USAFA Tour

(Colorado Springs, CO: 1 July 2010) We're camping at the campground at the US Air Force Academy (USAFA) and enjoying the view from our RV's big front windows of the Rocky Mountains (real mountains!) that form the majestic backdrop for the 15,000+ acres of the Academy.

We're at 4,400' elevation so we took it easy the first day. Since we took the tour of West Point in NY and the US Military Academy we had to do the tour of my service's academy. A new class reported 24 June. We arrived at the cadet area in time to see all the squadrons in formation marching to lunch. I did not have a wide enough lens to get all the squadron's in one shot...1200 doolies, first year cadets, attempting to show their newly acquired skills from "forward harch", to "column left, harch", etc. We spent some time in the architectural masterpiece that is the Academy Chapel and were moved by the gesture of the closed pew Reserved for POWs and MIAs. We even had a chance to talk to two cadets who are part of the falconry program. The Falcon is the Academy mascot. They had one of the birds in the visitor's center gift store which I got to pet (a gentle chest stroke...don't go for the head!). The falcon is part of the raptor class of birds (the Raptor is also the newest fighter, the F-22) and an appropriate symbol for the Academy.