A week at AC Intermediate in 1996

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 12:05 pm

Well i've mentioned i was going to do this several times. So today begins a day by day account of my experiance at Ac Intermediate now known as Mach 3 in 1996. Questions and comments as always are welcome.

Well my third trip to camp started out pretty much the same as most of the others with a trip to the airport. This was the first and only time i went down to camp a day early. My dad and girlfriend at the time went with me to the airport in Norfolk the early part of the afternoon of the 29th. I flew from their to Atlanta where i had to spend some time to wait for my next flight so i visited a few shops and got something to eat while i waited. Needless to say i was a bit nervous. I'd been to space camp twice but never to AC and really didn't know what to expect. I knew alot about space and i was intrested in military aviation but really didnt know if i knew enough to do well at AC. Well then i flew from Atlanta to Huntsville with several other campers on the plane as well. Most were going to Camp but 4 of us were going to AC. We went to the space camp room got our name tags room assignments etc. Then it was onto the bus to space camp.

Pulling up in front of the hab it was about sunset. Getting off the bus their once again was a familiar face my first space camp counselor who i later found out was now the transportation director at the camp. And once again he recognised me even though it had been 3 years since the last time i had been at camp and 5 since hed been my counselor. Well we went in the hab and got our linnens then put them and our luggage to one side and went and got something to eat from the cafeteria. Dinner time was over so we ended up getting a bagged lunch that had a sandwitch chips cookies and a soda. From their it was back to the hab to grab our stuff and head over to AC. At this point the campers and Ac people had been seperated and we were with an Ac person. We got onto a G.O.A.T. And headed over to the AC area. Going through the gate the first thing i remember seeing was the F-14 beautifuly iluminated and looking magnificent. We pulled up near the barn went down the walk where i got my first look at the lake and the rest of the AC compound. Then we went in went to our rooms where we'd stay that night and put our gear away and made our beds. Then we went to the classroom where everyone else was watching Return of the Jedi and watched that for a while. Later someone came into the room and said they smelled skunks back around the room area. And they were right it stunk up most of that part of the barn thankfully not my room. Well the counselors took everyone outside and layed down the rules especially the pda rule because they were afraid 2 people might have snuck away together and gotten sprayed, Turns out the skunks most likely sprayed the air conditioner unit. Well later that night we had pizza before going to bed. Just after lights out my night counselor carla came in and introduced herself. The rest of the nuight was uneventful except for the guy a few bunks over snoring all night i got a decent nights sleep.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 11:31 am

Well here we are for the first day of actual camp. We woke up sunday morning about an hour later than we would the rest of the week but since there wasnt much to do that morning till the rest of the trainees arived it didnt really matter. We went to breakfast as ussual that morning over at the main space camp cafeteria. Aftyerwards we came back and were allowed to just basicly do whatever we wanted fpr the rest of the morning. I played cards with some other trainees then went swinmming for a while. After a while we were told we had to get out of the water get cleaned up and get ready for others to start arriving. So we did it was at that point we were also given our pocket checklist and squadron t-shirt that we had to put on so new arrivals would see other members of their team and no where to sit under the bubble.We didnt get anyone new before lunch so we went over to the space camp cafeteria for lunch but this would be the only time we would eat lunch their during the week. When we came back people were starting to arrive and i met the first few members of my team including the guy whod end up being one of my best friends that week and the person i'd fly with in the sims most of the week. Before everyone had arrived they told everyone who had ordered a clkothing package to come with one of the cpounselors to go over to the hab to pick them up so i did. That took over an hour and i had some time to chat with my ol counselor for a while during that time.Then it was back over to AC.

By the time i got back all of my team had arrived and were in the middle of their ice breaker and callsigns were being given out. We had to get up in front of the team tell about ourselves then tell an embarrasing story then they would give us a callsign that the team voted on. As most of you know mine was Loverboy. The rest of the teams callsigns were Streaker, wet dreamer, pervert, Rip off, Dog Meat, Jaw Breaker, Hangover, Spew, Boy toy, and Stripper. Noone ever said callsigns had to be clean i guess. That afternoon we had our first airctraft lecture talking abput the harrier and T-38 that they had theoir on the property as well as a lecture on ejection procedures. After Dinner we had our first sim session. It covered take offs and landings first from an airfield during the day and night then if you got that down with enough time you got to practice carrier takeoffs and landings during day and night. I was one of the few who got to do both the first night. The first sim session i flew with Stripper switching pilot and rio positions half way through the session. That night we also went to see an imax movie although i cant remember which one. And that was pretty much it for the first day of AC. As always questions and comments are welcome.

