{"id":5580,"date":"2010-05-27T00:32:02","date_gmt":"2010-05-27T08:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=5580"},"modified":"2010-05-26T22:19:00","modified_gmt":"2010-05-27T06:19:00","slug":"veritable-cornucopia-of-usafa-traditions-on-display","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/27\/veritable-cornucopia-of-usafa-traditions-on-display\/","title":{"rendered":"Veritable Cornucopia of USAFA Traditions on Display"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A recent US Air Force news <a href=\"http:\/\/www.defense.gov\/\/news\/newsarticle.aspx?id=59348\">article on the USAF Academy graduation<\/a> contained a photo encapsulating a veritable cornucopia of USAFA and military traditions.\u00a0 Here&#8217;s the photo:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christianfighterpilot.com\/images\/hrs_hires_100526-N-0696M-338csm.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"391\" height=\"260\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Traditions displayed in the photo:\u00a0 <!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Thunderbirds flyby at final &#8220;class dismissed&#8221; call by USAFA Commandant<\/strong>.\u00a0 The USAFA graduation is a stop on every Thunderbird tour, every year.\u00a0 Even in poor weather, they will attempt at least a single flyby.\u00a0 It is the only fixed annual performance on their schedule, and the USAFA graduation is the only military academy graduation with a dedicated airshow.\u00a0 (The USNA generally gets a flyby at the beginning of their ceremony.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hat toss, also at &#8220;dismissed&#8221; call, timed with the flyby.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now a closer look:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christianfighterpilot.com\/images\/hrs_hires_100526-N-0696M-338clrg.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"425\" height=\"345\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>$20 inside the tossed hat<\/strong>, which will be claimed by the lucky kids who are allowed to storm the field and collect the scattered head covers.<\/li>\n<li>Actually, $20.<strong>10<\/strong>.\u00a0 This cadet was class of 2010, so he taped a dime to his $20 bill, just below the &#8220;B.&#8221;\u00a0 He also added &#8220;10&#8221; to all the &#8220;20&#8221; numbers on the bill, in red &#8212; his class color.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Luke,&#8221; in red in the hat, is probably a reference to Frank Luke, the &#8220;<strong>Class Exemplar<\/strong>,&#8221; a &#8220;tradition&#8221; started in 2000.<\/li>\n<li><strong>&#8220;RTB&#8221;, in red,<\/strong> written on the bill.\u00a0 A reference to &#8220;red tag bastard,&#8221; which, legend has it, was the name given to the first &#8220;red&#8221; class of 1962, and has been carried as a badge of pride every four years since that time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are certainly many other traditions, like the granting of amnesty by\u00a0the commencement speaker for &#8220;minor offenses,&#8221;\u00a0and the giving a silver dollar to the first enlisted person that renders the new officer a salute.\u00a0 The US military &#8212; even the &#8220;new&#8221; US Air Force Academy &#8212; is steeped in traditions, the value of\u00a0which many outside the military cannot understand.<\/p>\n<p>For those who want a peek behind the curtain:\u00a0 The commandant of cadets stands at the podium at the end of the ceremony.\u00a0 He watches for a signal (given from the top of the stadium press box) that warns him of the approaching Thunderbirds.\u00a0 He\u00a0then tells the class they are &#8220;dismissed,&#8221; timed so that his statement ends, and their hats go up, as the Thunderbirds fly overhead.\u00a0 Sometimes, if timing hasn&#8217;t worked out well, there is an awkward silent pause as he waits for the signal, but everybody knows what&#8217;s coming.\u00a0 While the hat toss and flyby makes for a good photo, the new 2nd Lieutenants don&#8217;t care.\u00a0 They&#8217;re just glad to be done.\u00a0 And well they should be.<\/p>\n<p>Congratulations to the new O-1s from all the service academies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent US Air Force news article on the USAF Academy graduation contained a photo encapsulating a veritable cornucopia of USAFA and military traditions.\u00a0 Here&#8217;s the photo: Traditions displayed in the photo:\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[557,555,559,561,221,330,556,558,560,453,40,65],"class_list":["post-5580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military-academies","tag-557","tag-555","tag-exemplar","tag-first-salute","tag-flyby","tag-graduation","tag-hat-toss","tag-rtb","tag-silver-dollar","tag-thunderbirds","tag-tradition","tag-usafa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}