A local military paper documents the long-running US Air Force Academy tradition of “100s Night,” which marks 100 calendar days until the senior class (“Firsties”) graduate.  While the Firsties are out at an official dinner and celebration, the freshman cadets (four degrees) transform their rooms into a variety of new creations.  Some are simple, others complex; some are light-hearted, others are devilishly creative.

The article lists a variety of examples, including filling rooms with balloons (balloons filled with glitter, in one case), taking all the furniture out and setting up the room in another location (a stairwell), or filling a room with a cement pond (no word on Koi).  Someone’s bed almost always ends up on the Terrazzo (the cadet common quad), and often one is placed in the middle of the cadet football field.

Military cadets are known to “count down” to major milestones, like the number of days to recognition for the fourth class cadets (even many lower class cadets know how many days they have until graduation).  This is just one traditional way in which lower class cadets throw off their fetters and have fun at the expense of their upperclassmen.  The Firsties?  For the most part, they don’t mind.  After all, they’ve only got 100 days left…