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 11:38 am

All you have to do is blab those call signs and pretty much anybody could guess what age group you were in. Wet Dreamer? I'd hate to have that sign.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 11:42 am

Well youd be suporised most of those callsigns didnt haver anything to do with what they sounded like. Its just some of my team had some really diirty minds when we were doing this obviously.But i guess we were a bunch of normal teenagers. Oh i guess i should have also mentioned my counselors wer Carla callsign Wedge and Vincent callsign Hoser

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 5:41 pm

Ok if you want a breakdown of how everyone got their callsign i'll do that. I've posted how i got mine before so i'm not going to go through that story. The Self explanayory ones besides mine are Spew who got so drunk aparently one night she was throwing up all night, Dogmeat was bitten by a friends dog, rip off had been caught stealing something as a kid, Streaker went sleep walking down the street one night in his underwear. Jawbreaker fell off a stage and broke her jaw. Stripper was working as a life guard she jumped into the water and her top came off, pervert got caught by his parents looking at porn.

Ok now for the not so self explanatory ones. Wet Dreamer i dont remember exactly the story but it involved a rainy church camping trip and a preachers daughter, Hangover aparently the first night she was at AC was making her bed and got her foot caught in the bed while hanging over the edge and was stuck, and boytoy said she got recorded by her brother singing madonna in the bathroom at home.

See they arenty all as bad as they sounded really.

spacecampaddict28 · Post by **spacecampaddict28** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 10:44 pm

Okay well if I had just heard those callsigns and not the stories behind them, then I would have some pretty wild assumptions. I have heard of many spews at AC...what is it with that callsign?

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 10:36 am

Well here we are day 2 now at AC. We were treated to a rousing wake up call that morning by Grunt. He woke us up like were at marine boot camp yelling and banging on the lockers but hey it got us up. That morning we really got to meet our day counselor Hoser for the first time. He'd been there for a short time the afternoon before during our orientation and ice breaker but hadnt had much chance to talk to him. After breakfast at the space camp cafeteria we returned to AC to begin the day.First up was land survival training. Starting with learning about everything a pilot has in his survival pack and some of there sometimes not obvious uses. They had an intresting aproach to teaching our survival training that year. Captain Scott O'Grady of the US airforce had made big headlines a few months before when he was shot down over bosnia and survived till rescue. Well they tought us survival by showing us what he did right and what he did wrong. That morning we also learned shelter building and fire starting. fterwards we went adn got issued outr flight suits for the week and had our team picture taken in front of the F-14 and then had pour second sim session of the week. It was more of the same stuff we had done the night before for the most part take offs and landings. This time though everyone got their turn at the carrier operations which noyt everyone had done the night before. This time i flew with Spew but i'd still switch partners one more time before flying with someone the rest of the week. After that we had some free time before lunch so we went swimming for a while. But then i got a suprise.Instead of going over to the space camp cafeteria like we had done the day before i found out atleast back then you ate lunch over at the wardroom by the volleyball courts. Everyday it was always a choice of hotdogs, hamburgers, or chicken but the food there was better thanover at camp i have to admit. After lunch we always had some free time so we just used it to get to know eachother better. That afternoon we had the second part of land survival training which was on food and water procurement. We also had another aircraft lecture this time on helicopters. And we got to have a good look at all the helicopters their in the compound. We also had some moretime to swim which we were thankfull for because it was hot as hades that week and any chance to cool off was welcome. That night we had our third sim session just after dinner this time on basic aerobatics. We were told to do a certain maneuver that we had learned in the preflight briefing then we had to do it successfuly before we could moe on and we had a counselor watching tomake sure we did it correctly. This was also the first time i flew with Streaker who i would be flying with the rest of the week. That night our counselor Wedge also came around to all the sims and gave us a flight suit name tag with our callsign on it. And at dinner that night i and a couple others went and got dog tags made in the giftshop That night we saw another imax move again i dont remember which and then the day was prettymuch over except for some time just spent sitting out under the bubble talking.

