Corn Chipping My Way Into History

Although I was honored to be picked up to go to AFIT, I was disappointed that I wouldn't be getting the typical military mid-level officer education that my predecessors and some coworkers have gotten down at Montgomery. The silly sports games and obstacle courses. The group leadership projects. The seminars with men and women from the other services or other countries. Alabama cornbread. Mostly, though, I worried that I was going to miss out on the great history lessons and guest lecturers that I got but a small taste of while at Squadron Officer School in early 2000.
Wednesday and Thursday, however, our summer short classes were suspended so we could sit in on the out-going class' Wright Brothers Lecture Series, similar to Command and Staff College's "Gathering of Eagles". We heard from four WWII-era pilots (to include an original member of the Tuskegee Airmen), two Medal of Honor recipients, three recently retired general officers (to include the general in charge of NORAD on 9/11), and two astronauts, one who was on the International Space Station for 6 months, and another who walked on the moon during Apollo XVI.

An awesome, moving, inspiring two days, which managed to make all the more insignificant my three years up in North Dakota, 100 feet underground, eating fritos.