June, I , my parents and our two boys had the privilege of hosting seven young airmen from Sheppard AFB at our home for thanksgiving. They ranged in age from 18 through 25. Some were fresh out of high school this past June while others had been in college for a while or out in the workforce for a few years. All of them had started their Air Force careers on 7 October 08 at Basic Military Training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio. After Basic they arrived at Sheppard via bus this past Monday. They each are starting F-15, F-16, F-22 or C-5 crew chief training and will be here another two months before heading out to their operational units.
We brought them home around 11 am where they had some time to play football and put about 10 pounds of potatoes through the spud gun before dinner. Dinner was a hit (thanks, June) with turkey, brisket, two stuffings, potatoes and gravy, green beans, salad, rolls, sweet potatoes, cranberries (homemade sauce - non of that canned stuff - thanks again, June), four homemade pies (apple and pumpkin - my wife has reached heroic status), and two cakes.
After dinner we rolled out he 170 and gave each of them a ride over the base where they saw their dorms, school buildings and training airplanes. After the base tour they each got to fly back to our place and everyone did a great job - young people are soooo teachable
. Their final task was to demonstrate their worthiness to stay in the Air Force. Each one had a single flour bomb and one pass to hit the "target", a large round hay bale behind the house. We told them whomever dropped the farthest from the target had to transfer to the Army
. I helped them as much as I could and by the seventh pass we were getting pretty close.
These young people were polite, interactive and were a joy to be around. Between 170 flights they visited with us, caught up on some long awaited internet time, enjoyed some football on TV and put a dent in the leftovers. They finished the night playing flashlight tag for 2 hours after dark out in the hay field. There were only a few incidental collisions with round bales and only one of them found the 5-wire fence. About 9 pm they each changed back into their Air Force blues (required wear for all airmen in the first few weeks of tech school) and had them back at their dorms by 10 pm.
Pitcured above left to right: June and Me, Alex Halguin of Las Cruces NM - F-15 crew chief; Rose Scharf of Eastern PA- F-15 Crew Chief and winner of the "Top-bomb" award; Tiffany Aspiras of Virginia Beach, VA - F-22 crew chief; Sam Weaver of Philly - former chef and now a C-5 crew chief - he is getting married Christmas Eve in Philly; Brandon Britain of Arteisia, NM -F-16 crew chief and former rodeo clown, 2 time state high school football champion and challenger of barbed-wire fences; Jusuel Rosa Castillo of Perto Rico - F-15 crew chief; and sitting on the wheel is Mario Ford of Philly - F-16 crew chief.
If these kids are representative of the people volunteering for today's armed service, then we can sleep well at night and we have
MUCH to be thankful for. Many of them said that this was the best Thanksgiving they had ever had - high praise indeed that honored June and me beyond description. It was one of our best Thanksgivings ever as well.
it.