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 3:50 pm

Sounds like fun. As much as I love flipping switches, I'd love to take control of a sim like that. I have MS Flight Sim and I fly small planes, but nothing like landing on a carrier. I want to go to AC!

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 5:44 pm

Landing on a carrier is definately a challenge. Especially the night landings but once you get the hang of it it gets easier.

spacecampaddict28 · Post by **spacecampaddict28** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 6:26 pm

I could never land in those AC sims. I kept overshooting the runway. I was really good at taking off and killing people, but not landing.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 7:14 pm

Well most people can take off with no problem though i have seen exceptions iots the landings that really challenge you though.

spacecampaddict28 · Post by **spacecampaddict28** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 7:53 pm

I kept crashing. I would go up and kill a bunch of people, and then crash. It kinda ruined my little killing spree I had going.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 8:02 pm

Well i remember after 1 sim session with hangover i got a new partner she couldnt fly to save her life which explains why she flew as RIO most of the week.She flew like her callsign suggests.

Space Nerd · Post by **Space Nerd** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 11:52 pm

I wasnt terribly good at flying but that could have been because a new camper of the male gender came in and insisted that he could be nothing but a pilot and that because he was male there was no arguement. Beings that i had to practice without a RIO i wasnt very good which really didnt leave much room for my arguement anyway. My only pet peeve with AC was that my team didnt seem to like me very much lol. I think this is why i enjoyed my following week of ASA So very much. Not that i think AC is unenjoyable just that my team wasnt very nice lol. Although i got to be good friends with some people from the other teams.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 10:16 am

Well moving on to day 3. We again woke to a rousing marine corps wake up call from Grunt. After breakfast we had our first sim session of the day. this one was the first one where we got to practice combat.They called it the Airforce/Navy sim. The team was divided in half. Half flying from an aircraft carrier to attack an airfield and the other hald defending the airfield. After the first attempt pilots and rios switched and the place you were flying from switched. We found out later that it would be good training for our eventual mission. We also had an aircraft lecture on swin wing aircraft like the F-111 and F-14 however it was so hot we didnt get to go take a look at the F-14 prefering to remain in the shade as long as posible. That morning we also got our mission assignment so we could start training for it. Last thing we did before lunch was some land navigation to prepare for E and E on thursday night. After lunch the early part of the afternoon was spent planning the mission as best we could and preparing the team leader Ripoff to do the pre briefing in front of a counselor who would be grading us on our mission plan. But ill getmore into that tommorow when i cover the actual mission. We were supose to do life raft training that afternoon but the counselor decided to letus swim instead again something that came to haunt us later during E and E when noone really had any experiance twith the large life rafts. That nightwe had another sim session that the team decided to use topractice our mission which was about 24 hours away. Afterwards the counselors let us go at eachother just for the fun of it in air to air combat.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Thu Jul 03, 2003 11:37 am

