Someone Convince Me

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 6:40 pm

Well when i went to AC we didnt do pushups or PT. But to be honest it really wouldnt have bothered me that much, I was in Marine JROTC for all 4 years of high school and was put throuh some PT sessions that were done my a 23 year marine veteran and former drill instructor. And after that i think i could have done any PT that AC counslors had to offer.

Repeat · Post by **Repeat** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 8:38 pm

all the walking around plus the camp food leads to losing weight at camp... I went home, and the first thing my mom says to me is "you lost weight!"

spacecampaddict28 · Post by **spacecampaddict28** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 8:56 pm

Between walking all over the place and not really eating the food, I think Space Camp should also be advertised as weight loss camp. Except for the hash browns...those are tasty.

Repeat · Post by **Repeat** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 9:01 pm

i dunno... sometimes they weren't half bad, but for the most part, I thought the tater tots were pretty disgusting... Also, very similiar to military life... Let me tell you, some of the food I've had while on trainings with the Naval Sea Cadets has been utterly disgusting... Some of it has even made Space Camp food look decent... Some space camp food, I should say.... Mexican Wednesdays will never look decent, nor will those hot dogs...

spacecampaddict28 · Post by **spacecampaddict28** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 9:02 pm

We really give Mexican Wednesday a bad name....lol

Repeat · Post by **Repeat** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 9:05 pm

it gives itself a bad name, dammit!!

spacecampaddict28 · Post by **spacecampaddict28** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 9:11 pm

Look how hostile we get just talking about Mexican Wednesday!

Repeat · Post by **Repeat** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 9:15 pm

the food they serve on Mexican Wednesday is enough to drive even a pacifist to hostilities!

spacecampaddict28 · Post by **spacecampaddict28** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 9:18 pm

I just eat chips and shredded cheese every time. Thank god I didn't have to dive right after lunch like the PSs did!

Repeat · Post by **Repeat** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 9:25 pm

i think i had chips and tomatoes... I happen to be a very picky eater, so I'm usually hard pressed to find any food i like all that much while I'm there... Although I do like the burgers (particularly, when I get an employee's discount by accident... I didn't even know until the lady asked me after I'd paid and was waiting for my friend that she'd given me one... SHH!)

Emazon · Post by **Emazon** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 10:57 pm

It's sorta militaryish, but it's not too bad. Makes the week a whole lot more fun, really. I mean, you get to point and laugh at the people's beds that aren't made right, and you get to watch the Mach I's as they stare in awe as you walk into the secret briefing room, and it's really cool to stand at attention while waiting for your superior officer... really, it is a lot of fun. It's like a video game, in theory, the stuff you get to do, the different missions(Sims and otherwise) and other stuff. Plus, you get Callsigns. I've been Wild Cat, Sparky and Emazon(Play on my name- Em+Amazon=Emazon).
And when you get home, your friends are always super impressed.

maverick · Post by **maverick** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 2:04 pm

To all of those worrying about the military aspect of AC-

The military aspect is so miniscule. The punishments/corrective training described in earlier posts are NOTHING compared to what I had to go through as a fresh recruit going through Basic. We marched everywhere we went. When we sat in classrooms learning how to take our weapons apart, after we put them together, we were "smoked" (Army parlance for being punished physically) for an hour doing rifle PT. During chow, we had to eat in silence and sit with our heels together. If we did not, the drill sergeants would make all of us lift our knees to the bottom of the tables, feet off the floor, and we had to eat like this for the rest of the allotted chow period. Sure, in AC you just have to make your bunk neat. In Basic we had to make our bunk in a certain way (hospital corners, blanket had to be a certain number of springs away from the pillow, etc. etc.)

When I went to AC (I went in late June of 1999), I remember Grunt making us do pushups (about 20) because we sprayed him with water pistols (our counselor Captain America/Skeletor let us spray the other team, not Grunt) . We had PT every day, but it was not as tough as PT during Basic Training.

In fact. thanks to AC, I enjoyed going through the Individual Tactical movement portions of Basic, and the PT formation was quite similar but much more regimented (when I got to my regular unit PT was more relaxed, more like AC in fact).

So to all those worriers, just go to camp and enjoy yourself. I know I did.

