us, he told us that he did not have two brothers. That is the wit of an older person for you. The hotel is nice enough; it is just an average hotel though. I was not expecting the Sheraton, but I would have liked to see a little mint or piece of candy on my pillow. We are two to a room, which is a nice change from the usual arrangements that school sanctioned functions force upon you. The bed could have been a bit firmer, but I suppose it will do for the time being. We got to tour the research facilities and I found out that Mechanical Engineers have the worst people skills out there. I think this stems partly from the fact that they don’t get a chance to talk to real people a whole bunch, and when they do, they are talking about nerd things. One of our tours was of the wind tunnels. These were very cool in it of themselves, but the guy giving the tour couldn’t have been a bigger nerd if he wanted to. His jokes were lame and he laughed the hardest of all of us, and that is not saying very much. He seemed content though, which is all that really matters. We got a kick out of him though, as later we all recapped all of what he said while trying hard to remain objective and not laugh to much AT the poor man.
nrfirth | 29 October 2004 1709 | Comments Off
I leave for Ohio today to visit Wright-Patterson Air Force base. I found out in an email that there are only nine cadets going on this trip, and that includes me. That is not very many people, especially when we have a tour bus to get us there and home and to drive us around once we get up there. A tour bus people, those things hold 45-50 people and we are going to be filling it out at ten. (The reason I said ten is because we have to have a Lieutenant that is in charge of us, so that brings the total head count to ten.) When you have a budget like the Air Force does, I guess it doesn’t really matter that you are sending ten people to Dayton in luxury. The ride was definitely nice with all that room and the DVD player on the little TVs all throughout the bus. The group of kids are really, really nice and since I don’t really have a problem talking with people I don’t know, there was a lot of laughing and talking going on. It was quite funny though listening to their stories about their detachment. At NC State, 595 is about 150 people if not a little more. At 585, the entire detachment is comprised of 35 people. That is a one hundred fifteen person difference. They have eleven upperclassmen, so you are virtually required to hold a wing staff position, if not more than one. There are just a whole lot of differences in the detachments. We have six flights, they have two. A big graduating class for us is somewhere around 30. When they graduate nine, they are thrilled beyond belief.
Leadership Lab is today! The UOD is Service Dress, which is good because it is freezing outside. Technically you can wear long sleeves when the uniform is just Blues, but it looks better when you wear short sleeves because that is what everyone else is wearing. Anyway, I realized something today as I was getting everything together to start packing; my shirts that were issued to me at the same time at the beginning of the semester have different neck measurements. This is not devastating to me, it is just that they were given me at the same time by the same person; wouldn’t logic stand to say that they should be the same measurement if my neck was one size when she measured it? I thought so, but that is the wonderful world of uniform issuing here in Detachment 595. Tomorrow I leave for Ohio. There is a funny story about Ohio. When I signed up for the base visit with the Duke group, I was unsure what base we were going to, but I figured it would be educational and fun no matter which base we went to. So, I didn’t even bother checking out the location of this visit when I signed up. Later, I was talking with my mother about my upcoming trip and she asked where I was going. After a little searching online, I found that I was going to be headed to Dayton, Ohio. I was figuring the base we were going to was in the same state as me, or at least within a few hours drive. I had absolutely no idea that I was going to be going 10 hours to another state to visit an Air Force base. No worries though, the Air Force is footing the bill for the entire trip.
nrfirth | 27 October 2004 1448 | Comments Off