Ok here we are another Day.Now to be honest though i do remember some there are some gaps as to what exactly all we did that day but i'll definately hit the highlights. After breakfast we had our morning sim session. We got in one last practice before the mission we would fly later that afternoon. After the sime session we changed into swim suits for more water survival training this time over at the tower. First we got our parachute harness and life vest. With the life vest we first got into the water just to get use to it befpore we started. Then we did the helo dunker. For those of you not familiar with it.The helo dunker is supose to simulate a helicopter going down in the water to teach you to beable to get out of it before you drown. well the helo dunker at AC went into the water but unlike a real one it didnt completely submerge or roll over. Although theior wasnt much above water room insideand the exit was enough under water that you had to go under to get out. They also gave us what were supose to be injuries we had to deal with as we were geting out. Well our counselors had a little too much fun and gave us all STD's instead. But we all managed to get out without any real problems. From their we took off the life vest and put on the parachute harness and climbed the tower. The zipline is supose to simulate a parachute decent into water. Well i was a bit nervous because i was thinking you had to go up their and once your hooked up to the zipline you had to step over the edge yourself. I didnt know if i'd have the guts to do it or not. But thankfully you diudnt have too you were hooked up to a line held by the counselor and suspended from the harness they asked if you were ready when you said yes they opened the gate and released you to go to the bottom.Actually it was a lot of fun i wish we could have done it twice but it takes too long to get through everyone for that. During the day we had one more aircrat lecture this time on supersonic and hypersonic aircraft. To be perfectly honest i dont know what we did most of the day but in the late afternoon before dinner we had our mission. We were flying as Iranian pilots atacking an American aircraft carrier with a secondary targetof a nuclear power plant that navy seals had taken over. Before the mission we had to conduct a preflight briefing given by our team leader ripoff. we thought we were well prepared but boy the counselors tore up our briefing asking tons of questions and showing us just how unprepared we were. Ripoff handled it well though and got through it. We took off for the carrier and got a warning that even though the carrier was going through repares that there were crew with stingers on the deck. Welost a couple planes to those before we hit and sunk the carier. But when people died counselorsgot in the sims to come up and attack us.We lost a few more to counselors then it was down to two planesleft mine and one other.The other pilot was better at ground attack runs so he went in for the power plant while we stayed up doing CAP taking on the counselors.Well he took out the power plant and we took out 2 counselors before we were shot down. But Pervert and hangover acomplished the mission. Well one more full day to go covering Eand E and top gun mainly.Then graduation day and the trip home.

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Thu Jul 03, 2003 1:57 pm

Sounds like a blast.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Thu Jul 03, 2003 3:20 pm

The whole AC experiance was awesome. And the entry that comes tommorow was one of the best days of the week. Oh i also didnd't mention in todays entry that it was also our day we went to the museum and the day we got out main time in the gifshop although we had already visited the giftshop several times already. I got a NASA thermal mug that i still use all the time, several aircraft models, a squadron patch for my AC squadron some F-14 patches to go with it and some more mission patches i;m sure their was probably more but thats what i remember anyway. Also paralel to my Ac anniversary right now is my ASA anniversary but i decided against doing an account of that since most people here have been to ASA.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Fri Jul 04, 2003 12:06 pm

Ok lets try this again. Just as i was finishing up a detailed account of AC my stupid computer kicked me offline so this will be a somewhat less detailed description.

Well the day began as ussual with Griunts normal wakeup call. This would be a day of competition all day long. The first competition started right after breakfast with the team top gun. One on one air to air combat to see who the best Pilot/Rios team in each squadron was. Well the last fight came down to Streaker and I verses Pervert and Hangover. Because of a messed up radar we couldnt even find them and though we weren't shot down we lost on points. After that we had some time to practice for the drill competition and do some swimming while other teams did their top gun competition. That afternoonwe had the drill competition that was eventually won by a member of the Grim Reapers team. And then the camp wide top gun competition with the best from each team competing for the overall top gun. While that was going on we had a volleyball game against the Grim Reapers but noone was really paying attention to score so i don't know who ended up winning. As we went to diner that night the top gun competitoon was still going on but our teamates eventiually joined us and again a pilot rio team from the grim reapers came out on top. After dinner though was the highlight of the day Escape and Evasion. An event that would combine alot of what we had learned that week. We were all issued a pair of tanker coveralls and given camoulflage face paint. We recieved a lecture on camoulflage techniques and combat movement before moving out. We camoulflaged our faces with paint and in some cases charcoal grom the frills where they cooked lunch. Then we hiked to the space camp launch pad where we started a land navigation and combat movement course that eventually took us to the lake and 2 life rafts. We boarded the rafts and crossed the lake where we met with a friendly on the other side. She took us down stream to a pointwhere she told us keep the lights on youtr right and if you come to a fence you know your too far to the left. Then she pointed un in the right direction and let us go. Well i dont now how long the course is but when crawling on your stomach it seems like miles. I was killed by a counselor in about 30-45 minutes. Then again later when near the end of the course. Eventually i got to the end and was put with the morgue group. You couldnt get away with saying you survived because when a counselor killed you you had to give up your flag. Eventually everyone finished and we went back to clean up and have pizza. Afterwards we sat outside and just tried to enjoy our last night at AC as a team. Then it was off to bed for some much needed rest before graduiation day the next morning.

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 12:24 am

I know what a RIO is, but what does it stand for?