Maverick

Sandrat · Post by **Sandrat** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 3:56 pm

From a military perspective - Aviation Challenge is a far cry from the demands, responsibility, and physical toughness you face in the Army or any armed service. There have always been concerns that Aviation Challenge created a "generation of baby-killers" (Thanks to a voicemail from Berkeley, California in 1996) and the enormity of that ill-informed opinion comes from a negative perception of anything "military."

Aviation Challenge is loosely based, at best, on different types of training and experiences that take place in the Armed Forces. Want a real look - go look through the book " A Day in the Life of the Armed Forces" and you'll see the loose parallels.

Yes, at Aviation Challenge in the old days we did PT and we checked to make sure bunks were made and rooms were cleaned. The PT was never mandatory (and if you had a counselor who told you so, they were wrong) and the level of cleanliness you could reasonably attain in a Barn room were marginal to military standards. Yes, in theater ops you had a little motivation, serious tones, and mostly pure staged DRAMA. It was designed to get your blood pumping, to take you out of your element and inject the realism everyone always talks about. Was it real? No.

I've been a soldier and an officer for almost twelve years now, and during my tenure at Aviation Challenge we never approached 1 percent of what the military does. Yes, we did things "like" the military, but we didn't teach people hand-to-hand combat, basic riflemarksmanship, or anything technically more destructive than your X Box or Playstation isn't capable of these days.

Aviation Challenge is a camp designed to show a trainee what the training of a military fighter pilot is like. That's it. The key word there is CAMP, and what the training is like.

It's been said here before: Go and enjoy the camp, but if you're not an outdoors person and prefer air conditioning all the time, AC might not be for you. If you aren't sure - go for it. The greatest risk sometimes is not taking one.

Scouts Out!

Sandrat

maverick · Post by **maverick** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 4:21 pm

Well put sir.

To sum it all up, when I arrived in my Basic Training company, it was a world of chaos. For a day I wondered if I made the right choice as the drill sergeants smoked us incessently.

At Aviation Challenge, when I arrived, there was no doubt in my mind that I made the right choice. I did not feel they were going to toy with your mind at AC. Aviation Challenge's goal is to expose young people to (military) Aviation and to the associated disciplines associated with that line of work. It is not designed to mold the trainee to anything- it is all about having fun while learning something interesting and perhaps opening doors in the minds of the young populace of our nation to a career in the aviation field. Even when PT was done at AC, it was fun. At Basic, we were smoked in conjunction with PT.

Enough said.

maverick

fish_ac · Post by **fish_ac** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 9:51 pm

when i was @ ac last dec.; i was semi-worried about the whole military aspect of the camp; but, as it turns out, the military aspect of the whole thing was so watered-down that it basically had no bearing over the whole camp experience....the shear quantities of swear words laid down by some members of my team would've most likely landed us in a world of s**t in the real military!

also, the only real physical activity besides running when the sirens go off[which is most likely optional, but adds to the experience] is the forrest gump experience on the last night where you walk/crawl through the woods in the rain, make as much unintentional noise as humanly possible & still don't get caught!

overall, i think it'd be a big mistake for someone to chicken out of an awsome camp over fears that one is walking into boot-camp.......

LaRsOnAtRiXkIx · Post by **LaRsOnAtRiXkIx** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 11:06 pm

thisis probably a dumb question, but do they make you make your bed every morning at ac? andlike dothey check? and what's the guy/girl ratio like over at ac? ac sounds like a lot of fun.

fish_ac · Post by **fish_ac** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 11:20 pm

LaRsOnAtRiXkIx; I went there in dec. & we stayed in the space camp hab, so i can't speak for the summer, but they really seemed like they could've cared less about the state of our room.....

about the boy/girl ratio, when i went it was excactly 1-1, but i think it's usually higher, like 2 guys-1 girl.

LaRsOnAtRiXkIx · Post by **LaRsOnAtRiXkIx** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 9:11 am

when i was there, @ space camp, in april, the ac kids also slept in hab 1, and there was only 1 girl in the mach iii group. i didnt know if that was normal or what.

are you doing the regular mach iii over christmas camp, or the special alumni one?

MAYTAG · Post by **MAYTAG** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 4:12 pm

yea over the summer their really strict about the beds and whn i was there the ratio eas bout 3-1

tennisrox014 · Post by **tennisrox014** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 11:04 pm

Im going to the mach III for the alumni in December I think, it sounds like lots of fun

Someone Convince Me

Go to AC- It is a far cry from Basic Training as one can get